Any idea what’s happened here? Was that a doorway to nowhere that’s been closed? A ‘built in closet’ in the loft?
by Unplannedroute
Any idea what’s happened here? Was that a doorway to nowhere that’s been closed? A ‘built in closet’ in the loft?
by Unplannedroute
22 comments
Lots of old buildings used to have a door up the top with a bracket out front for loading goods in up a rope and pulley system.
You’ll see these in a fair few old buildings that had some industrial purpose. If you need to fill your gravity hopper then you’d use a pulley to bring the sacks in directly instead of lugging them all up stairs.
That door served a very important function historically, although you don’t really see them in use these days due to tougher laws. It’s called a mother in law door, and when she came to stay and you showed her into her bedroom……..
It’s just a dormer without a window in it, it’s likely there for a boring reason like they had to put in a new water tank and needed the headroom for servicing it.
I see some people are saying it was for a hoist but I think it would be wider and the tiles older if that was the case, that dormer tiled after the original roof.
That’s my guess at least
I would’ve guessed the pulley like u/Chilton_Squid but if it isn’t that and it is newer, could it be for stairs into the loft? Not quite sure how though
Village I used to live in had an old bakery with the door still there. My dad always told me it was so they could hoist sacks up of flour or whatever.
Lynn, These are sex people.
Looks like the piece is in upside down, try flipping it around.
The door to the stairway to heaven.
Window tax
There was a time :
>The window tax was first introduced in Britain in 1696 and revoked 155 years later in 1851. It stipulated that the more windows a building had, the more its owner had to pay. This had a disproportionate impact on the poor, with landlords across the country bricking up their windows to avoid higher taxes.
If it’s in a coastal location possibly a widows walk – somewhere you could look out for ships returning to shore
Here’s the whole house https://imgur.com/a/EXemWcO
It looks very recently built and clad. Maybe they didn’t get planning permission for a window to overlook the neighbors, but weren’t forced to change the whole dormer. You could put the address into a search engine and go looking for planning permission.
Looks like the house was converted to flats/bedsits, but looks like they have blocked that off since the pictures taken of the insides.
[https://app.immoviewer.com/portal/tour/2932058](https://app.immoviewer.com/portal/tour/2932058)
Can have a wonder round it if you like 😉
I did think it was the kitchen on floor 2 originally, but that looks llke it is actually below ground/cellar accomodation
The context photographs are helpful. Looks to me like we have an older building at the back that has been substantially rebuilt and had a Victorian frontage added. The stack is internal and proportionally larger than would be required by the Victorian period, so indicates an older building at the back. This back section was likely relegated to the service area of the building on conversion.
The position of the dormer is interesting, it’s giving access to the main part of the roof for something. It’s much bigger than a dormer window of say the 18th century, which would be giving light to accommodation in the eaves. It’s larger than the window below for example. Also the property has lots of space, so it’s not likely to be for accomodation.
Most likely scenario is that it’s a storage area, up high to keep the contents away from sticky fingers and vermin, such as in a hayloft. It probably had a hoist attachment as others have said. Not too mysterious, just an unusual survival.
The building is characterful enough to possibly be listed, or locally listed with the district council, both of which might hold more info on the building.
Happens all the time. You should be able to hold ctrl and click/drag it to delete.
Old fire escape where at the bottom would have been a tramapoline. Obviously it blew away and the owners prolly though it best to brick it up.
It’s the entrance to the weed farm in their RENTED house.
Cheeky little grow spot.
That’s where one wears their top hat
Considering the age of the house and no obvious signs of a coal cellar I’d say it was a coal attic like at Audley End House. Coal winched up and water heated for baths on the lower floors.