The owner of Britain’s smallest house has revealed how a family of six used to live in the home which can barely fit that many people in standing up.
The Smallest House, also known as Quay House, in Conwy, North Wales, is just shy of 6ft wide – the same as a Ford Focus.
It is now owned by Jan Tyley, 58, whose family has held the unconventional one-up one-down since her great-great grandfather bought it for just £20 in 1891.
These days, the ground floor is filled by a small bench, a fireplace and a stove, while the upstais, which has to be accessed via ladder, contains a narrow single bed but no bathroom.
According to Ms Tyler, a couple with four children had to get creative when the tiny abode was their home.
Jan Tyley’s family has held the minute one-up one-down in Conwy, North Wales, since her great-great grandfather bought it in 1891
Just shy of 6ft wide, Quay House is the same width as a Ford Focus as it is sandwhiched between the castle and a row of cottages
Conwy Castle was the architectural brainchild of Edward I and is another popular tourist attraction in the area (pictured)
She told The Sun that the four children used to sleep on hammocks between the beams in the top floor, with the mother and father enjoying the luxury of a proper bed.
The solicitor admitted even on her own she could not live in the tiny home.
‘I like my creature comforts too much!’ She said, though she has no plans to sell up with her 22-year-old son lined up as the next owner of the extraordinary heirloom.
Quay House was built between a row of cottages and Conwy’s castle wall in the 16th century. The first modern UK census 300 years later listed the then occupant as a painter.
Ms Tyler said it is believed the house sprung up overnight – taking advantage of a rule which allowed new homes so long as building started after sunset and smoke was coming out the chimney by sunrise the next morning.
Due to the land’s position, it only needed a front and a roof to be put in in that time.
The last person to actually live in the house, over a century ago, was Robert Jones, a gardener, labourer and fisherman. Famously, he was 6ft 3in tall.
Unable to stand up fully in the cottage’s two rooms, he was forced to move out when the council declared the house, and the neighbouring cottages, unfit for human habitation as they had no toilets.
Despite that ruling the house now remains largely as it was then and is visited by tourists all year round as well as being Grade II listed.
This is thanks to the intervention of Roger Dawson, owner and editor of the North Wales Weekly News, who saved it from destruction.
Spurred on by the property’s owner, he toured Great Britain to confirm that the Lower Gate Street house was in fact the island’s smallest and thus worth saving.
Roughly 55,000 people visit it each year now, with a small fraction bizarrely complaining about a lack of things to do at the attraction – there is clearly no pleasing some people.
