For most of recorded time, humans have lived in houses or, at least, in separate dwellings. Even though extended families may, at times, have lived in the same house or hut, they will always have been connected by blood or marriage. It was not the case, until fairly recently, that unconnected people lived permanently under the same roof, unless it was in an Upstairs, Downstairs type of situation, where some inhabitants were servants or slaves.

Flats, where everybody lives in a separate unit in the same building, and where everybody is equal, are a relatively modern invention, and can still be seen as an experiment in living that has only been partially successful. It was only really when high-density housing was needed, mainly in urban areas, that the kind of communal residential buildings we now know as flats, came into existence.

In the past, it was mainly poor people, servants and apprentices or those who had no other choice who lived in parts of houses such as attics, basements, garrets, rookeries, and very often in parts of houses not originally designed for human habitation. In any case, where attics and basements were intended for residential use, they were vastly inferior in style and construction to the rest of the house.

Most British people aspired to live in their own houses, although apartment living started to become popular in many European cities during the nineteenth century. Apartment house construction in Scotland, however, dates back to the sixteenth century, when blocks of flats were built in Edinburgh.

In fact, the word ‘flat’ to denote a suite of rooms in a larger building comes from the Scottish word ‘flaet’, meaning a floor, or a storey.

In Scottish law, the term ‘common interest’ was used to describe the tenure rights of occupants, and enabled residents to own not only their individual apartments, but also to own rights in the common parts. This law is an early version of the co-ops and condominiums in America, where residents collectively own the building, and is very different from the leasehold laws that came to be established for British blocks of flats.

The First Flats

The first blocks of flats to be built in Britain were in central London, and were of two very different types: housing for the affluent middle and professional classes, and housing for the very poor.

And never the twain should meet – at least, not until previously high-class apartment blocks fell into disrepair and became inhabited by squatters and the homeless.

The first upper-class blocks of flats were built in Victoria, London, in 1853. In 1886 the most prestigious apartment building of its time, Albert Hall Mansions, was completed for very well-to-do people.

In the mid-nineteenth century, what were known as ‘catering flats’ began to be built to offer residential accommodation to affluent people who wanted a pied-à-terre in town in addition to their country pile. The flats were aimed at single people or childless couples (not so very different from today) and some were segregated by sex, and known as ‘gentlemen’s apartments’ or ‘ladies’ apartments’. The original blocks of flats aimed at the affluent were not designed for family occupation, and consisted of separate suites of rooms intended to be inhabited by people who were not related to each other and, indeed, very likely did not even know each other. As such, this was a brand new way of living, aimed at those who wanted a self-contained type of life on their own rather than be surrounded by their families, as in the past.

In the novels of Jane Austen, Dickens, Thackeray, the Brontes, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy and Anthony Trollope, nobody, but nobody, lives on their own apart from misers and those shunned by society. It was considered a terribly unnatural way to live, and not something a normally sociable person would ever want. In any case, when the only form of housing was separate houses, it was not really possible to live alone.

The advent of flats gradually changed all those perceptions, until you get to the novels of Anita Brookner, where just about all of her central characters live in solitude in a hermetically-sealed London flat.

The novelist Henry James, a lifelong celibate, lived for much of his life in one of these original central London flats in Carlyle Mansions, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea.

These early flats were luxurious for the time and were intended to combine the best of private living with hotel facilities. They consisted of self-contained suites of various sizes, where housekeeping, cleaning and catering services were often on offer. There was a common dining room where residents could eat and also billiard rooms and games rooms. All these extra services were included in the rent and initially at least it was not possible to buy or lease these suites. In time, though, residents wanted more security of tenure and began to buy leases, or long rents, from the owners.

One reason these apartments were built in the first place was to overcome the servant problem, becoming acute towards the end of the nineteenth century. These upmarket apartments did not need droves of servants, although Henry James had his faithful manservant with him, as many services were provided by the management.