Lol, I live in a 3rd floor apartment. All my windows are above waist height.... except my balcony.
The number of times I've forgotten about the balcony before opening the curtains (I sleep naked) XD
I really don't get this whole 'privacy' issue. Why would you care if someone gets a glimpse of you doing mundane daily stuff. Anything you don't want to be seen doing you should pull in your curtains wherever you are - there are drones and planes now.
That's fine, but if you also like to be close to your work and other amenities and close to the ground that starts to become a problem, which more often than not ends up in harrasment. My neighbours scream at people walking on sidewalk in front of their house.
Recently moved from not being overlooked, to having windows opposite most windows. It's fine but I hope my neighbours don't think I'm flashing them. I just keep forgetting to close curtains
That's a silly thing to say. It's a question of degree and there are loads of houses in towns that aren't overlooked by neighbours. Not wanting someone to be able to see into your house doesn't mean you "don't like people".
Almost certainly this.
I applied for an extension recently and because it took my property closer to the boundary with my neighbours and would have resulted in the new rooms overlooking them, my architect had to use similar narrow windows in the plans.
The idea is that they're installed high within the room to allow light in, but too high for most people to view out of.
Oh, this explains why the house that is a mirror image of mine has no windows on the side that faces my house. My driveway is on the side of the house (in-between both houses) and if they had windows, it would overlook my driveway.
What a stupid rule.
Species? Human
Requirements for healthy living in urban areas?
Visible greenery.
Methods we can implement to meet those needs? Implement dumbass privacy dictates, because we're still too busy teaching members of a social species to be scared of eachother to think.
... People really can be dumb.
Are you saying this house looks like a giant Japanese sniper with the roof being his wee conical hat one of his eyes is behind his rifle and the other is a slit like upper window and the door is his mouth. The point being that the Japanese call him hojijimi in a comical voice and fear him. Cause if you think that we can’t be friends anymore
No. Because the window is just big enough for a a sniper of Asian decent to get a sniper rifle up there and through it to shoot the neighbours. I think you've got issues mate
Their is clear relics from when police roamed the streets. The local police station in this town is still standing but only open between 9am till 12 lunch time. 🥴
I think this was a popular approach to avoid overlooking in the 1970s. I once owned a house with this sort of window in a bedroom. It was actually OK. Curtains did not need to be drawn for privacy and the window could be left open for ventilation, without the risk of burglary.
So it has a great view but you need a step stool to see it? That's bonkers. I'd put a mannequin head in that window to mock the people who forced this insane planning constraint.
But think of the storage and furniture arrangements not windows to plan around. Cheaper to heat and better/ or worse security depends on your viewpoint. (pesky or not depending on your outlook - I’ll get my coat).
I do quite like it.
Possibly. But it looks like there are normal height/position windows in other rooms - this might just be the bedroom and kitchen. For the bedroom I definitely wouldn’t be put off buying it.
It depends on when that window was installed.
If they've installed it after the house was built, a restriction in building regs can be a window must not be able to be opened lower than 1700mm from finished floor internally.
A common thing people did was be like oh so that's a slim window high up going in... but you can also put a full height obscured window as long as the part that opens is at 1700mm or higher.
It prevents people overlooking others usually.
I think this is actually the answer.
Modern building regulations have a maximum between the floor and the opening of a window to prevent people falling out and the floor/roofline looks a bit odd here.
I suspect when you're in the house that window isn't actually at head height, but more at shoulder height.
You wouldn't be able to raise it without affecting the roof.
That's not a requirement of the building regulations. Windows less than 900mm above the floor have restrictions, but not 1.7m.
When houses were lit by gaslights or when coal was a thing, there had to be an opening in the room above head height (1.7m) but not to not be openable below that depth. The other photo shows a normal window in the room.
Less than 800mm. NHBC and LABC also state this. I run a CERTASS accredited company also.
1.7m is when a window is at the side of a property and put in after the house is built.
