Flats where you can’t sing in the shower or keep a pram

No late-night TV, no whistling while you wash early in the morning, no prams in the building — and make sure your net curtains are shining white.

But this isn't a barracks or jail — it's a redbrick Sixties block of flats in south-west London.

These are just some of the rules residents must abide by at Marlborough in Inner Park Road near Wimbledon Common.

Others include: no smoking in flats; no leaving trainers or empty milk bottles outside the front door; no bicycles or prams to be brought into the building.

There is a noise ban between 11pm and 9am, so no singing, no playing musical instruments, and no sound from the radio or television.

Leaseholders must also make sure windows are covered by "white nylon net curtains", which must be washed regularly and replaced when grey and grubby.

Gajus Milkeraitis, 31, who has been renting a flat for two months, said: "You can't keep a bike here. Mine was brand new but I donated it to children's charity Fara."

The music producer added: "I have good headphones, so I'm quiet. It's nice there's no noise, and it's good for old people."

But he could not keep to the net curtains rule: "I prefer to see the view, so until someone tells me to put them up I'll leave it."

A long-term resident said there had been reasonable regulations at the block, built in 1962. "There was damage with prams and bikes scraping walls," he said. But in summer updated rules were put up: "I call it HM Prison Marlborough. They've added some that make you roll with laughter."

Roland Simpson of estate agency Jackson-Stops & Staff, which is selling one flat for £175,000 (£10,000 below asking price), said: "They enforce rules ruthlessly. The buyer was measuring up for a pram and a chap asked what he was doing. The next thing was the management company ringing us saying they'd have to withdraw as they couldn't keep a pram there."

The block's freeholder, Mill Hill-based Swan Lane Estates, was unavailable for comment.