SOLVED. Adult Dystopian short story - Earth has run out of space and people have to share rooms. [s]

[Denys]

Hello,
I believe I read this short story over 20 years ago. I'm 49 and have been reading SF since junior high so I am not sure at all about the date.

Spoiler alert - This is just a short story so everything that follows should be considered a spoiler.

In this story the Earth has run out of space. People have to share rooms and houses and apartments that once held a single person or family. Buildings have been renovated to accommodate the increase in population and this seems to have been done in a rather ad hoc way. One day, a man finds a room that had been overlooked.

End of story follows- SPOILER ALERT!



He tells his friend or lover about the room and that person tells someone else. This continues until there are so many people using it that it is just like every other room in the world, full of people. The man has lost his secret room, his one refuge from the world that is crammed with people.

Thanks for reading this post.
John Denys

[Rosa]

"Billennium," by J.G. Ballard.

[Denys]

Thank you very much!

[Rosa]

You're very welcome. Do you remember where you read it? I first encountered it in Social Problems Through Science Fiction, but it's in many other anthologies and collections.

[Denys]

I’ve been thinking about it all day and can’t remember how I came across it. I’m a big fan of dystopian literature and I’ve had plenty of time to read because I only work about 20 hours a week.