Abigail and Roger are an engaged couple living separately in bedsits in London. A few properties are still residential, nearly all divided into flats and bedsits. The estate lacked private space and the juxtapositions of bedsits and maisonettes was not popular. The setting is a rundown Victorian townhouse let out as bedsits in Yorkshire. Accordingly, St Elmo Court provided bedsits and two-bedroom apartments. Many of these houses have now been converted into bedsits. Bedsits have since been outlawed in the republic. Bedsits arose from the subdivision of larger dwellings into low-cost accommodation at low conversion cost.