Put me in mind of South Oxhey.
Checked with my brother. It was a village called Plumtree. Though this was well over a decade ago now.
Tell us more about the CCTV house!
That
was a bit odd. It wasn't the first place they had rented in and around Nottingham. 3 of them had been in a much smaller place in Sherwood when they first moved to the area, but when they found this house in Mapperley they thought they'd hit the jackpot.
It was a large 5 bed detached place, somewhat hidden back from the road by trees and bushes, with plenty space to park 3 cars, and if they could get another 2 people to chip in with them it was affordable.
Luckily they had a mate who had just returned from a year abroad after University, he was willing. And a girl they'd been at school with (let's just initial her H) had just started a nursing training residency in Nottingham, and was also looking for somewhere. And she was willing to live in a houseshare with 4 blokes on the proviso that she got the largest room. A deal was struck. All was well.
And this place was huge. Large living room. Huge conservatory at the back, running the width of the house (which itself was pretty large). It had a two-car-sized garage, which had been converted into a gym. It even had a jacuzzi (though I don't think it got much in the way of use). It was a proper Party House to 5 early twenty-somethings. I can remember that my brother got a bit pissy with me, because this was his first proper house and first opportunity to throw a proper House Warming and despite inviting me I missed it. I did go up on a good number of occasions over the next 3 years or so, however. For the football, birthdays, Bank Holidays BBQs etc.
But there was still something a little odd about the place. It seemed so incongruous to have a house like this in the street it was in. The decor was modern, but it had a major nouveau riche vibe to it. Looked like it was dolled up for MTV cribs from the front of the house and reception areas. Other parts though were a little more dilapidated, with a very late 70s / early 80s vibe to them. A wood-panelled bar towards the rear of the house, for example. Tiny thing. Some booze left behind. Hard to say whose, past tenants or landlords.
And the guy who actually owned it wasn't living in the UK. He was in Switzerland. Zurich. Which made getting repairs done a little more difficult. It could take days, even weeks, to get messages relayed between the letting agents and landlord.
Of particular note, the bedroom decor was a little... garish. On one occasion I stayed in the master bedroom -normally belonging to H, who allowed me to kip there in her absence, while she was away on holiday. And beyond her better attempts to make the space her own, you couldn't get past the paint and papering job. Which had a very distinctive vibe of boudoir red and pink, and heart motifs to it. It had a... vibe to it. You know?
I also noted that there was a fair amount of distinctive AV cabling sticking through a point in the ceiling. Right in the corner of the room above the doorway, adjoining with an alcove wall for the en suite bathroom.
With fitted wardrobes taking up the entirety of the rest of that wall, it wasn't like there was anywhere that a TV or Audio unit could have been placed. The cables absolutely wouldn't have stretched from the corner anyway. The only thing I could think of was that there may have formerly been a CCTV camera mounted there. But if there had been, it would have been pointing directly at the bed. I can't 100% remember now, but I have a vague recollection of there being similarly abandoned wires in the en suite.
I mentioned this to my brother's mate Chris the following morning. He was like 'Yeahhhh. We did notice that when we were looking around the place. But we didn't want to mention it to H, in case it spooked her'.
There were similar cables in some of the other bedrooms, and when they moved in they went to considerable lengths searching for cameras and spyholes, out of paranoia. They never found anything, thankfully.
But it did raise certain questions about the place. I had suggested to them that they enquired with some of their neighbours. Try to find out about the owner. But I don't think they ever did. At least one of them had some suspicions that the place may have been used as a quiet suburban brothel, or something. But mostly they kept such thoughts to themselves while H was living with them. And it just remained this odd Party House they all lived in for a few years, until they either moved for Work or moved out with significant others.