The end of the private back garden? AIBU to think this is a crap idea?

[2beesornot2beesthatisthehoney]

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/architects-hope-to-tear-down-garden-fences-of-englands-future-homes/ar-BB18huJd

Reported in the Guardian this morning. The shortlist of developers drawn up to attempt solve our housing crisis by new design
includes the idea of communal back gardens that have to be booked in advance to use privately!

Oh yes I can see that going down really well on Mumsnet future AIBU

"My next door neighbour overstayed their time"
"I hate sharing and want peace and quiet"
"Cynthia has just repotted all my begonias"
"Can I put a swing up in the communal garden, the neighbours are complaining"

AIBU to think that this is just a really crap idea?

Yeah, I've never been in a northern 19th century terrace that doesn't have a private yard, albeit usually small. Perhaps they were originally communal, I dont know, but plenty aren't now.

Each house has a small back garden (maybe 20m2) which they can fence in or not
Kitkat what if one house owner wants to build a fence but their next door neighbour doesn’t? Who decides what happens on the shared dividing line?

When DS was small we had a shared front and back garden that was maintained by the owners. It worked really well for young children and we shared the space because we were all considerate. So I suppose it did encourage social interaction but we were similar ages and at similar places in our lives. But sometimes I longed for my own little bit of a yard to just sit in. What happens if someone wants a hot tub, large play toy thing, BBQ? I absolutely could not share an outdoor space now because there would bound to be someone who thought it was their space. I don't even mind how much the space is (enough for a chair and a couple of plant pots). What councils need to do rather than this is to sort out all the empty housing stock we already have.

@MusicMan65

Surely people buy a house precisely so that they don't have to tolerate "communal" anything? What is this, East Germany? The famous architect Le Corbusier once described a house as "a machine for living in". What tripe. So much modern architecture is ugly and inhuman. These people should focus on designing things that people take pleasure in looking at, walking past and living in rather than foisting their neo-Communist, outdated thinking on people who they themselves can afford to live far away from! All architects should ne forced to live for 6 months in any house that they design LOL.

Excellent post, MusicMan. I’ve never understood how Corbusier wielded so much influence. He promoted open plan flats but he and his wife had no children so had no idea of the need for some privacy. I’d love to see the houses occupied by the architects who design high rise blocks of flats.

One of the important reasons for having your own private yard right up into the fifties was that often that was where the toilet was.

YANBU because the reason I like living in a house is to have a private outdoor space. Otherwise I'd be happy with a flat. I briefly lived in a quite nice high rise block of flats which had a little garden for which we paid a maintenance fee. You could book an outside eating area and that worked fine, but there were hardly any children in the block and there were strict rules about keeping the noise down, no ball games, etc in the garden. I could see myself doing something like that again in retirement, but I'd also want a nice park nearby. With kids I can't see how it would work - too much likelihood of conflict over noise, playing, etc, and I think it would be stressful to manage kids in a shared, possibly insecure outside area.

Next doors terriers and my angry feral cat would not get on.

We have a fairly small garden (also sloped and terraced so can't run around in it) but back onto a shared (and public walk through it) green with trees and grass.

I love it for allowing my kids to kick a ball and run off some steam and meet with the other kids. In a year I'll allow them out alone.

But as their only garden? Nightmare

It isn't exactly surprising that developers are trying to get more houses on the same land given how much everyone seems to hate the idea of more houses being built anywhere near them...

I would be up for a shared garden, think it could be nice but then I also have young children and not only don't have off street parking but don't even have a car which makes me definitely not the mumsnet demographic!

@rainyinscotland

I've learned from Mumsnet that people in the UK really do have a "my home is my castle" attitude. This would not go down well in the UK. In my town we have a very nice community garden, which anyone can use. It's in an area where houses only have very small gardens. You never see anyone in there, and there has been very little interest in maintaining it.

Which shows that people would much rather have a tiny, private garden of their own, than share a larger one.

I would certainly much prefer a small space which was mine - as your communal garden has demonstrated, many people don't "own" their messes etc in a communal space, and others don't want to have to clear up after the messy ones (and why should they!) and so it very quickly becomes awful space which is used only by teenagers to drink and smoke in.

Communal gardens only work when there is a central independent body who are paid to maintain them. (And then you get - "Why should I pay an annual fee? I never use the garden" etc)

I wouldn’t buy one of these houses. I love having my own garden, even though it’s very small. In my town, some streets have private gardens AND a communal green space or neighbourhood park. That’s the way to go.

