They've even been building up on little patches of land that you wouldn't think you could fit any property at all. Take this building that went up in the past year on Old Ford Road:
Something is still in the process of being built to the left, but just look at how narrow the building is! Aaron and I stood staring and speculating about how anyone would fit any thing in there at all. Maybe it was just a one bedroom house, split into multiple levels. On this level, a few chairs. On another level, a cooker. A bed would barely fit.
We walked by speculating on how much rent would need to be generated in order to justify land and building costs and wondered who would pay that much for a building that would have the majority of space taken up by stairs leading from one ridiculously sized room to the next.
I don't think that we bothered to turn around and look again the first time we passed by. If we did, we would have seen this:
How neat! The angle on the back of the building is really acute to give such an illusion. It's still a really small building, but somewhat normal for a London new build.By the way, notice the sky? Clear and sunny. It's been a good few days.
2 comments:
They aren't tricks at all. Actually they were houses that were partly bombed during WWII. You find similar ones all over the dock areas but they're rare where you are. Sadly the majority of them, mostly in places like Plaistow, Beckton, Canning Town and parts of South London were knocked down in the 70s to make way for high-rise flats. People literally made do with what was left and just built the backs from old rubble laying around. They're a real piece of local history and it's a shame to see them slowly disappear. Some architects designed similar ones that were inspired by them but that was in the 80s. Weird, but true.
Sure, this building isn't really a trick (or even built with the intention to trick) but it sure did look like one. I've been watching this building go up from nothing over the past year and only ever looked at the facade, so it was kind of funny when I thought it was only about 5 feet wide...until I saw it from a different angle.
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