'Mini mansion' of only 290sq ft goes on sale in London for £1.2 million
Take a look inside this former gravedigger cottage after the tiny house was recently renovated and redesigned
A tiny 290 sq ft single-bedroom house has gone on sale for £1.2 million in London – a price of around £4,137 per square foot.
Described as a ‘proper Chelsea gem’ by Kensington estate agents Harding Green, the property is situated in Britten Street in West London, and was recently completely refurbished.
It is located beside St Luke's Gardens and St Luke's Church, a short distance from the King's Road with numerous high-end restaurants, bars, exclusive shopping boutiques, as well as being close to the River Thames.
Renovating a house is always a challenge, and this property makes the most of its modest floorspace – the 13.4ft by 8.2ft bedroom comprises the entire first floor, thanks to an extensive redesign by property developer Robin Swailes.
Georgian cottage built for a gravedigger
When property developer Robin Swailes bought the tiny house for £713,000, the Georgian property was in a poor state with paint peeling off the walls, mould in the kitchen and nasty looking carpets upstairs.
However, there was still stiff competition to secure the sale, having snapped up the home ahead of 17 other interested parties all looking to find a good renovation project.
The freehold one-bedroom one-bathroom house was believed to have once been the gravedigger’s cottage for the church and graveyard next to it.
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It was also a sweet shop in the 1960s before it was returned to residential use. Mr Swailes bought it in 2017 and spent four years renovating it.
Slick design uses every inch of 290sq ft space
There is a reception room on the ground floor that leads to a small galley kitchen and a wet room, with a bedroom upstairs with a staircase up that gives access to a private roof terrace with stunning views over the church gardens.
The living room/reception area contains a sofa that opens into a sofa bed, a TV hidden behind a mirror, a tiny table with two bar stools in the corner, and a £30,000 spiral staircase designed to maximise the limited space.
It has comfort cooling and electric floor heating throughout and has a plush Bulthaup kitchen leading to a bathroom with Warmup Wall heating.
The first-floor bedroom has been ‘cleverly built to accommodate a wealth of storage space’ and has a retractable bed with an LG projector above and Bose sound.
The skylight to the roof terrace opens hydraulically and cost £35,000. The home incapsulates some brilliant home renovation ideas.
A tiny Chelsea home that's now a 'mini mansion'
The roof terrace features a new balustrade and overlooks St Luke's Gardens and Britten Street. The shops, bars, and restaurants of King's Road are just one street away and further south is Battersea Park and its many outdoor attractions.
Mr Swailes said: “It is a challenge to work with small spaces and you can make them beautiful with design, that's the challenge we took on here.
"It's a fantastic location, beautifully proportioned, a sort of mini mansion. We used superyachts as our inspiration on how to best use the space.”
Sam is based in Coventry and has been a news reporter for nearly 20 years. His work has featured in the Mirror, The Sun, MailOnline, the Independent, and news outlets throughout the world. As a copywriter, he has written for clients as diverse as Saint-Gobain, Michelin, Halfords Autocentre, Great British Heating, and Irwin Industrial Tools. During the pandemic, he converted a van into a mini-camper and is currently planning to convert his shed into an office and Star Wars shrine.