Well if my neighbours would like to share with our trampoline, over active children, drying washing badly mowed lawn and my huge collection of weeds they can be our guest...

However, I have no desire to share with them and their regular drug taking, late night drunken barbecues and even worse mowed lawn.

Its a rubbish idea

I think the arguments about much older properties having shared gardens are missing the point that when they were built, people had far less leisure time than we do now and they used it differently. A shared outside space would have been more functional; the average person wasn't sitting out there with a book and a glass of Pimms, or building swing sets for their toddlers.

The communal green spaces are managed by each street’s residents’ association. Residents pay a small subscription per year (this isn’t compulsory, but the vast majority pay) and the money goes towards grass cutting and tree maintenance.

If they didn’t do this, the Council would try to build on the land.

Well if my neighbours would like to share with our trampoline, over active children, drying washing badly mowed lawn and my huge collection of weeds they can be our guest

That's the point @listsandbudgets they wouldn't be YOUR guests! they would be co occupiers.

Actually, I appreciate our community garden. I go there to enjoy the flowers and to eat the fruit and pick the herbs. Nobody else eats them, which suits me very well! The teenagers don't congregate there - they have other places to go.
I wonder how popular the posh communal gardens are - in the very expensive squares in London and Edinburgh.

Actually, on the estate where I live, there's a largish patch of communal ground, with grass and trees. It's owned by the houseowners. Luckily the council cuts the grass. This means that there's no aggro about who uses it and how. Most people don't use it at all - they prefer to use their small gardens. Our family occasionally uses it to play sport on and to eat the fruit from the trees.

Private Flats sometimes have communal gardens. I've heard a fair bit of moaning about people filling up the washing lines or having bbq's , so nobody else can go out there ! It would be a nightmare and not a good selling point really.
My garden is tiny , but at least it's ours and a bit secluded from the neighbours.
I tend to get a lot of new home posts on Facebook and a few on there have these areas.

Even garden with through access can be an arse.

We rented a house with rights of way to rest of terrance and in that area it was more normal to use back doors. Right of way was by back door - and there were two gates in either side fence - then there was grassed area beyond - so normal fenced garden bar the two gates and path across back door.

Despite neigbour all knowing we had a young child gates were constantly left open I think by people mid block - even if I check before letting DD1 out gates were shut - it wasn't usable without us there in garden - as door to door people would happily let themselves into back garden to knock on back doors.

DD1 used to sleep on me or in pushchair she in my arms or screaming baby - so I did try leaving her right at back door after a walk rather than move her and wake and sit in kichen table not 4 ft away directly looking at her - still had well meaning pop neighbour over every time to tell me that wasn't safe.

What an awful idea. Good fences make good neighbours.

It's bad enough that there's no fence between next door's bit and us (we can't afford to fence it yet) and he barely even uses it! Just walks quickly straight through to his proper garden (weird set up but a quarter of the HA back garden is his and his access to his main one) I can't wait to fence his section off completely and yet he's a really nice bloke but it just doesn't feel.... ours. Or secure. Nor private.

Shared gardens may have worked years ago when people were societally more prepared to consider their neighbours. These days? Not a hope.

Looking at the harsh punishment for anyone trespassing on the lands of landowners in the past, I seriously doubt it was ever a working solution!!

In a flat, a shared garden is better than nothing, but in a house? I can't wait to see the royal family opening all their gardens and private parks to the great unwash

Sounds like a completely bonkers idea to me!

There’s a 1980’s development like this in my village. I briefly considered making an offer on a house there but gave it a wide berth. Each large terraced house has its own decent sized patio but they share around 4 acres of communal grounds, with a shared drive way. A school mum I know ended up moving there, next door to a very grumpy git who dislikes sharing the grounds with children and dogs.

Ime there is always one twat of a neighbour who should really live in a detached property, by themselves who ultimately ruins it for the rest. I used to live in a small cluster of barn conversions with private gardens but shared amenities and drive way. Never again.

It sounds like my idea of hell. I hate even being overlooked, the lack of privacy would mean I wouldn’t use the garden and would come to resent other people. I wouldn’t buy a house with this arrangement as I’m not sociable enough.

Living in a terrace with small individual private gardens and one communal area worked really well, most of the time. There were occasionally disputes, but it was generally nice to have a 'neutral' bit of territory. Would have hated it without our private bit, too, though.