Recently deceased Czech hero Vaclav Havel dropped a clanger by referring to the flats as rabbit hutches but they are home to vast swathes of the human population with many retaining an air of decency and are home to doctors, lawyers, teachers, office workers and a socialist-driven community spirit did exist among residents, continuing partly to this day.
More often than not, there will be a supermarket down below, alongside the newsagent's, fruit and veg stall, hairdresser's, kids clothes store, stationer's, Vietnamese run paraphenalia-out-of-China shack, a cafe, a betting shop, and, most importantly, a pub, generally with attached 24 hour 'herna' bar, which is a fruit machine parlour and boozer frequented by every walk of life 24/7 and the panelak (tower block) people more or less circulate through it at some point of the day or week or month. Quite a few almost never leave except to sleep and look for more money. These boozers can also be a lot of fun at certain times of night with the right crowd of in-the-mood panelakers. I once met an Ozzie who lived with a Czech husband and wife who dragged him down there every evening, offended if he had a night off.
In Pankrac Housing Estate No. III there used to a pub with 'nahoru bez' (topless) waitresses serving and I would cycle past, look in and see some 50 year old brassy barmaid holding foaming mugs of beer framing her gargantuan and naked breasts, wobbling all over the place, nudging the noses of men. She would smile joyfully when she caught me looking at her goods. Czechs refer to this type of woman as 'krev and mlejko' (blood and milk) and this was a walk back in time ...