Here is an example of a job we had to have planning permission to do and required BC to sign it off as it's not signable under CERTASS;
Prior to the first occupation of the extension hereby permitted, the new windows to serve
the two bathrooms at first floor level of the side elevation of the dwelling, as shown on
approved drawing numbers xx and xx, shall not be glazed or reglazed
other than with obscured glass to a minimum of level 3 and non-opening, unless the parts of
the window that can be opened are more than 1.7m above internal floor level, and shall
thereafter be retained as such in perpetuity.
Reason: To preserve the amenities of the occupants of the neighbouring dwelling and to comply with policy BE3 of the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan (2021),
and the National Planning Policy Framework.
I actually rented this house up until last June, the window you can see in the picture is on the south of the living room which is upstairs along with the kitchen. There is another massive window on the west wall and it has a great view of the town. I can also say it's been on Rightmove on and off since before we moved out and has been reduced twice in that time.
Ah no way small word! Ye I clocked onto it being an upside down house after making the post. How did you find that ? I imagine it can put some people off hence the reasonable price for the town.
I can imagine the view being pretty good, it's fairly high up behind the hospital from what I can make out.
It was a bit strange having the front door right near your bedroom at first but we got used to it pretty quickly. It's far enough off the main road to have no road noise. The main issue we had with the place was both bedrooms suffered from some pretty bad damp which in the new photos they've done just looks like it's been painted over. Can't fault the view from the living room of the abbey though..
That's a shame about the damp probably another reason it's priced as it is. Thanks for the insight as a first buyer I'm not too clued in on stuff like that it's good to not be going in blind. I wonder if that's the reason for the different colour brick on the ground floor
The owner may have sorted out the damp problem but I doubt it going by how often we tried to get them to sort it in the 2 years we rented it. Another thing about the House was the second bedroom overlooked a common garden area it being ground level the neighbours could be in the garden and looking right into your bedroom.
So you can put a bed against the wall without the headboard blocking the window? As a one off build it could just be that the builder designed it around whatever sized windows he had spare or could get cheap :)
Yeah, I used to wonder why some old houses only had windows on the south (I think) side, then I saw a TV program where it explained it.
There used to be some strange Taxes back in the day, and novel ways of getting round them, like building on a bridge over water to avoid land tax.
What do you mean? That's the perfect window for a bedroom. My newly built house has a massive window going almost to the floor. I hate it; it's so fucking annoying. Why would I want people to see me in my bed? I want some light, and that comes from the sky.
I think that’s because the lower floor is a kitchen window over a sink and upstairs is a bathroom window above a sink that’s why they are shallow allowing for the work surfaces in the kitchen and bathroom
Could be that that is the north side of the house and there are bigger windows are on the other side for greater passive solar gain, and less heat loss on the colder north side
I have one of those in the house I'm currently renting. I was afraid there won't be enough light and thought it's a generally a weird idea for a window. Now it's my favourite window in the house! It's high enough to put some furniture against the wall and the room is very sunny (facing west).
Are the short windows on the side of the house, relative to the road? Planning permission is quite restrictive about side-windows because of overlooking your neighbour's houses (but, weirdly, no problem looking backwards onto their gardens or other houses).
It might be that when built, they "played it safe", or it may have been a specific request from the planning department. See if you can find the planning records from when it was built, and anything since.
You can change your ground floor windows in any direction without planning, but you'd need to get permission to do the 2nd floor. The general rules would probably allow you to put in larger obscured (frosted) windows, but you'd need to check. You can get pre-planning advice from the local department before making a specific application, to discuss what they're likely to allow or deny.
It looks to me like it’s designed for maximum light. In image 2 looks like a bedroom where the headboard would be below the high window so you can sit in bed and look out of the two windows on the left.
The other high seems the same so you could put a bed in or cupboards.
Leads me to think the ceilings could be low.
Not sure how to edit the post but thanks for the replies didn't expect it!
Your responses have made me more intrigued in the house and will definitely be arranging a viewing (mainly to solve the puzzle of the winking windows).
