One condition I am not in danger of contracting is bungalow legs.
One condition I am not in danger of contracting is bungalow legs.
This recently identified ailment is where older people lose mobility in their legs because they have downsized to a bungalow and never climb stairs any more.
Two of my 80-plus friends quickly developed bungalow legs when they moved into a lift-assisted flat after 35 years in a three-storey house.
I live in a top-floor Victorian flat: I have to climb up and down 56 steep stairs several times a day. This is a large part of the reason, I am sure, that at 77 I remain fit and healthy.
But the spectre of bungalow legs isn’t the only reason I wouldn’t want to live in one of those stair-free homes.
To me, the very word ‘bungalow’ screams ‘naff’, and conjures up an image of a pebbledash sprawl along a ribbon development of similar horrors adorned with lattice windows, fake brick fireplace, Artex ceilings, avocado bathroom, stone flamingos and a lean-to conservatory.
Built mostly between the 1950s and ’70s, bungalows were marketed as dream homes for retirees and they have never managed to lose their frumpy image. But beware! Just when we thought construction companies had abandoned them in favour of high-density homes, they are coming back.
In an attempt to shake off their dowdy reputation, some new bungalows have been redefined as park homes. You have to be over 45 – hardly elderly – to buy one. Such developments are going up all over the country, aimed at downsizers.
If I ever moved into an old-style bungalow, or new- style park home, I would lose what tiny vestiges remain of my street cred, along with the strength in my legs.
So for the foreseeable future, and even though I’m way over 45, I will continue to climb up and down the five flights of stairs to my eyrie.
LIZ HODGKINSON
