The Crooked House

Famously leaning 17th-century house on Palace Street

The house at 28 Palace Street leans visibly toward the road, with door and window frames cut into wonky parallelograms to compensate. The famous front door is genuinely off-vertical and now opens with the help of carefully shaped wedges. For most of its modern life the building has housed a bookshop, which is part of the appeal — wandering between the leaning shelves is exactly as disorienting as it sounds.

Two minutes from the cathedral; no entry charge to walk in and browse. There is no plaque explaining the lean, which is part of why it surprises every first-time visitor.

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A story
The building dates from around 1617 and almost certainly began life upright. In the eighteenth century a large chimney stack was inserted through the centre of the structure, and the weight gradually pushed the front wall off plumb. By the time anyone tried to fix it, the lean had become structurally fundamental — it now holds the building up. The house was the home of Sir John Boys, founder of the local almshouse, and bears his name on older signs.

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