Favourite/least favourite kinds of British housing stock?

[Tony Sebo]

and miles of blank, back walls barracading the main roads... fucking disgraceful schemes. I remember saying (about the 'villages' being built off Vauxhall Rd in central LIverpool) that you could be murdered on the street and nobody find your body for a month, as nobody pases by, then it actually happened. A prostitute was murdered and her body left on the sidewalk, which nobody found for 6 days. That is what I call a hostile environment for human habitation.

[citybus]

Another problem with cul de sacs is that if you live closest to the main road you might never meet those at the bottom of the street because you have no reason to walk in any deeper

[Tony Sebo]

and if you are a pensioner ( or a younf mum with a pram, or a felow with a broken leg, or just a lazy bastard!) at the end of the system of linked cul de sacs, you have a four mile walk just to get to the exit/entrance point, before you start your slog to the bus stop that you need to use, as there are no nearby facilities.


You have to do this for everything that a person possibly needs. Imagine forgetting the milk or your ciggie papers?

[citybus]

Heaven forbid that they build a path to cut the journey by 10 minutes, that would weaken the 'security'. And with these modern estates you have mile after mile of these ugly fucking walls. http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...164.52,,1,-0.6

Are house buyers demanding this shit from estate agents, if not why are they being built in such high numbers? Modern suburbs are 10 times worse than their post war counterparts, only a fool would say they have anywhere near the same amount of character

[Scarecrow]

The little estate I'm living on now aint so bad. There's a decent mix of terraces, semi-detached houses, three storey town houses and apartments. The estate faces out on to a main road in northern Liverpool/Bootle, with nearby amenities, decent transport links and access from quite a few points (including a pedestrian footbridge over the canal). They've built the three storey houses and apartments on the main road, to bulk up the area and add presence. Best of all, it is all built on brownfield, former industrial land, so the population in the immediate area will only go up.

I posted a pic in the "How to post pics' thread in the Forum Issues bit, but its a bit on the massive side.

[Tony Sebo]

Originally Posted by citybus

Heaven forbid that they build a path to cut the journey by 10 minutes, that would weaken the 'security'. And with these modern estates you have mile after mile of these ugly fucking walls. http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...164.52,,1,-0.6

Are house buyers demanding this shit from estate agents, if not why are they being built in such high numbers? Modern suburbs are 10 times worse than their post war counterparts, only a fool would say they have anywhere near the same amount of character

No. I took part in an interesting piece of research by RICS in the late 90s'. Pretty comprehensive surveys and questionaires of professionals and house buyers. The upshot is that most people who buy houses in cul de scas are people who want a new house, so put up with the wider disadvantages of the layouts. The vast bulk of the house buying market is for older houses anyway. One interesting point was that the houses with the grestest premiums ALWAYS conformed to a traditional position, i.e. facing onto your classic, supposedly unpopular street. Developers build what ever local councils want, so if there is a supplementary planning guide that insists on cul de sacs, then that is what that city gets everywhere. Of course, none of this applies to the huge numbers of people who have no say in their housing... those who rent from councils and RSO's.

[Delirium]

Originally Posted by Tony Sebo

a well recorded problem in poorer areas also is that one scummy family and the whole close is fucked as everyone can be intimidated.

Originally Posted by Tony Sebo

I remember saying that you could be murdered on the street and nobody find your body for a month, as nobody pases by, then it actually happened. A prostitute was murdered and her body left on the sidewalk, which nobody found for 6 days. That is what I call a hostile environment for human habitation.

Your list of charges is really starting pile up isn't it?

[Tony Sebo]

Yes. They help to exacerbate extreme faults. I would not suggest that they cause any problems just by being designed that way, but they make matters worse.

[Scarecrow]

Here you go. They're preparing the ground for the third phase there, and the road in the distance, between the smaller houses will be continued through from the first (where I am) to the second phase (over there). To the bottom left, they're rebuilding the canal bridge, just out of shot.

It's not ideal (certainly not how I'd design a housing development), but as far as I'm concerned, is a big improvement on what Sebo is describing around Vauxhall Rd.

[Delirium]

This new estate in Manchester is pretty cool looking.

Originally Posted by Tony Sebo

Yes. They help to exacerbate extreme faults. I would not suggest that they cause any problems just by being designed that way, but they make matters worse.

That was a bit dry! I hinted you murdered a prostitute.

[Soul_13]

Absolutely stunning f..ck all these crappy fake Georgian developments.

[belfastuniguy]

Originally Posted by Isaac Newell

The cule de sac estate is an instrument of social control. Have a look at your average Belfast council estate, one road in, one road out. Easy to block with an armoured car.

Soweto was planned in the same way bit with roads wide enough to spin a tank around.

That's not actually accurate. More likely to find cul-de-sac's in private wealthier developments over here.

[Tony Sebo]

Originally Posted by Delirium

This new estate in Manchester is pretty cool looking.




That was a bit dry! I hinted you murdered a prostitute.

Shit! I missed that hint. Of course, I did it just to prove my point, but it didn't matter!

[legolamb]

It's in Beswick, East Manchester that. Every single person I have spoken to that knows somebody who lives there has complained about it. Flimsy walls, cold, damp, poor soundproofing, lack of amenities (there is a ropey 60's precinct on the other side of the estate but virtually all that is left is a gregg's - it has been abandoned in prep for redevelopment since about 2006) and a really bad smell from the rubbish dump further up ashton old road.

[Telfordboy]

It reminds me a little of the Millennium community here...









Far better than the faux georgian / victorian crap we usually get.

[Sweet Zombie Jesus]

Cumbernauld Road, Glasgow;





The detailing isn't quite as nice as the above example, but considering the surrounding suburban location I'm still amazed I'm not looking at another row of identikit Barrett boxes in this picture.

[kids]

They're nicely finished and all, but the only difference between these developments and a Barrett one is academic really.

[Telfordboy]

The Telford ones at least were built with apparently “best practice in social and environmental sustainability” and bucked the national trend for a drop in sales during the recession. It even features live-work units

Although to be honest if they really were best practice in environmental sustainability they would have been built with the Code for Sustainable Homes in mind rather than the old Ecohomes ratings they actually went for

[Delirium]

Not so much stock housing, rather a one off; I always loved the look of this house, just up the road in Tintern. It reminds me of something you'd find in the Pacific North west.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll...87.77,,0,-3.84

This estate in Leicester, though not without its faults, is pretty surprising and in a good way. It's like a mini version of somewhere that's more akin to what you'd find in certain parts of Northern or Central Europe, such as those middle class low-mid-rise estates you see popping up in Poland:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll...291.3,,0,-7.89

Lastly, really really fond of this new housing estate in Cambridge. Dunno if the quality inside the flats and houses is crap, but damn does this place look good on the outside.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll...18.32,,0,-5.97

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll...322.16,,0,-5.2

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll...53.18,,0,-6.56

[yoshef]

That development in Cambridge looks fantastic, the last link notwithstanding.