Never been, but I do think 'Escape to the Country' is just about the most anthropological show about Britain I have ever seen. Jesus, why did they film Lord of the Rings in NZ when the houses in Britain make hobbit holes look palatial? Why are washing machines in hallways and kitchens? Why are your lounge rooms the size of a postage stamp and considered spacious? Is there a height limit to live in Britain? Why do people get so jolly about a view filled with nothing or power poles?

Love the stickybeak and hyperbole, can't bear the sense of claustrophobia I get thinking about living in a British home.
(boozehound is drinking your bar dry, Sun 6 Oct 2013, 10:04, 23 replies)

We can generally get by with a little less space as we don't have personal circumferences measured in parsecs.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Sun 6 Oct 2013, 15:29, closed)

Fuck's sake, I dun a lol at a HP post.

( BraynDedd Natasha Kaplinsky's labia majora, Sun 6 Oct 2013, 17:06, closed)

Next up: rains of blood.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 0:53, closed)

Pfft!

( Infidel , shit and wrong, Sun 6 Oct 2013, 18:48, closed)

It's a problem that has been recognised
metro.co.uk/2013/04/23/britain-has-smallest-homes-in-europe-and-getting-smaller-claims-riba-3662318/

They stopped making decent sized homes in the 1930s..Most new build property in this country is crap. Either pedestrian uninspiring crap or bloody ugly dystopian nightmare crap. Which is why everyone wants to live in Georgian or Victorian Terrace. Because they look nice and back then people understood what a decent functional living space was. We also aren't building enough homes and with the scramble to get on the property ladder people pay through the nose for homes that are pretty substandard. Construction companies know this and politicians have done nothing to tackle the problem.
(Nitrous Nitrous, Sun 6 Oct 2013, 15:59, closed)

I think as well it is because the UK is so damn small
even out in the countryside we are crammed in.

I was once told by a friend that they had to explain to American guests that they weren't poor, this was the normal size of houses in the UK.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Sun 6 Oct 2013, 16:41, closed)

The reasons are complex as mentioned above.
And although new builds are of poorer quality than Brits have been used to, houses in Britain are generally actual houses, not gigantic wooden sheds with plastic siding and a useable life measured in just a few decades if it doesn't burn completely to the ground taking some flammable neighboring property with it first.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Sun 6 Oct 2013, 18:56, closed)

^ This.
Barn conversions can be impressive in the UK, but large houses in the US look like haylofts.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Sun 6 Oct 2013, 19:45, closed)

Interesting that everyone is slagging off American housing
...as I am pretty certain that the OP is Australian.
(Colonel Blink is now officially a pretentious prick, Sun 6 Oct 2013, 20:32, closed)

Who cares where they come from?
Johnny Foreigner is the same wherever they come from. Filthy beasts.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Sun 6 Oct 2013, 21:03, closed)

So it's descended from British criminals rather than British religious nutters.
Same thing.
( BraynDedd Natasha Kaplinsky's labia majora, Sun 6 Oct 2013, 23:35, closed)

If Aussie soaps are too be believed, everyone there lives in a bungalow (in stilts),
so they've no reason to be slagging of the size of our homes.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 11:32, closed)

Stick builds are the most common construction style in Oz too.
Same shit, different continent.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 15:09, closed)

Not in N'Awlins, they don't.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 8 Oct 2013, 12:47, closed)

None of the above applies
if you are filthy rich.
If you weren't sitting around ploncking at a computer you could be out making money.
(the other guy not the one that gave you coochie warts, Sun 6 Oct 2013, 21:48, closed)

We sent you oiks out to a barren wasteland full of poisonous invertebrates for a reason.
You've still not made the place fit for habitation by actual humans. Workshy cunts.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 9:08, closed)

In the US...
... they live in dog kennels and packing crates. At least, I assume that 's what they are, because over here you can't build houses out of plywood nd balsa wood. They'd just blow flat in the first decent wind.
(gordonjcp, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 10:00, closed)

Everything looks smaller on telly
I agree though, the idea of a washing machine in a kitchen is completely ridiculous. We've built a separate extension for our washing machine complete with it's own en-suite bathroom.
(AWESOMEB0T meddling prick, Mon 7 Oct 2013, 14:35, closed)

That's nothing, the dog kennel and stake are at the foot of my bed
just in case I wake up with an itchy finger in need of immediate relief
( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Tue 8 Oct 2013, 19:39, closed)