Location, Location, Location. Indeed, yes. Where would we wish to live? Low-cost television has found, if not exactly a specific, tightly defined genre, then at least a theme that has wide televisual appeal, namely, our homes and where, and often how, we would wish them to be. Whether it is sending intrepid scouts into the rural idylls of Midsommershire in pursuit of that house for under ￡600,000 that will address the dearest aspirations of nice people in urban flight, or the opportunity to follow inspired and obsessed couples building their own architectural Elysium in making over a neglected property, or less financially well-resourced individuals buying properties at auction and converting them into properties that we feel comfortable in critically appraising, the message is clearly out there: houses and homes are a national fixation. Newsagents’ shelves are heavily stocked with magazines that both nurture and reflect widespread individual aspirations regarding the quality of their homes and gardens. Home improvement provides a major market for weekend shopping in heavily utilised outlets. Whether it is a modest back-to-back in a working-class terrace or a detached mansion, individuals have a demonstrable capacity to make strong affiliations with the place where they live. A reflection of this will be apparent in the chapters that follow.

However, we must note that in this daily encounter with human dwellings, the location and amenities surrounding the property are as worthy of close inspection as the property itself. As a nation, we have a finely tuned repertoire of diagnostic categories whereby we are able to evaluate the desirable and undesirable characteristics of different locales. The person in the street does not need the sociological insights of Norbert Elias (Elias and Scotson, 1965) in order to talk fluently about the territorial demarcations that operate in the areas where they live. The boundaries between the desirable and the rough, between the established and the incomers, and between the respectable and disreputable are typically well-rehearsed social boundaries. The criteria that justify these certitudes are rehearsed and validated in exchanges of emotionally rich expressions of opinion, shared between in-group members as they record the most recent violation of their territorial dignity.

For all the frequently aired discussion of globalisation, for very many people, their place of residence is one of the key anchoring realities in their daily, locally grounded life. The linkage between house and home is not to be taken lightly.