Through the keyholes: What kind of people live in these type of houses?

Wwhat kind of people live in these type of houses?

  • The kind of people who own a BMW 4x4

    Votes: 6 15.4%
  • The kind of people who don’t read books

    Votes: 4 10.3%
  • The kind of people who don’t cycle

    Votes: 3 7.7%
  • The kind of people who say they live in Surrey, rather than London

    Votes: 7 17.9%
  • New couple who think they've 'made it'

    Votes: 5 12.8%
  • People who don't go to the local pub

    Votes: 6 15.4%
  • People like Del Boy's brother-in-law

    Votes: 2 5.1%
  • Insecure middle-class wannabes

    Votes: 8 20.5%
  • People who don't like people

    Votes: 3 7.7%
  • All of the above

    Votes: 26 66.7%

  • Total voters
    39
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Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Opposite my flat is an ex-brewery/warehouse which has been converted into flats, some residential, some holiday lets. They have a big gate across the carpark (with a keypad on it) and a little pedestrian gate beside it. The lock on the pedestrian gate is broken, so it stands permanently open.

We collect recycling from there on a Tuesday. A while back, I had to also deliver some letters about the change to collections over Xmas, and found that the door into the building is locked, and all the letterboxes are inside. As I stood there, baffled, a couple of residents came back, and I was able to give them the leaflets to leave inside. I made a remark about the inconvenience of the locked door and the lady said something about how they ought to fix the pedestrian gate. I pointed out that, since the keypad on the car gate doesn't work properly, and the only way for us to open it to access the carpark is to walk in through the ped gate and come in and press the button inside, then if it was locked, we couldn't collect the recycling. She huffed a bit and mentioned 'security'. I pointed out that I lived over the road, and made do with the normal device of a front door for security. She seemed astonished, although perhaps more so at the realisation that she lived opposite her binman.

This is a very quiet little street in the city centre. I've never felt at risk, not even when I had a drug dealer living in the next flat!

In any one week, we have to use a dozen different codes just to access binstores. People seem to be afraid that plebs might steal their rubbish.
 

threebikesmcginty

Corn Fed Hick...
Location
...on the slake
...I had a drug dealer living in the next flat!

Ooo that's handy!
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Ooo that's handy!

Annoyingly, as neighbours go, he was fine. Not much noise or anything from the flat. The drawback was the people turning up in the street and shouting up to him to throw the keys down to let them in. I didn't fancy meeting them on the stairs. And if he wasn't there (or didn't come to the window), they just kept shouting up. My neighbour on the ground floor found it all a bit worrying, and when we found out that his known associates had form for bike theft, we were keen to have him gone - my bike lives in the lobby.

After he'd been chucked out, we found that he'd painted a huge mural on his bedroom wall. Quite artistic, but not quite what you do in a rented flat....
 

Fnaar

Smutmaster General
Location
Thumberland
It's gated madness! Appealing to (and possibly even starting off, in some) snobbery alone. It makes me Grrrr too.
 

screenman

Squire
I would happily live in a gated community, if that was my desired area and style of house. I cannot see a problem with locking certain people out even more so in certain parts of our lovely country.

These sort of posts often I feel bring out the green eyed monster.
 

aces_up1504

Well-Known Member
Ok I am going to go against popular opinion.

Personally I dont see it any different than having a gate across a drive way. The houses in question look like they have shared driveways. Why not have a shared gate?

Personally i would make not difference or not wether i choose to buy that house or not. Infact I would be more worried of the cost implications of the gate breaking every other day.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
I would happily live in a gated community, if that was my desired area and style of house. I cannot see a problem with locking certain people out even more so in certain parts of our lovely country.

These sort of posts often I feel bring out the green eyed monster.

As someone who has to deal with getting access to gateways and so on, I can report that often either some of the inhabitants, or the management companies, are obstructive or inefficient. They change the code, don't tell us, don't get back to us when we ask, and then they complain that the recycling isn't collected. I've developed a general loathing for buildings and gates with codes, and by extension, the people who live in them.

There's a building in town where the residents are trying to block the renewal of the licence of McDonalds opposite. We've seen notes up in the foyer telling people to be careful about locking the outside door because of all the McDonalds customers hanging about outside. I can't help thinking that if you don't like the customers of McDonalds (which was there first) hanging around, don't get a flat opposite one.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
The inverted snobbery of cycle chat strikes again. They are just houses, which ordinary people live in. Get over your self.

Ordinary people who think that they need to be protected from everyone else in the neighbourhood. If they think it's that bad, why move there?

The irony being, that a burglar will find a way in to most of these places anyway, if they want to. All they are doing is removing themselves from potential social contact with the people who already live in the area.

Not to mention that presumably any such community will have some sort of management company or committee (to organise repairs when the gates break down), which often implies cost, inefficiency and a degree of snobbishness.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
From a burglar's perspective a gated community might even offer easier pickings; you could be sure there would be valuables in every house and equally sure that most people would be out during the working day. I would also bet that with a bit of brass neck a burglar could walk in and break into almost any door or window he fancied, especially if he was wearing the talisman "jobsworth" flouro jacket, which confers officialdom on him.
 
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