ABSTRACT
Cottage estates were unpopular because they were built with a communal uniformity, a mean stamp on them, and ‘estate atmos phere’ that residents rejected. However, the cottage estates were located in the major cities of London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, but in areas where flatted estates are much rarer and the cottage style predominates. On one of the seven estates in the Midlands, earlier improvements were simply stripped out by thieves making an illegal living from selling council central heating systems on the black market. Cottage estates, with their houses and gardens, were far more enclosed and controlled than the flatted estates. Children and dogs, therefore, came to be viewed as uncontrollable threats, proof of the slum character of the estates, and also a source of much direct damage. The major distinguishing feature of the flatted estates, apart from the block structure and their height, was the ubiquitous no man’s land of common parts.
