I want alleys and balconies!

[NotQuiteCockney]

Spending our holidays in Montreal is reminding me of how much terraced houses suck. Here in Montreal, everyone lives in duplexes and triplexes: two or three storey purpose-built apartment buildings, with often only one apartment per floor. Everyone has their own outside entrance.

Everyone has balconies, so you can sit outside and watch people go by. DS1 likes to shout "aye-aye captain!" or "isn't it a lovely morning" at people, for no apparent reason.

It's quite high-density living, but that means there are tens of kids on this block, which is quite convenient.

And the best bit of all is the alleys: between every pair of north-south streets, there's an alley, which runs between all the back gardens. The kids play out there, and you can see them from your back windows. Cars can go down the alleys, but only slowly. It's a lovely way for kids to play out, but not far away.

Does anywhere in the UK have this style of housing? I live in an area where everyone has terraced houses, and it's just not the same ...

do they have their own gardens too?

Yeah, front and back gardens. You have a door in the bottom of your garden, leading to the alley.

Oh, but if you're not on the ground floor, you don't have use of the garden, you can just pass through it.

Kids do seem to go into each others gardens from the alley, too.

Hi NotQuiteCockney, lovely to hear from you. How was the flight ? What's the weather like. Tell us more !!!!

Trouble is most alleys near me end up as dumping grounds, even though the only people who have access are the residents. I once paid the council to remove someones whole bathroom suite from the one by the side of my house

The flight was ... ok. The seat-back telly was good, but we didn't all get bulkhead seats, so had to ask to swap, which wasn't fun (but did work).

Neither kid slept enough on the flight - DS1 wasn't asleep until we nearly landed (1:30 am London time) and DS2 had one ok nap and then a pretty good one.

The weather is hot. Well, not too bad today, but generally, often over 30. We're enjoying good food, though. And DS2 loves the balconies, and we love having them, as we can let him sit out there bottomless, without stress, and let his nappy rash improve.

Oh, some alleys are gross, but if there are enough interested families and so on, they can be quite nice. They're a nice way to walk around town, too, as you stay away from the traffic.

As part of DS1's summer camp thing, they painted a (permanent) mural on one of the alley walls.