The Smallest House in Britain

The Smallest House in Britain is a genuine record-holder: at 3.05 metres tall and 1.8 metres wide, it is the smallest domestic dwelling ever recorded in the country, and it continued to be lived in until 1900. The red-painted façade is unmissable on the quayside, and it has been a tourist attraction of a sort since the early 20th century.

It takes about five minutes to see, which is about right. The interior — two small rooms on two floors — is open to visitors, attended by a woman in Victorian costume who explains the history with admirable patience given that she repeats the same explanation hundreds of times a day in summer. It costs a pound or two to go inside. Worth it for the sheer oddness of the thing, and the view from the quay with the castle behind it makes for the quintessential Conwy photograph.

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The house measures just 3.05 metres high and 1.8 metres wide. It was lived in until 1900, when the last tenant — a 6-foot-3 fisherman named Robert Jones — was told by the local council that it no longer met minimum standards for human habitation. He was reportedly the last of a long line of tenants who had somehow managed to live in a space smaller than most modern bathrooms.

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