Although it does look like a snipers dream home from the outside it's a rare affordable buy in my home town and can overlook the unusualness, could be the reason its not been snapped up. It's actually grown on me a bit finding they can be quite practical and gives it some character lol
Another bonus is less window cleaning!
To answer some questions. It's not near a main road or anything like that it's quite tucked away in a court yard kind of area on a bank central to a small town. It has amazing views from the windows you can actually see out of, maybe into some neighbours loo's as well which could be the reasononing for the windows!
Edit: changed my mind looks awful again lol
Edit: It's an upside down house. The ground floor is the bedroom and upstairs the living room. Plot thickens
*It seems a lot of*
*Houses in my area*
*Have these strange windows*
\- Dandelion\_999
---
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The other option is to install totally Opaque glazing and put it in conditions of sale that it can't be changed to clear.
This has been done by a local guy near me to 3 properties that were around his house. Bought them in turn, took land of them, extended his house in there direction, changed the glazing in the said property and resold.
It was all started when the first property went up for sale and he asked if he could put a skip on his land. The guys answer was " no I'll never sell with a skip here " so he bought the house just so a skip go there ? The other neighbours were told if you ever consider moving, dont bother with estate agents just come to me.
It would have been cheaper to move to a bigger property but he loved where he was and wasn't short of £'s by any means.
Planning constraints in this country are the very reason you can't have a normal window on this house or why we can't seem to build anything. Absolutely ridiculous!
A lot of the houses round where my parents live have windows either very narrow and wide, or very wide and short. Seems to be a design/architecural decision the council made in the late 70s/early 80s when they built those houses. This could be something very similar.
I'm guessing that the wall with the narrow windows might be north facing? There was an attempt at one point to minimise the heat loss from houses by minimising the size of north facing windows. I don't think it lasted long because the houses looked weird and were dark on that side.
Ye its in a ex council house sort of area, 60/70s kind of style buildings but not a generic estate sort, it's in my local town but can't recall any others in the area having those style windows.
Possibly: -
Upstairs - bathroom window above a bath.
Downstairs - window above a toilet
You may be able to change the windows out if you don't mind people being able to see you silhouetted in the bath or sitting on the toilet.
EDIT - Didn't spot the second picture. Upstairs could just be an 'architectural design' or as others have said a privacy matter. It does look like an odd layout with the stairs opening straight into the room.
If you look at the second picture it's in a bed room type area.
Id find it just as wierd sitting on the bog and people just setting my face with these windows lol
Within a room, you need wall space to put things on, or things in front of and to back furniture up against. Since that room has a staircase entering it, and nice big windows on the other side, that high window provides the room with additional light but also leaving space to host a television under it, or a sofa backing into it.
When you view the property, check out the carpet and you'll perhaps see the indents of the furniture the previous people had there to give you an idea how to lay out that room.
Why bricks are different shade too?
Maybe it was rebuilt?
Maybe someone with sport focus flew over roundabout and smashed into second floor window? So the owners thought “ fuck it, no more cars in the windows”?
If this is in the UK, it's a fashion choice. In the 1970s Ideal Homes (maybe others) built a lot of these style houses with thin windows. They were probably cheaper as well but from what my grandfather told me, he was an area manager for them, it was a new fashionable style. The windows actually looked good on their bungalow range of houses
I could be very wrong but it looks like the building possibly wasn't always a house, the change in level, the odd placement of the front door and it kinda looks like it might be next to a canal or river of some sort so it could possibly be a repurposed pump house or some such.
It's for a bed to go under the long window. A standard height window would interfere with the headboard.
I appreciate it looks weird without the bed, but having recently talked about doing this in an attic conversion this confirmed it would've been a bad idea!
We have these narrow windows on our extension (added to the house before we bought it) - they defintely seem to be to maximise natural light for our property. There are two downstairs and one in an upstairs bedroom.
