I lived five minutes walk from Camden Lock for most of my life. Now when I go back to London I'm always that little bit more cautious and aware of my surroundings. Oddly enough I find it really noisy - sirens blaring every couple of minutes yet when I lived there it never bothered me, I guess I was so used to it I didn't hear it! I love going back to visit, it will always be a special place to me but I relish living next to a nature reserve now and the only racket I tend to hear are the birds. When I bump into strangers whilst walking my dog (other dog walkers) they nearly always say hello or pass comment on the dog etc. If they did that in London I would think I was about to be mugged. That's really sad.