I'm obsessed with housing estates

[Namechangepleas]

I'm going to struggle to put this into words. Over the past few weeks I've become obsessed with new build housing estates.
That sounds ridiculous I know but just thinking about the makes me cringe but I also can't stop. I've been driving around new build estates in my area just for the sake of it to look at them and also searching for them on rightmove.
It's more the estate its self than the individual houses. I feel like I'm in the film vivarium when I'm in one.
I know this makes absolutely no sense but has anyone else ever thought this?/

You could get a job as a delivery driver and earn some money from your new hobby.

Have you had other obsessions in the past?

I am obsessed by them too! But only in the sense of what was there before they were built. And I mean all houses. I look ip old maps of my area. It is. So incredible how population booms!

I find the mansion blocks and 1930's blocks of flats in London fascinating. There is nothing like them round here.

I think I get it.

Where I am there used to be a massive area of land between one suburb of the town, and where I live. Now it is called Lego Land locally, unless you live there then there are various invented names! IT really is like a rat trap. Every road looks the same, all the houses look the same despite the developers attempting some faux tudor shite occasionally and plonking a 5 bed in the middle of a street of semis.

I cannot imagine living somewhere where every one has the same house, cars (usually one BMW or Merc for him and a Citroen somethingorother for the school run), holidays, conservatory, holiday...... I know a fair few people who live there and they all go on about what they have that is better "Oh Barbara and Tom have a Volvo XC60 but Jerry and I have the 90!" or some such bollocks. And they are so sodding expensive! My sisters NDN put their lovely house on the market as the wife wanted to move to the new build estate nearby. It was bigger, nicer and upgraded to a stunning standard, but she wanted a crappy little box as it was 5 beds v their 4. The fact that bedrooms 4 and 5 would have made a mouse claustrophobic wasnt the point!

And before someone calls me a snob, I live in a three up, two down terrace and I couldnt afford to live in Legoland even if I wanted to!

British new build estates are compelling in a "thank God I don't have to live here" kind of way. And I'm not being stuck about the residents. I think that the UK's housing crisis is bad enough that people really do just have to accept whatever they can get, and it's a shame.

I'd be astonished if NB estates had 40% social housing!! I thought very little SH was built per year.

I really shouldn’t say this because it might put ideas in your head but I used to love looking round the show houses on new estates, and looking at the plans of the estates, and which type of houses were where. It’s been more difficult to do this since covid though, you often need an appointment now.

Each to their own, YANBU OP. It’s a harmless hobby.

I don't think it's technically about "the houses all look the same." The exact same thing is also true of a row of traditional terraces, or London rows of townhouses, or Parisian apartment blocks, or even gorgeous structures like the Bath crescent. Each individual housing bit looks similar to all the others in all these as well.

Rather, I think the weirdness of UK new build housing estates comes from the fact that you've got all these ugly little block-like buildings (like Lego bricks) that are detached BUT not in a graceful way, like they would be in a traditional, spacious suburb, but all sort of jammed in (often at odd angles), with gardens all crammed up against each other. And they are usually located on the edge of cities, where it's just this depressing no-man's land - no nice shared public spaces, no cool little local pools of shops and cafes, no reason to stroll or wander or hang out outside.

Like, EITHER do suburbs properly (graceful buildings with nice spacious gardens and nice walkable streets and pavements, near local shops and services), OR if you want density, then do density properly (attractive apartment blocks with airy balconies and big communal gardens and shared green spaces nearby). UK new build estates aren't doing either of these styles properly.

I don't wander around them, but I do pass by them on the train, and I can hear Morrissey singing "The rain beats down/on a humdrum town/This town has got me down...." in my head every time I see one of these places.

@Namechangepleas you're flaming hilarious. Train spotting has finally been rivalled by housing estate spotting.
A friend of mine, a while back, lived in (at the time less than 10% inhabited) massive new build housing estate in Basingstoke, and forgot to warn me that satnav wouldn't work after a certain point. So I was just driving around in what felt like a labyrinth within an identical labyrinth, staring at the same looking houses and roads over and over again, thinking that I was in one of the worst nightmares of my life. Never occurred to me that someone would have been in obsessive heaven there! I don't think I would have found my way to my friend or even got out of the place to try to call, if my friend hadn't let off a few fireworks and sent a group of people out to find me. I kid you not.

I’m in a Facebook group about laneways in my hometown, and this makes me feel a bit better about that, so thanks OP!

I'm glad a few people get it. I know it's a bit bizarre.
Me and my mum did actually go into a few show homes a few years ago just for a nosey but it's more about the exterior of the house and the street layouts.
The bigger the housing estate the better!!

I do this but on Google Earth. Some American suburbs are fascinating - especially if you read up on the history (Levittown etc).
There's a whole abandoned estate in Turkey where all the houses look like mini castles. It's totally in the middle of nowhere - when I found it on Google Earth it was quite exciting.

Most of us live on what was once a ‘housing estate.’ Just new houses being built in the same area?

I can’t relate because most of them are as dull as ditchwater. However, there’s far more harmful things to be obsessed / addiction to, so I wouldn’t worry.

Erm, what?
I don't get it OP, and that's saying something as I'm pretty odd myself.
One thing I will say about new build estates - I've been walking my dog around a couple near us recently because, as they tend to have young families in them, there are some great christmas light displays in people's front gardens.

I totally hate those places. There are plenty around Bristol - Bradley Stoke, Emersons Green, Yate, Longwell Green, etc. Awful ghastly ring road places. I sort of feel sorry for the people who have to live in them, but then I realise that they chose to!

I suggest you take up knitting or cross stitch. More constructive.

Are you maybe bored? Do you work? I’m wondering if you’re just really bored and looking for ways to spend your time?

I get you OP. I think for people used to more organic urban settlements that are a mish mash of styles and slightly chaotic, these estates have an uncanny valley feeling to them - too neat, too matchy matchy, too planned. It's bit Truman Show.

I also like seeing what settlements look like like built from scratch rather than the hodge podge of compromises and add ons most areas that have grown up over time have.

Some charming “characters” on this thread, sneering at other people’s homes. Classy.

I get it OP. They make me feel weird though. Especially when they're brand new, so there's no personality to them at all. Like houses built by AI. I like the unimaginative street names in particular.

That what is seems like to me. Not nice.

@LoobyDop I am definitely not one of the "sneerers" - I find it all really interesting. I remember doing a module in geography at school about urbanisation when I was about 13. It's one of the modules I look back on fondly and the interest has always stuck with me.

The Shit Planning twitter account documents some of the most egregiously terrible buildings - not all new build estates but quite a lot of them are. Some absolute horrors, appalling that planning departments allow it.
Also some hilarious commentary on them.

I went for a run a couple of years ago and ended up in a large housing estate (late 90s). My phone was flat so I didn't have a map. I got completely, utterly lost - for about 30 mins. I kept running in circles and ending up in the same place, it was terrifying!