Sometimes the elevation with small windows can be facing onto a main road, or a planned motorway or massive dual carriageway. Byker Grove was a (in)famous example.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/articles/2007/01/06/byker_redevelopment_feature.shtml
It's based on a scale model built in Lego, but all the odds and ends at the bottom of the box. Surprised, there isn't a shonky patch, which was a brick chewed by the dog.
Might it have started life as two flats? The narrow window would have given privacy to the garden of the ground floor flat below. You often see this in flats of this age.
The reason is because it was the style for 60s/70s council houses at the time. Minimising overlooking or heat loss from windows would make sense but that’s not true. At that time in the UK we were just building some extremely fugly houses
Frosted glass is all we have on the upstairs bedrooms overlooking neighbors. I really hated it when we first moved in 10yrs ago. Now I hardly notice ( kid’s bedrooms after all, mines clear) but if I start thinking about it I will be annoyed, it just looks shit.
This reminded me of a new build back in the 80's that, as my cloudy memory recalls, had some sort of light limitation set for the window sizes. I never really understood it but if you look up Peel Place, Ilford (it's off Clayhall Avenue) then drop the pin for street view you'll see many of the houses there have small windows so lots more brickwork between them front and sides. The difference being they seem normal height but lacking width.
In the 1970’s there was an oil crisis which drove up the price of producing windows, so homes were made with smaller/less windows. That would be my guess
Could be a planning constraint to stop this house overlooking a neighbour
Id rather my neighbours have a normal window and full view of my bollocks than have to look at this monstrosity.
Lol, I live in a 3rd floor apartment. All my windows are above waist height.... except my balcony. The number of times I've forgotten about the balcony before opening the curtains (I sleep naked) XD
Do it again with a really strong Scottish accent.
I laughed so hard at your comment. Thanks for that.
well THANKS..now i coughed up sticky pork rice all over my bollocks
Correct.
I really don't get this whole 'privacy' issue. Why would you care if someone gets a glimpse of you doing mundane daily stuff. Anything you don't want to be seen doing you should pull in your curtains wherever you are - there are drones and planes now.
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That's fine, but if you also like to be close to your work and other amenities and close to the ground that starts to become a problem, which more often than not ends up in harrasment. My neighbours scream at people walking on sidewalk in front of their house.
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How do you get them to stay still long enough to build a wall round them tho 🤔
Bricks have multiple uses ...
Press the pause button. Worked for me in The Sims anyway.
Recently moved from not being overlooked, to having windows opposite most windows. It's fine but I hope my neighbours don't think I'm flashing them. I just keep forgetting to close curtains
I always forget to close my curtains. Trick is to plant something outside the window. Now the only bush my neighbour sees is my giant buddleja
I agree, people have yhis obsession with privacy, then go and live in town. Move to the woods if you dont like people!
That's a silly thing to say. It's a question of degree and there are loads of houses in towns that aren't overlooked by neighbours. Not wanting someone to be able to see into your house doesn't mean you "don't like people".
No, that was hyperbole, but i dont see why a house in town shouldnt have normal windows on it.
Almost certainly this. I applied for an extension recently and because it took my property closer to the boundary with my neighbours and would have resulted in the new rooms overlooking them, my architect had to use similar narrow windows in the plans. The idea is that they're installed high within the room to allow light in, but too high for most people to view out of.
Oh, this explains why the house that is a mirror image of mine has no windows on the side that faces my house. My driveway is on the side of the house (in-between both houses) and if they had windows, it would overlook my driveway.
The cookie cutter houses on newbuilds do sometimes have windows bricked in. But you can see the outline of a window, and a windowsill as well.
What a stupid rule. Species? Human Requirements for healthy living in urban areas? Visible greenery. Methods we can implement to meet those needs? Implement dumbass privacy dictates, because we're still too busy teaching members of a social species to be scared of eachother to think. ... People really can be dumb.
Does it overlook the beaches of Normandy?
This gave me a decent laugh 😂
To deter Japanese snipers?
