Omaha daily bee., 1909-04-18
SMALLEST HOUSE IN LONDON
Stuck in the Center of the Rest Resi-
dence District-Land Belongs
to n Convent.

LONDON, April 1O.-This spring the hith
erto inhospitable door of "the smallest
house in London is to be opened to such
of the sightseeing tourists who visit the
metropolis as care to penetrate into its
tiny interior.
In the heart Of ultrafashionable London.
opposite Hyde park. this little house is
flanked on either side by imposing stone
residences, but its own dimensions are:
Width, six feet; depth, thirty feet, and In
height It reaches half way up the second
story Of it's tall neighbors. II has a front
door that leads into a long narrow passage
way. Walking through that and out at
the back, one sees the only staircase the
house possesses. II closely resembles q
fire escape, as II is en- the outside of the
building and is scarcely more than an iron
Ladder.
At the top of the ladder is the one and
only room. a long. narrow hall like place
lighted by one large window. 1t is almost
possible to stretch from one wall to the
other. so limited is its width. There rs
no fireplace. for no chimney was ever put
in the house and no water ripes have ever
been lain in it. In fact. no one has at
tempted to live in It for a great many
years past.
City of Wasted Space.
London might as we'll be Christened the
city of wasted space as any one knows
who has roamed around the streets and
seen the unused and unbuilt upon land in
otherwise crowded districts. This absurd,
tiny, useless house right I'm the midst Of
one OF the most fashionable residential dis
tricts in the metropolis. is an example Il
wasted space. and the lanes and squares
in other parts of the city which serve no
purpose, and which might have been added
to the buildings on either side of them, are
further evidences.
Why the smallest house was not divided
between the two residences which flank 1t
is a problem. All the land around it be-
longs to & rich convent situated in an
adjacent street. When the two large
houses were put up evidently the builders
leased just enough land from the convent
to erect such houses as they wished and
left between the two residences this six
feet Of space. II was not wide enough 10
cut a street through, and besides a street
would only have led to the convent gar
dens. The sisters. perhaps fearing such a
contingency, built this shell OF a house
which preserves the continuity of the hand
some block of residences and nowadays Is
let with the house TO the right of It. though
II is absolutely distinct from 1t and has no
connecting doors at all.
1t is a most embarrassing possession in
deed TO the owners OF the large house. for
they must keep it painted on the outside
and have fresh curtains and window
boxes. so that it viii not spoil the appear
ance of the other houses in the row. Its
ono room is. of course, quite useless, for q
five-foot wide room. with no heat or water,
Is like Whitechapel in discomfort, yet the
rert they would have to ask would be like
Park Lane in its figures. so naturally th'
tiny house stands idle and unused and is a
small but none the less ~undoubted white
elephant.
The sisters of the convent have reserved
the right to walk in at the front door and