A LONDON development has included below-stairs maids’ rooms as its quota of social housing.
Private homes on the One Vauxhall Bridge development range from £1.4m to £6m, while social housing tenants pay much lower rents but are expected to rise at 4am to scrub stairs and set roaring fires.
Estate agent Eleanor Shaw said: “The opportunity to live in one of London’s most desirable locations has the tiny price of a lifetime of servitude.
“Yes, there are small differences between the private flats, which are finished in polished walnut and enjoy views across the capital, and the social housing in bare plywood without heat, lights or windows.
“But it’s all delightfully Jeeves & Wooster, apart from Wooster doesn’t speak English and frequently beats Jeeves with a shoe.”
Tenant Nathan Muir said: “I work all day as a teacher, get home, change into my butler’s uniform and serve drinks for the mistress and her guests.
“I was married, but my wife was fired for drawing a bath two degrees colder than requested so I began a sexless, unspoken flirtation with the young maidservant who sleeps in the attic.
“After nine months of devotion I believe I was close to knowing her name, but then the master of the house got her pregnant so she was framed for theft and sent to the workhouse.”