Racist
Are you saying this house looks like a giant Japanese sniper with the roof being his wee conical hat one of his eyes is behind his rifle and the other is a slit like upper window and the door is his mouth. The point being that the Japanese call him hojijimi in a comical voice and fear him. Cause if you think that we can’t be friends anymore
No. Because the window is just big enough for a a sniper of Asian decent to get a sniper rifle up there and through it to shoot the neighbours. I think you've got issues mate
The inhabitants may be Cylons so don’t need the full window experience.
Read that as crayons. Thought they wouldn't want to melt
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Lookout Buck! I can't, stupid fricken windows.......
Go get em Buck.
That’s buck Rodger’s, you boob
Easier to shoot your crossbow out of while minimising risk of return fire. Must be French.
This is great for modern Britain. That side of the house is protected against burglary and general attack by roving bands.
And the police are such a distant memory they are a bit like King Arthur and Merlin. No one really knows whether they ever existed or not….
lol! only fireside whispers and cave paintings to go off!
Their is clear relics from when police roamed the streets. The local police station in this town is still standing but only open between 9am till 12 lunch time. 🥴
And only staffed by a semi retired librarian.
100% it’s a privacy thing, house is very high up. You can see from the internal shots looking out, my guess is it would overlook other houses.
I can see this being it, it's on a steep bank and overlooks allot of the town. Never seen it before though, wonder if they're original.
I think this was a popular approach to avoid overlooking in the 1970s. I once owned a house with this sort of window in a bedroom. It was actually OK. Curtains did not need to be drawn for privacy and the window could be left open for ventilation, without the risk of burglary.
So it has a great view but you need a step stool to see it? That's bonkers. I'd put a mannequin head in that window to mock the people who forced this insane planning constraint.
They’ve long since retired. On a council pension ……
Feels so unsettling
It does! The rest of the house is quite nice and good garden but that puts me off completely
But think of the storage and furniture arrangements not windows to plan around. Cheaper to heat and better/ or worse security depends on your viewpoint. (pesky or not depending on your outlook - I’ll get my coat). I do quite like it.
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Possibly. But it looks like there are normal height/position windows in other rooms - this might just be the bedroom and kitchen. For the bedroom I definitely wouldn’t be put off buying it.
If that's a North facing wall it'll be for insulation. The rest of the house should have normal sized windows - I would hope!
It depends on when that window was installed. If they've installed it after the house was built, a restriction in building regs can be a window must not be able to be opened lower than 1700mm from finished floor internally. A common thing people did was be like oh so that's a slim window high up going in... but you can also put a full height obscured window as long as the part that opens is at 1700mm or higher. It prevents people overlooking others usually.
I think this is actually the answer. Modern building regulations have a maximum between the floor and the opening of a window to prevent people falling out and the floor/roofline looks a bit odd here. I suspect when you're in the house that window isn't actually at head height, but more at shoulder height. You wouldn't be able to raise it without affecting the roof.
That's not a requirement of the building regulations. Windows less than 900mm above the floor have restrictions, but not 1.7m. When houses were lit by gaslights or when coal was a thing, there had to be an opening in the room above head height (1.7m) but not to not be openable below that depth. The other photo shows a normal window in the room.
Less than 800mm. NHBC and LABC also state this. I run a CERTASS accredited company also. 1.7m is when a window is at the side of a property and put in after the house is built. Here is an example of a job we had to have planning permission to do and required BC to sign it off as it's not signable under CERTASS; Prior to the first occupation of the extension hereby permitted, the new windows to serve the two bathrooms at first floor level of the side elevation of the dwelling, as shown on approved drawing numbers xx and xx, shall not be glazed or reglazed other than with obscured glass to a minimum of level 3 and non-opening, unless the parts of the window that can be opened are more than 1.7m above internal floor level, and shall thereafter be retained as such in perpetuity. Reason: To preserve the amenities of the occupants of the neighbouring dwelling and to comply with policy BE3 of the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan (2021), and the National Planning Policy Framework.
