What are the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of having a limited company as the legal owner of say 10 residential rental houses, instead of an individual?

When you write 'legal owner' I assume you mean the full owner (i.e. also having beneficial ownership), as opposed to being merely the legal owner but not the beneficial owner. 

Pros: a) the rental income will most likely be subject to 20% corporation tax, but an individual may pay higher rate tax on the rental income e.g. 40% (above £42,475) or 60% (from £100,000 to £116,210) or even 50% (above £150,000) tax. b) there is a good chance the capital gains tax on the sale of the properties will be not more than 20% corporation tax, whereas an individual could pay 28% capital gains tax. c) a company will have indexation relief to reduce the capital gain on sale, not available to an individual. d) if the company is an overseas company and the shares are owned by someone who is non-UK domiciled, then the properties will escape UK inheritance tax. 

Cons: a) an individual will have a capital gains tax annual exemption to set off against the capital gain on sale, not available to a company. b) depending on the individual's tax situation, an individual could pay only 18% capital gains tax on sale, but a company will never pay less than 20% tax. c) once the company has sold the properties and paid tax on the capital gain, if the owners will want to extract their cash from the company this will trigger more taxation (known as the 'double whammy'!).