Bob the Builder

I always get a bit confused and disorientated when I have to venture onto the huge housing estate which, on a daily basis (such is the rapid progress of development) continues the urban sprawl northwards of the regional city of Hull.

The only physical barrier to perpetual expansion is the banked course of the River Hull which meanders along before spilling out into the tidal Humber Estuary. When I first started working in the city in 1985 the now built up area was very much out in the countryside and with little by way of roads or transport links to even give a realisation that it would one day be covered in residences, schools, shopping areas and a commercial zone.

The first sector to be built upon was a bit bleak and remote back in the mid to late 1980's. It grew up alongside one of the largest Social Housing areas in the UK, itself marking an earlier phase of expansion in the 1960's when the inner city slums were finally demolished and cleared and the population, either very willingly or not, were relocated some four miles away. There was a standing joke that the new influx of owner occupiers would have to nominate one of their number to stay at home all day to ensure that the neighbouring tenants did  not get up to mischief or worse.

Within a decade the private housing far outnumbered the social sector stretching some two miles westwards and a mile or so deep with a supporting infrastructure that allowed the estate dwellers to be almost self sufficient apart from, critically, still having to commute some distance to a place of work elsewhere in Hull or the wider region.

A few National Builders, Regional and local companies have been and remain active as further phases emerge out of the ground,

Each builder has presented their own catalogue of house types and designs and their marketing suites and media campaigns have emphasised the unique individualism of their output but yet there is a bland and very similar appearance to every street which is the main reason for my confusion and total disorientation.

There is, granted, a mix of house sizes from 5 to 6 bed executive detached through to the most common 2 and 3 bed terraced or semi detached houses. Recent trends have seen coach house type properties consisting of accommodation over garaging, three storey living experiences, flats in clusters rather than traditional blocks, one bedroomed units over two floors and strange designs introducing descriptions of link, quarter detached and back to back,

Periodically a builder may try something quite different in terms of style, finishes, materials of construction and layout in order to attract the interest of prospective buyers but purchasers of new build estate housing are not, by nature, pioneers or particularly radical or ambitious animals and will always revert, by default, to the plain four square walls format.

Under this overriding commercial pressure what the public want is what the public get hence the acre upon acre of featureless house types, give or take a few dummy window apertures, timber finials and decorative coursing in mock cottage or Georgian town house homage.

I usually get to visit the various sites at an early stage with an instruction to look at a Plot number on a development named after a tree, such as The Pines, a local landmark such as Abbey View or just something completely inane such as Inspiration, Aspire or Imagine.

Some time later the roadways are given actual postal names and the plot numbers change to usually unrelated postal numbers. This gives me considerable problems especially when required to carry out a final inspection of a property previously identifiable only by the plot and phase references.

I struggled today to find a road called Northgate.

I can usually get a broad idea of location from the grouping together of themed names, again trees are popular along with stately homes, UK rivers and cathedral cities but Northgate, well, no chance.

Sat Nav systems cannot, even with regular updates, keep pace with the rate of expansion of the housing stock and my in car and usually reliable system was no help at all.

I lapped the main circulatory roads a few times hoping to ask a pedestrian for directions but everyone was out at work or car bound which thwarted that intention.

A friendly postie was not to be seen but then again it would take all day just to deliver the mail to a small area of the vast estate. Northgate appeared to be a new village style name and so I concentrated my search in the vicinity of School View, Pasture View and The Manor.

After another 30 minutes of fruitless circling I thought about pulling over to have a rethink about strategy. The estate roads are all double yellow lined to discourage clogging up by resident's and visitor vehicles and the only available space at a break in a row of terraced houses.

I happened to glance into what was a narrow footway serving an off road block. I had found Northgate, how quaint.

I put the wasted hours down to experience, sure and certain in the knowledge that I would not be waylaid again if called upon to visit that particular street any time soon. Of course, that would be true if the rate of development in the area just stopped but such is the relentless pressure of progress and the demand for new housing that Northgate would inevitably be swamped and absorbed pretty soon.