We have owned and lived in our very modestly sized two bedroom terraced house for nearly 12 years. No garage, no driveway, not much space. But at least it’s OURS.
We’re situated in the middle of a quiet row of terraced houses on a cobbled road that is essentially like a cul-de-sac, but it’s technically not.
Behind our houses are huge factory roofs. We get a view of them from our large back windows.
Inside these various factories they produce recycled clothes, processed chicken and cement. Quite the combo, eh?
Anyway, we have lived here long before we had our two kids (2 & 6) but we physically outgrew the house years ago.
The community we’ve all built here on our terrace is, I would say, rare.
The road is now full of amazingly considerate, diverse, generous and interesting humans that we are proud to call our friends. Who all live next door.
It’s the kind of place that your grandparents might have talked fondly about once upon time.
Hanging the washing out whilst catching up with numerous others, sharing food and cooking things up, kids playing out with each other and other adults keeping a good eye on them etc.
There’s always someone to talk to outside, with a hot drink and a few of us often sit out for an evening drink and chat.
We have a WhatsApp group chat too for all residents on the street which is useful in lots of ways.
Recently we’ve had a lot of positive activity going on, in the street, which has blossomed especially with the arrival of lovely new neighbours.
We’ve all had a general push to make the place a more pleasant place to live with a spot of gardening.
We all chipped in to make the overgrown bit of land at the end of the road in to a veg patch!
So far we’ve stripped back an incredible amount of brambles, nettles and small trees. The soil under looks lovely and we can’t wait to get it up and running.
Another way we work as a community is to keep an eye on the security of our houses and possessions.
Our neighbourhood watch is insane. We always feel safe and secure here.
We’ve never had any significant trouble down but it’s a thoroughfare for pedestrians, so we all certainly keep an eye open for each other.
We also celebrate together too.
We recently had a BBQ street party (on what was possibly the hottest day of the year) to celebrate our neighbour turning 30.
I love that the road has an average age of about 30 :)
This community at the moment, in times like these, is really important.
We didn’t realise how special this was and how much we need people.
We don’t want to let this place go but someday soon we will have to sell up and move on. That’s a sad thought.
But until that day comes, our family will enjoy what he have going whilst we have it.
We all need a community to belong to, whether it be real world or in the case of HIVE; an online place to share and build together.
There’s a real value to being part of, and building, a meaningful community.
It’s something you really can’t buy.
