• 6 months ago
The tiny house was built in 1850 in Wavertree and residents had to turn sideways to climb a staircase that was just eight inches wide.

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00:00 The Cock and Bottle pub in Wavertree High Street has been absorbed into what was once the smallest house in England.
00:08 Local historian Stephen Horton has been giving us the lowdown on this tiny but mighty piece of Liverpool's past.
00:18 The house was built in an old alleyway next to the Cock and Bottle pub on Wavertree High Street around 1850.
00:24 It's just 6 feet wide and 14 feet long. It consisted of just one room downstairs which was a long living room, if that's the right phrase.
00:33 There was also a staircase going up to the first floor on which again there was just one room upstairs.
00:38 Interestingly the fireplace was upstairs rather than downstairs and the staircase was just 8 inches wide.
00:44 Although it did later get increased to 15 inches but even after it got extended there was one man who still, one occupant, still couldn't get up the stairs and had to go up sideways.
00:52 The pub's address is 93 Wavertree High Street with the house formerly being 95.
00:59 The home was built in the middle of the 19th century in what was a passageway.
01:04 The house was put up for rent in 1884, advertised in the Liverpool Mercury for 2 shillings 6p a week.
01:10 As a guide other houses, 2 up, 2 down or 3 bedroom houses, terraced, were advertised for between 5 and 7 shillings per week.
01:19 It's reputed that in the late 19th century as many as 8 children lived in the home.
01:24 The house was bought by the brewery that owned the pub in 1925 and the interior was then stripped out and the pub extended into it.
01:34 After years of campaigning the frontage of the house was restored in the late 1990s with a fake window and door fitted.
01:42 So all that's left of this is the frontage. Unfortunately we can't step inside to see what life would have been like for its occupants.
01:50 Around 2010 the frontage was redone so it actually looks like a house from outside but actually behind the wall it is just part of the pub.
02:01 The last occupants who lived there was Mr Richard Greaves and his wife.
02:05 He was a cleaner down at the town hall in Wavertree. He sold it to the brewery and they moved nearby to a large house in Frederick Grove.
02:14 Mr Greaves said that living in the house just him and his wife wasn't too bad. It was a perfect size for them, not too much maintenance required.
02:21 But when the offer from the brewery came in he was more than happy to take it.
02:26 Renovations in 2011 have led to the house being divided off again to provide a separate entrance to flats above.
02:32 This has led to a real door being installed again although it is to the right of where the original once was.
02:39 There'd be nowhere to go if you'd had a row with your other half wouldn't it to get away in there.
02:44 My understanding was that the toilet was outside. It was literally a two roomed house with a very small staircase.
02:51 Still occupied for 75 years. It only just beat into the smallest house in the whole of Britain by a house in Conwy in North Wales.

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