Most of the urban housing I've lived in has been noisy: hearing neighbours talking, neighbours' music, nearby nightclub-type venues or loud cars. Good luck reading a book without earphones or a good ability to psychologically ignore noise.
I was reading some urban planning threads about sound insulation and noise pollution and they said in Europe the quietness of high-density housing is better than in the US. The UK is in Europe, but I think they were talking about mainland Europe. How is it in Europe?