Thanks for your views. I would gladly have paid to be able to regularly park outside my own home; principles don't carry 6 bags of shopping and a small child in a pushchair 200 yards down the road in the rain...
Yes, there are many dropped kerbs but it's par for the course when so many properties have been converted into several flats often meaning 4+ vehicles per building.

As for parking on the pavement-never unless specifed by the appropriate road markings. I am one of the wheelchair pushers of the world so I appreciate more than most what inconsiderate parking can do!