In Copenhagen, a lot of the blocks of housing are organised so that in the middle of the entire block is a courtyard, where kids can play, washing is dried and the communal bins are kept. The nice ones have some pretty good facilities in them, but it varies from building to building.

Ours is huge, the size of a small park. And it has one great feature – somewhere to put your large rubbish that you’d otherwise have to take to the council tip, and it’s complete with an area to leave things that might be of use to someone else.

It’s a nice illustration of the social (and socialist) nature of Danish society seeping through in to all aspects. And set aside in our area the other day is a complete set of Danish colour encyclopaedias. If only we had room for them in our flat…