I’ve noticed recently planning applications for turning large Victorian terrace house into houses of multiple occupation…. You have your own bedroom, but cooking, washing, socially, you all share one living space…and some are now advertised as being for ‘professionals’.
Now I always assumed the term ‘professional’ referred to people like Solicitors, teachers, engineers etc …. now call me a cynic, but somehow I don’t see them wanting a box bedroom and everything shared, so what do the providers of these places class as a ‘professional’ in their world….or is it just a selling point, much the same way builders used to apply the word ‘executive housing’ to new build link detached (terraced) two bedroom houses at one time.

Professional = working person

they used to be just called one bedroom flats either furnished or unfurnished once. if they were to a top standard they were apartments until the department of silly names got involved.

Depends if visiting each other's bedrooms is encouraged, purely to encourage friendliness you understand.
I presume a question of my place or yours is a regular occurence.

When the ‘professionals’ ….Bodie and Doyle turn up in their sporty Escort, will they ask the ladies to accompany them the their House of Multiple Occupation for a frolic….?

Bedsits before they changed to HMO, rental accommodation is scarce and expensive, buy to let landlords are selling up as well due to the high interest rates making the scarcity worse.

house prices too high to buy. less rented accomodation even if you can afford the rent. just where will it end with all the new immegrants adding to the total daily. welcome to the new victorian era of overcrowded houses, no gas or electricity etc. to keep you warm once climate change as been reversed as you freeze to death on your lentil soup.

Some of the houses are in a disgusting state and you would not put animals in them.
I was born in East London in 1948 and in those days we had an outside toilet with normally quartered up old Radio Times paper for wiping your ar*e. Big tin bath in the scullery (lovely word) for washing - oldest to youngish in same water, I was number 3 of 4!
Coal fire where Mum would use a toasting fork for making toast for tea. No telly until the mid 50's then only black & white and BBC 1 only. Transistor radios where with luck you might be able to pick up Radio Luxembourg.
Our road with about 100 houses and only 2/3 owning a car, so very little traffic. Being also close to Epping Forest we could go there, about 7/8 boys to play either football or cricket, go fishing or be superman and climb the many trees.
Can I go back to those days?

Can you keep a place for me, up stairs front seats on the double decke please…life was just so much simpler.

Following on from Mr Critical Thinking. When I was in London many properties were being converted to 'Houses of Multiple Occupation' one of the worst problems, other than the very poor living conditions, was parking. Properties that would have maybe had a maximum of 2 parking spaces all of the sudden had to cope with (in my particular experience) 5 vehicles plus visitors at all times of the day and night. As for professionals, drug dealers and sex workers must now come under that description.

But I left London, well my parents moved to leafy Ware in Hertfordshire, in 1964 as I had just left school and joined the working population in Barclays Bank Hoddesdon.

Still have family and friends back there but would not be my idea of living there.

there is nothing new about having a shared house in the london area. had an uncle and his wife who had to move from a bungalow in kings langley to sudbury near wembley where they had the downstairs and another couple lived upstairs with the same facilities but not shared ones. something no one ever did outside that area and that happened at the end of the 50,s.