Has anyone lived in a bedsit back in the day?

[Samcro]

Was thinking back to when i was in my early 20s back in the 80s, i lived in a bedsit. It was ok, i was lucky enough to have one that was meant for 2 people, so was not too small.
The toilet was communal, and you hd to leave your room and fo down stairs to a sort of cellar.
Shower was separate and not near toilet.
Bath was on another floor.
Back then we didn't have mobiles, so just a shared phone. On a table in the hall.
It took about half my wages.
Often wonder if anyone else lived in this way back then?.

90s I lived in a mother and baby unit.
Had our own kitchenette shared bathroom and washing machine room, pay phone in the landing.
We was upstairs with a day nursery on the ground floor so would have to walk though the nursery to access the main door.

Yes, of course - lots of people did at some point between leaving home and getting a 'proper' house or flat. It was a stage up from shared student houses, I suppose.

I used to stay in my sisters bedsit. Shared bathroom between 4 families on the floor below and a shared kitchen on the same floor. It was an odd mix of young mums and some people being housed after prison.

Yes! Mid 90s in London. One room in a big house with a kitchenette type arrangement in the corner. Shared bathroom on the top floor, pay phone in the hallway and a meter for the electric. Pretty grotty really but it was my first ever place of my own and I was happy there.

Yes, I did for a bit whilst doing a course. It was in the landlady's house and was really a bit odd. I had cooking kit in my room. The room itself was decently sized but the set up always fellt weird. I only stayed three months I think as I got a flatshare once I had met some people.

Yup! First proper living away from home at 19. Self contained bedsit in Nottingham - kitchen in a cupboard, bathroom with oddly friendly silver fish and an electric fire with only one working bar. Plus a mad old lady in the next door flat who kept knocking for cigarettes and left (single) polo mints on my doorstep in payment.

However there was a fish and chip shop AND an offie across the road which sold Lambrusco which was wildly exotic. Happy times

Forgot to add - 1981/3

I lived in one in 2009. One room with bed, small kitchen and living area, shared bathroom down the stairs, no washing machine. It was a huge Victorian house and every room was a separate bedsit. Before that in 2002 I lived in one with a meter in the bathroom for hot water.

Yes, it was heaven after shared houses with randoms in London. There was still a shared bathroom, but it felt like my own little flat. 24/5, London, top of the world!

I did in the late 90’s when I was late teens. First boyfriend. Horrid room with a bed, oven and tiny sink in it.
Also a shared bathroom and filthy kitchen that 3 or 4 other rooms used. The kitchen was full of flies in the summer. The shower full of pubes and the bath filthy as it was never used. There was no cleaner/cleaning schedule for the communal areas. There was a pay phone in the hall.........

My landlord knew we’d got married about 4-5 months into our contract and kept ‘popping in’ unannounced after this - I can only imagine he was hoping to catch us shagging.........

A friend of mine studied in Paris and when I visited her she was in something similar. She had the tiniest counter and countertop cooker for food, and a little fridge, and the rest of the room was a bed and a desk. She might have had her own shower too actually. Toilets were down the hall. It seemed like a student place but she was the only student on her floor and the rest were professionals.

But maybe that is a French thing. We visited another friend and he lived in a proper flat, but the loo was also down the hall and it was just a hole in the ground. First time I'd ever seen one of those!

No bedsit but I lived in backpackers histeks for months when I went travelling, bunk beds with a minimum of six people in a room, some barely had any space between beds so you had to have your backpack on the bed with you.
I also had a live in job when I was pregnant and lived in a block of chalets that I swear wear from 50's era Russia, they were like grey concrete horse stables, my door was cut in half so I had to climb over it to get in.
The window was tiny and we had no control over the heating.
Fuck, the things I put up with when I was young!

I did but not the ones described above, it was 1 room with separate kitchen and bathroom all behind my front door. 1 bed flat at the side of mine with another 1 bed flat at the side of that then another bedsit on the end, all above 3 bed maisonettes.

It was supposed to be temporary, 6 months max they told me, only for 1 person, I met DH, he moved in, we had our DS, I got pregnant when he was 3 and we were finally 'allowed' to move into a place with bedrooms!

DH had a bedsit in 1978 when I first met him. He had a tiny kitchenette in one corner and the bathroom and toilet was out on the landing, shared with 3 other single blokes in bedsits on the same floor. It was normal back then. He got a nasty letter from his landlord who lived on the ground floor when I was spotted staying overnight twice.

Yes I did in 1984 in Bolton. Individual bedsits with their own small kitchens and shared bathrooms/toilets.

I had a self contained bedsit that was just like a flat but had no bedroom. The bedsit itself was OK: warm, nice looking building and decent sized rooms but the neighbours were awful! The lad who lived downstairs from me had "mates" who would bang and bray on his windows in the early hours of the morning to be let in and if he didn't answer they'd ring my bloody doorbell and then they played their music with the thumping bass for hours on end throughout the night.

The local teens would force the building door open and then hang around in the stairwell outside my bedsit smashing bottles, playing loud music and shouting and bawling at each other.

I complained about it all and was eventually rehoused to a 2 bed house with garden in auch nicer area.

Yes in the late 80’s...it was pretty grim and the couple in the next room were heroin addicts.

Yes I did. I had to share the bathroom though and wasn't keen on that. A studio flat is better, at least you have your own facilities even if a bit short on space.

Yes i think in early 90s. Had a 50p meter for the electric and a baby belling.

Yes. Early 2000s. £1 meter for the electric. Baby belling to cook on. Not great but my own lockable room.

Totally. Bedsit in Willesden Green. Quite nice actually.

I had one in the early 90s I did have a good size kitchen that was separated by a half wall. Shared bathroom but the people on my floor were clean. The only downside was having to take your key if you needed a wee in case your door shut. Oh, and the heating that was included was on for one hour in the morning and two in the evening. Brrr

Mine was posh - it had a bath ... in the kitchen!

Yes in 2006. South London, train line running through the backyard. Really clean and comfortable room and only 2 other bedsits in the house, both with very nice normal men in them, so overall it was a really great setup. Cheap as chips too.

Oh I loved my grotty bedsit! All mine. Two ring stove, kitchen sink with both washing up liquid and toothpaste on the side! Draining board that doubled
as food prep surfaces! Double bed that took up a third of the room.

Having to have a bath when the woman underneath was out because the bath dripped through her ceiling