Whats it like living on a rough council estate?
phantom sneeze
Posts: 1,064 Forum Member
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I've often wondered what it would be like living on a rough council estate, are you intimidated and abused by the local roughians who congregate outside the local shops? Do you avoid these areas? Would you take a midnight walk around the area by yourself? Whats it like?
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It can be rather intimidating, especially if they decide your face doesn't fit.
Then you get the raging arguments over the tiniest of trivial things (often facebook related..). So many things become the most major, life altering, earth shattering, most serious thing ever when you live in places like that.
Obviously not everyone on council estates is like that, but i have lived in more than a few sh*tty places over the years
It is just your enviroment and you get on with it.
It was when I moved away I realised just how awful and needlessly violent it was.
Occasionaly I go back in a professional capacity and am depressed to see how mamy of the people I grew up with havent moved on with their lives and gotten out.
Many are now grandparents with sprawling families of three generations still living there.
Drugs there are a much bigger problem now too.
All the ones I have lived on are lovely, better than some private roads as everyone seems to have pride in their homes.
I think the OP has made a massive generalisation and really these sink estates are few and far between so the chances of ever coming across one is very small .
Things are not as bad as they were ten years ago, At that time it was like the council were filling certain streets with troubled families.
In the 80s I lived in Farnborough in Hants and it had a GLC overflow estate, many so called ruffians were moved down from London and everyone expected trouble, but the flats were upgraded and everyone was given a sense of security with doormen and security doors and bells, and the place was lifted and felt like a positive place to live. My friend lived there and not once did I feel intimidated walking along the corridors there.
It still had a reputation of being the roughest place for miles around, but personally I never saw that side of it.
Most social housing is now being built alongside private houses and round here you can only tell the difference by the front gardens social housing ones seem to be kept tidier.
We stand around all day smoking weed and throwing stones at buses them we go down the co-op and rob the cider.
I can't think of any really rough estates in the town where I live, either. Even one that used to be bad back in the 80s has lots of houses that have now been bought.
Eventually it turned to the ruffians coming over, feigning friendship and ending up stealing things from us. Us going over there, buying the weed, pulling the 'easy girls' and hanging out in random sh*tty houses, mostly owned by people in demolition...or ties to fair grounds.
Either way, never really felt unsafe.
I remember when I moved into this house a taxi driver asked me if we saw much trouble given it was a rough area. I was completely surprised by his opinion as it was a quiet little road where the only people you saw were children on their way to school. The neighbours were friendly, approachable and the kids all played together and wandered in and out of their friends house.
It's easy to say that an area is rough but living there might give a completely different view so it's best not to make assumptions.
yeah, and after that you can always do a bit of 'git surfing' :cool:
I also like filming drug deals and putting them on youtube :cool:
Yes the Totland estate was not a pleasant place. Fortunately we live the other end of town.
Maybe the OP was only asking bout those really rough estates?
I've never lived in a council estate, rough or otherwise, but I've visited plenty thanks to friends/work, and I agree they can be a mixed bag. Sometimes within estates you can have a really nice stairwell that's beautifully kept, with bits of furniture and plants in the common areas, right next door to one that stinks of booze/urine/drugs and with a couple of doors boarded over. That applies to areas of council as well as housing association housing. They are a bit interchangeable around here.
One of the supposedly "roughest" areas near me is a village which is very poor, but the people who live there claim to love it. The thing is that they know everyone, and look out for each other, but the people I know from there admit that it would be terrible for an incomer. The people from there are all very loud, and drink a lot and smoke a lot and it's not that unusual for the young men to end up in prison or in car crashes, so I'm not that convinced it's that wonderful. Listening to the stories (from residents) there seems to be a disproportionate number of them dying young. It's probably the whole poverty and lifestyle thing. But they won't steal from their neighbours, and can't imagine living anywhere else.
Then there are a couple of estates that people from regular estates are wary of.
I agree there is a danger that people become 'trapped', partly because they don't know anything different. I know someone who works with people with drug problems, and he says there are certain estates where not developing a drug problem makes you the exception.
Thankfully, most estates aren't like that, and as they build new estates, better town planning can make them more pleasant places.