Tristán White wrote:

Good grief Mait where do you live?

I live in Plaistow, not the safest of areas as anyone who opens the weekly
local rag can testify. But in 9 years living here, I haven't experienced
anything like what you have, and I go out all the time as I live a very
active social life.

As I said earlier, Tristan, I live in one of the "better" roads in
Fulham. Houses in my road cost in excess of £600,000, (Prince Charles
used to date a girl living a few doors down, Lady Jane Wellesley) and
the thugs who frequent my road don't live here (they can't afford to),
but it is a cut-through between the high street and various council
estates and other problem areas. In fact, the street running parallel
behind mine is far worse: it has a high proportion of "social housing"
(Mr. Freeman, a previous Labour councillor and now a bigwig in the
legalise cannabis campaign was one of them) and I keep my car door
locked when I drive through it even in daylight. The street which forms
a T junction with mine at the far end recently had a gang-related raid
where teenagers stormed into a house with firearms. They are the sort
of people that pass up and down my road to get to the main road and
make me frightened to leave my home at night.

Funnily enough (I've lived here for 42 years - my entire life) there
was a notorious criminal family living a few doors down from us. I used
to play football with one of the sons. We got on really well, and they
certainly kept all trouble away from this road - not ****ing on one's
doorstep as it were, and when someone stole my bike from my front
garden about 35 years ago, within hours of them finding out about this,
it was returned!

Marc.