World Art Utopia

Smallest House in Great Britain — Conwy

The bright red Quay House, the Smallest House in Great Britain, pressed against a stone tower of the town wall on Conwy quay, with a guide in traditional Welsh dress at its door
Artwork FileConwy, Wales

Smallest House in Great Britain

SeenMar 2026

Builder not recorded · stone-rubble fisherman’s cottage, late 18th or early 19th century · Lower Gate Street, Conwy quay, Wales, United Kingdom · also known as Quay House

Photo: Suicasmo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0), 25 August 2016. Full photograph shown.

Quay House, advertised as “the smallest house in Great Britain”, is a two-story fisherman’s cottage built against a tower of Conwy’s town wall. Wales’s heritage record dates it to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century and gives the inside as 1.8 meters wide, 2.5 meters deep and 3.1 meters high. Source Checked

Seen Mar 2026. Evidence date: 15 March 2026, the camera date of the newest dated photograph we found, posted on Flickr by Hammerhead27 as “The smallest house in Great Britain”. The newest Google Street View image of the quay (June 2024) shows the red cottage with its sign in place, and the newest dated photograph on Wikimedia Commons is from 23 June 2024. Source Source Source Checked

💡 4 things to know

  1. Built against the town wallCoflein describes a small two-story house with stone-rubble walls under a single-pitch slate roof, built against a tower of the town wall. Source Checked
  2. A room 1.8 meters wideThe interior measures 1.8 meters wide, 2.5 meters deep and 3.1 meters high, according to the record compiled for the Royal Commission in November 2012. Source Checked
  3. Bedroom and living areaVisit Snowdonia says it squeezes in a bedroom and a living area with very basic cooking facilities, and that couples lived in it in the 19th century. Source Reported
  4. Saved from demolitionIt was last occupied in 1900, when it and several neighboring houses were declared unfit for habitation; it was saved from demolition to become a tourist attraction. Source Reported

📍 Where it is

Lower Gate Street, on the quay in Conwy, Wales, built against a tower of the town wall Source Source Checked

Open in Maps

The button opens Google Street View on the quay, facing the red cottage (image from June 2024).

🗓️ Sightings

  1. 1900

    Last occupied; declared unfit for habitation

  2. 201222 Nov

    Coflein heritage record written

  3. 201625 Aug

    Photo by Suicasmo (our photo)

  4. 201821 May

    Photo by Raintheone

  5. 202423 Jun

    Photo by Alan Murray-Rust (Geograph)

  6. 2024Jun

    Google Street View image

  7. 202615 Mar

    Photo by Hammerhead27 (Flickr)

Green stamps mark dated photographs and Street View images; amber stamps mark records or reports. Publication dates are not camera dates.

🗞️ In the sources

Coflein (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales)22 November 2012

Quay House, 10 Lower Gate Street, Conwy

“The interior measurements are 1.8m wide, 2.5m deep and 3.1m high.”

Read the source →

Visit SnowdoniaUndated visitor page

The Smallest House

“It was last occupied in 1900”

Read the source →

✅ The facts

Name
Quay House, “the smallest house in Great Britain” Source Checked
Built
Late 18th or early 19th century (“believed to date”) Source Reported
Original use
Fisherman’s cottage Source Checked
Interior
1.8 m wide, 2.5 m deep, 3.1 m high in the heritage record; Visit Snowdonia gives 120 inches (3.05 m) deep. We follow the official record. Source Source Conflicting
Address
10 Lower Gate Street in the heritage record; 11 Lower Gate Street on the Visit Snowdonia page. We follow the official record. Source Source Conflicting
Last lived in
1900 Source Reported
Status
Seen 15 March 2026 in a dated photograph (Hammerhead27, Flickr); also in Google Street View, June 2024 Source Source Checked

🔗 Related

All sources & image credits

Photo: Suicasmo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0), 25 August 2016. Full photograph shown.

Last checked: 1 November 2026 · How we verify art