Heard at work

Houses in Britain don't have yards/gardens.

About half of the places I lived in the UK didnt... mostly terraced houses though.

Its a generalisation I supppose, we would never do that around here would we

Did you not have an allotment with a shed in the UK? You must be posh.

Lots of places around were my grandparents lived had no yard/gardens.

Looked a lot like Coronation Street.

I thought you were posh.

No back yard, no garden, nothing??

My family comes from a mining village in the NE and even when we lived in a colliery cottage we had a back yard. It was much bigger than the ones on Corrie too. The only time I haven't had a back garden or yard was when I lived in a studio flat in Swiss Cottage.

The woman who said this to me thought that we had no outside space at all.

Nope, a small patch of concrete out back by the (no longer functional) outside lav, and a yard of grass out front. Plus bars at the windows. Nice. Student life in Leeds LS6

Even the nicer houses I lived in didnt have half the space around them I have now. Little need of a sit down lawnmower in the UK.

Someone commented recently that I do not wear hats on a regular basis. This someone has gained their knowledge of the UK by watching the Antiques Roadshow. They assume that people there wear a lot of hats.

Lived in terraces in Newcastle, W Yorks & Canterbury - all had a back yard or some sort.
Back to back terraces though might not - each side backing on to a street?
My terrace now has a back yard which backs on to a fabulous valley view (when not raining)!

When I worked in Finland, yrs ago they thought we did not have central heating or double glazing in the UK.

When I lived in Canterbury, they believed we lived off mushy peas in Yorkshire - not so far off then

oh come on, half the space is still space. Lawns, flower beds, rockeries all seem pretty common in my humble experience.

Half the houses I lived had no yard or next to no yard, thats the point.

While I was in Leeds
House 1 was a back to back mid terrace, nothing but 6 ft of concrete in front

House 2 was end terrace with a tiny yard on one side, maybe 8 feet deep. It was right by the allotment though

House 3 was a regular terrace. concrete out back, narrow strip of grass out front

House 4 was a terraced, concrete out back, walk out on street in front.

On the other hand you could direct the naysayers to Chatsworth or Hampton Court, those sort of houses have very nice gardens

Both grandparents lived in Coal Board terraced houses. The front straight out onto the street (with the obligatory shiny front step). At the back of the house was a paved yard - the width of the house and about 15 foot deep. This contained the coal house and the nettie. Both had allotments nearby.

When we went posh and moved to Durham we had garden front and back.

To me, a yard was an enclosed and paved space but a garden was not paved and so could be lawn as well as flower beds. I still sometimes get the terms confused in Canada.

I agree there are some strange preconceptions about the UK in North America. I know some people from the States that assume the British live in the world of a slightly updated Dickens novel.

No gardens at all? The average UK outside space is probably smaller than the average Canadian 'yard' maybe. A Google surf along satellite pictures of the average Canadian and UK town maybe in order for your colleagues...

Out of the four houses i lived in in the UK 3 had no real garden - one in Leeds was a real back to back, straight onto the street, no garden, no back yard no nothing. The other had a teeny patch of concrete out the front, but nothing I would call a real yard/garden as it was barely big enough to put your wheeliebin in. Both of those were terraced houses in Leeds.

Then we lived in a teeny cottage in a small village in Liecstershire - tiny patch of concrete out the back, but straight onto the road at the front, and to get to our tiny back yard you had to go through 2 other peoples yards.

The fourth one had a huge garden and was the only one we actually owned as apart from renting.

I always thought pease pudding was known as Yorkshire caviar or Geordie hummus?