London is home to a wide variety of surprising sights. These range from Japanese gardens to traditional Hindu temples, crystal grottos, and more. But over in South Kensington is a strange building that appears relatively normal at first glance – until you see it from a different perspective. That’s because what appears to be a normal house from the front is instead an incredibly skinny house, known as the Thin House.
Situated at the end of a row of otherwise normal houses is a strange housing phenomenon. The now infamous building is one of the skinniest domiciles in the city, and measures just 6 feet wide at its narrowest end!
Find out all about it here:
London’s skinny house
Located between South Kensington tube station and the V&A museum, you’ll find this rather trim building on Thurloe Square. It’s one of a number of houses in the area that were designed by London architect George Basevi, a student of neo-classical architect Sir John Soane.
Back in the 19th Century, the house (at 5 Thurloe Square) was an artist’s studio. But those days of bohemian creativity are long past. Nowadays, it’s a pricey piece of property offering up a number of flats. Accommodations within the iconic skinny building are valued at anywhere between £850,000 and well north of £1 million!
Despite looking impossibly narrow from the southwest corner of Thurloe Square, it’s actually triangular, meaning it widens—albeit undramatically—from its skinniest point. It’s definitely one of London’s coolest optical illusions!
Why is the house so skinny?
Some twenty years after they were built, 23 houses in Thurloe Square were sold to the Metropolitan District Railway (now ‘the Tube’). Five of these houses (1 to 5 Thurloe Square) were demolished. And many of the other sold buildings, that were slated to be demolished but survived, had their back gardens slashed in size.
A year later, in 1868, South Kensington station opened to the public.
In the late 19th century, Kensington and Chelsea was a hub for art. As a result, loads of artists were building studios in the area. A local builder named William Douglas saw this as an opportunity to fill the little triangle of space that was left behind after 1-5 Thurloe Square were knocked down. To fill the space, he designed and built seven artists’ studios, which now comprise the wedge-shaped building we see today.
5 Thurloe Square today
The building, now flats, is just 6ft wide at its narrowest point, growing to 34ft at its widest. And while it isn’t particularly large, the location results in a pretty hefty price tag.
In 2016, a one-bedroom apartment—at just 600 sq ft in size—went on sale in the building for £895,000. And then, back in December of 2020, a flat in Thurloe Square was sold for £855,000. At that price, the property was valued at £1,261 per square foot. Clearly, it’s true what they say: location, location, location!
📍 5 Thurloe Square, SW7 2TA.
🚇 The nearest station is South Kensington.
