Human nature seems to dictate, however, that people try to colonise the public spaces nearest their own flats, contrary to the provisions of the lease. We don’t get prams and bicycles, the perennial problems in many blocks, except with the occasional visitor, or me furtively stowing my folding bicycle under the stairs overnight after a late return home, not wanting to brave the dark garage area. There is no shortage of storage for individual flats. But the problem still exists.

Seagull Towers is a late-sixties block, and drawings in the developers’ sales brochures from that era show couples lounging in minimalist elegance on contemporary furniture. It hasn’t been quite like that.
Retired people moving from larger houses tend to try to cram in as much as possible of their furniture and knick-knacks. If there isn’t room in their own flats, many residents feel it will look nice and homely if they let it all spill out into the area immediately outside in the common parts.

Of course, the same people also dislike the plain modern look and assert their taste by replacing the austere chrome handles of the front doors of our sixties flats and their matching letterboxes with brass door furniture. Others, like the gardening Greens, favour the twee rural cottage look, with an ornate doorknocker and various floral wall plaques.

Clutter the areas

Mirrors, pictures, little tables and pot plants clutter the areas outside the flat doors on some floors, and if everyone seems happy the board has done little to prevent it. I think I would object if I had to put up with next door’s knick-knacks, though. On my floor we all favour complete austerity and anonymity.

Residents with bolder territorial ambitions have even spread beyond the fire doors on to the landings. The gardening Greens have stealthily filled a whole corner of the landing on their floor with plants and even, in spring, seed trays. More floral pictures and a varnished slab of tree trunk with ‘Seagull Towers Country Garden’ inscribed upon it cover the wall above. Under the stairs, on the ground floor, they keep an assortment of watering cans, hosepipe and other gardening paraphernalia.

Fire hazard

Three years ago, wishing to tackle this problem but not wanting to add to the controversies then raging in the block, I had the bright idea of getting the council’s fire prevention officer to come and inspect us. He duly warned against clutter in the common parts, especially near the lifts and under the stairs. He also looked in the cupboards housing electric meters on each floor and found an amazing amount of illicitly stored property. The Greens had a nest of flammable raffia baskets and plastic plant pots in one, not unexpectedly, but it was more hilarious to find that The Old Bill’s wife Dotty kept a box of potatoes in the cupboard on the top floor. This gave me wonderful ammunition against The Old Bill, who had always been a stickler on the matter of observing the provisions of the lease, sending me numerous notes protesting at Mrs Ponsonby’s practice of leaving her umbrella open outside her flat to dry.

On behalf of the board I sent out a stern letter warning of the fire hazards identified by the fire prevention officer, and for about a year there was a marked improvement. I thought we might fulfil the developers’ dream of a minimalist modern block in the communal areas, and planned to oust the knick-knacks and put a few big modern prints on the walls. Alas, Jim and I don’t agree about any matter of interior design and if a board of two doesn’t agree, there’s stalemate, so it hasn’t happened.

Gradually, the country garden has reappeared on the Greens’ floor and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Dotty had started storing her potatoes in the electricity cupboard again. Arbitration is needed again. I hope managing agents, when we eventually get them, will help sort it out without everyone getting grumpy again?