London's thinnest house for sale for $1.69 million

It’s difficult to imagine that a property measuring just 1.66 metres at its narrowest point could be fit for habitation but not only does “England’s thinnest house” boast two bedrooms and two living areas, it’s also up for sale for an eye-watering $A1.69 million.

The five-level period home – wedged between a doctor’s surgery and a shuttered hairdressing salon in Shepherds Bush in West London – is not too different from that magical house owned by Sirius Black in the Harry Potter movies that was invisible to the neighbours.

A stripe of dark blue paint and a skinny door built into the recess of the footpath’s ground-level frontage are all that can be seen from the street.

UK’s Mirror reports that the property was originally a Victorian hat shop with storage for merchandise and living quarters on its upper floors, and built sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century.

Despite its unusual dimensions, inside the property presents as a renovated – albeit extremely narrow – period home.

It features an Aga-powered, Nest-controlled central heating system, period parquetry floors, original art deco bath tub, roof terrace and double full-height glass doors leading from the glazed dining area to the recently planted private patio garden.

“Unique is an oft over-used word, especially by estate agents. Perhaps this over use is why it feels so completely inadequate when it comes to describing this genuinely individual property which, despite its surface oddness, is actually very easy to live with,” reads the real estate listing on Winkworth.

“Six-foot-wide and arranged over five floors this astonishing house offers flexible accommodation. Some worry that they would feel compressed in a six-foot-wide house but counter-intuitively this is a space that works in much the way a luxury yacht does.”

The marketing agent, David Myers, told Insider that the property was built as part of a terrace of houses in the Victorian era.

“I think people are drawn to them simply because of their unique charm, character, and originality. After all, how many of us can say we live in something so eccentric instead of the more conventional home we all seem to gravitate to?” Myers said.