Cheek by Jowl deploys rich historical evidence to show how neighbour relations have changed over time. It maps the complex threads of association between neighbours u on emotional, sexual, social, practical and economic levels.As people lived more densely together, and lifestyles diversified, the potential for neighbour nuisance and jealousy grew. In counterpoint to this, where communities of people emerged who shared an employer or an economic predicament, solidarity and mutual supportiveness could mitigate the hardships of life. Privacy and exposure are constant themes in discussions of neighbourliness. Neighbours can judge your taste in underwear by looking at your washing line and your drinking habits by glimpsing the contents of your recycling box. They might hear your arguments, how you discipline your children, what music you like, and when you have sex. This uniquely intimate access to personal information can bring trouble.

The book explores the delicate balance between peoples' determination to protect their privacy and their wish to maintain contact with those who live close to them. I will argue that there is no simple progression towards increased privacy; however, the ability to choose to be private has become increasingly achievable. Architectural historians have tended to write about houses as aesthetic objects rather than as vessels for living that enable or frustrate us from fulfilling our human potential. Houses are especially interesting elements of architecture because people live in them, next to other people. The typical presentation of a house plan is with no occupants and the houses out of context with their storeys side-by-side, sitting where the neighbours' houses should be. Presented this way, it is difficult to assess how other dwellings might impinge on the space around a property. Cheek by Jowl will put the people back in the houses and the houses back on the streets.