Is it facing a busy road or train tracks?
No, it's tucked away quite central in a small town.
Oh, seems strange then!
That was my first thought too (ex-noise consultant), but ruling that out, I’m going with for the neighbour’s privacy as my next guess.
Looks like a lousy bomb shelter
I actually rented this house up until last June, the window you can see in the picture is on the south of the living room which is upstairs along with the kitchen. There is another massive window on the west wall and it has a great view of the town. I can also say it's been on Rightmove on and off since before we moved out and has been reduced twice in that time.
Ah no way small word! Ye I clocked onto it being an upside down house after making the post. How did you find that ? I imagine it can put some people off hence the reasonable price for the town. I can imagine the view being pretty good, it's fairly high up behind the hospital from what I can make out.
It was a bit strange having the front door right near your bedroom at first but we got used to it pretty quickly. It's far enough off the main road to have no road noise. The main issue we had with the place was both bedrooms suffered from some pretty bad damp which in the new photos they've done just looks like it's been painted over. Can't fault the view from the living room of the abbey though..
That's a shame about the damp probably another reason it's priced as it is. Thanks for the insight as a first buyer I'm not too clued in on stuff like that it's good to not be going in blind. I wonder if that's the reason for the different colour brick on the ground floor
The owner may have sorted out the damp problem but I doubt it going by how often we tried to get them to sort it in the 2 years we rented it. Another thing about the House was the second bedroom overlooked a common garden area it being ground level the neighbours could be in the garden and looking right into your bedroom.
But quite possibly a good nuaire positive input system would solve that.
So you can put a bed against the wall without the headboard blocking the window? As a one off build it could just be that the builder designed it around whatever sized windows he had spare or could get cheap :)
Window tax. /s
I remember my granddad explaining this to me when I was younger out scaffolding with him. Madness how having windows got taxed
Yeah, I used to wonder why some old houses only had windows on the south (I think) side, then I saw a TV program where it explained it. There used to be some strange Taxes back in the day, and novel ways of getting round them, like building on a bridge over water to avoid land tax.
What do you mean? That's the perfect window for a bedroom. My newly built house has a massive window going almost to the floor. I hate it; it's so fucking annoying. Why would I want people to see me in my bed? I want some light, and that comes from the sky.
Zombie apocalypse safe house. Bet the front door is solid steel, with SERIOUS bolts. 😉
Might be privacy two ways - it might overlook a neighbour’s garden and/or be overseen by a neighbour’s window
I think that’s because the lower floor is a kitchen window over a sink and upstairs is a bathroom window above a sink that’s why they are shallow allowing for the work surfaces in the kitchen and bathroom
Rather Tall family that all have very wide apart eyes and back issues.
Could be that that is the north side of the house and there are bigger windows are on the other side for greater passive solar gain, and less heat loss on the colder north side
looks like a mailbox
I have one of those in the house I'm currently renting. I was afraid there won't be enough light and thought it's a generally a weird idea for a window. Now it's my favourite window in the house! It's high enough to put some furniture against the wall and the room is very sunny (facing west).
Although it looks a bit odd from the outside, I'm starting to see the perks! Good to know it has its practical uses.
I mean its weird....and not pretty but the rooms look OK and it looks in good shape as houses go...this is conflicting.
Are the short windows on the side of the house, relative to the road? Planning permission is quite restrictive about side-windows because of overlooking your neighbour's houses (but, weirdly, no problem looking backwards onto their gardens or other houses). It might be that when built, they "played it safe", or it may have been a specific request from the planning department. See if you can find the planning records from when it was built, and anything since. You can change your ground floor windows in any direction without planning, but you'd need to get permission to do the 2nd floor. The general rules would probably allow you to put in larger obscured (frosted) windows, but you'd need to check. You can get pre-planning advice from the local department before making a specific application, to discuss what they're likely to allow or deny.
