LONDON: Blink and you could easily miss it. Wedged between a doctor’s surgery and a hairdressing salon, London’s thinnest house is only identified by a streak of dark blue paint.

But the five-floor house in Shepherd’s Bush — which is just 5ft 6ins (1.6 metres) at its narrowest point — is currently on the market for 950,000 ($1.3 million, 1.1 million euros).

The unusual property, originally a Victorian hat shop with storage for merchandise and living quarters on its upper floors, was built sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century.

In a nod to its past, the house still has an old-fashioned glass shopfront with a lamp in the shape of a bowler hat.

David Myers, an assistant sales manager at Winkworth estate agents which is selling the property, said the house was worth its price tag because it’s “a unique part of London history”.

“It’s a bit of London magic,” he said. The dimensions of the house differ throughout.

While the kitchen at the end of the lower ground floor is the house’s narrowest spot, it opens up into a dining area that’s nearly double the size. A 16 foot-wide garden lies beyond behind French windows.

The ground floor, which now contains a reception where the old shop would have been, and the first floor are of similar sizes.

The first floor — where a bedroom and study can be found — also has a roof terrace with commanding views over the roofs and chimney pots of west London.

Spiral stairs lead from the second floor — the location of a bathroom and shower room — up to the master bedroom on the third.

It is accessed by a hatch which opens through the floor to save on space and the bed, which is built in, takes up an entire end of the room, fitted into the walls on either side.

Myers said the house was for a “young couple or an individual” who “sees the beauty for what it is and will snap it up”.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2021