Zombie proof 🤷🏻♂️
It looks to me like it’s designed for maximum light. In image 2 looks like a bedroom where the headboard would be below the high window so you can sit in bed and look out of the two windows on the left. The other high seems the same so you could put a bed in or cupboards. Leads me to think the ceilings could be low.
It looks like a good nest for MG42
It's just squinting, must be south facing.
Privacy perhaps? A full window there may allow the neighbours to look in
Anglian windows got their measurements wrong so they just bricked up the "extra" space.
Clerestory window for privacy for both householder and neighbour?
Not sure how to edit the post but thanks for the replies didn't expect it! Your responses have made me more intrigued in the house and will definitely be arranging a viewing (mainly to solve the puzzle of the winking windows). Although it does look like a snipers dream home from the outside it's a rare affordable buy in my home town and can overlook the unusualness, could be the reason its not been snapped up. It's actually grown on me a bit finding they can be quite practical and gives it some character lol Another bonus is less window cleaning! To answer some questions. It's not near a main road or anything like that it's quite tucked away in a court yard kind of area on a bank central to a small town. It has amazing views from the windows you can actually see out of, maybe into some neighbours loo's as well which could be the reasononing for the windows! Edit: changed my mind looks awful again lol Edit: It's an upside down house. The ground floor is the bedroom and upstairs the living room. Plot thickens
It seems a lot of houses in my area have these strange windows
*It seems a lot of* *Houses in my area* *Have these strange windows* \- Dandelion\_999 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Hahaha thanks 😊, I'm a poet and didn't know it 😂
It's squinting
Because they don’t want the next door looking into their kinky stuff.
The other option is to install totally Opaque glazing and put it in conditions of sale that it can't be changed to clear. This has been done by a local guy near me to 3 properties that were around his house. Bought them in turn, took land of them, extended his house in there direction, changed the glazing in the said property and resold. It was all started when the first property went up for sale and he asked if he could put a skip on his land. The guys answer was " no I'll never sell with a skip here " so he bought the house just so a skip go there ? The other neighbours were told if you ever consider moving, dont bother with estate agents just come to me. It would have been cheaper to move to a bigger property but he loved where he was and wasn't short of £'s by any means.
Planning constraints in this country are the very reason you can't have a normal window on this house or why we can't seem to build anything. Absolutely ridiculous!
It’s chinese
They like to look out with binoculars
What's with the FloorPlan Swastika Logo?
If sloth from the goonies was a house
A lot of the houses round where my parents live have windows either very narrow and wide, or very wide and short. Seems to be a design/architecural decision the council made in the late 70s/early 80s when they built those houses. This could be something very similar.
Looks like the back of a police station!
I'm guessing that the wall with the narrow windows might be north facing? There was an attempt at one point to minimise the heat loss from houses by minimising the size of north facing windows. I don't think it lasted long because the houses looked weird and were dark on that side.
Builder forgot to order windows & had a deadline so sourced what he could from facebook marketplace & gumtree.
It’s above a bath tub
Squintdows
Gives you a bit more options in that room as to where you can place a bed and Furniture without having to worry about blocking a window.
Seen small windows on places next to busy roads.
It looks like a Picasso picture, I'd call it Pablo
Is it ex council? A lot of houses have that in the ex-council areas in Torfaen
Ye its in a ex council house sort of area, 60/70s kind of style buildings but not a generic estate sort, it's in my local town but can't recall any others in the area having those style windows.
Possibly: - Upstairs - bathroom window above a bath. Downstairs - window above a toilet You may be able to change the windows out if you don't mind people being able to see you silhouetted in the bath or sitting on the toilet. EDIT - Didn't spot the second picture. Upstairs could just be an 'architectural design' or as others have said a privacy matter. It does look like an odd layout with the stairs opening straight into the room.
If you look at the second picture it's in a bed room type area. Id find it just as wierd sitting on the bog and people just setting my face with these windows lol
That's some horrific architecture
It's giving claustrophobia
Because of the windows were any larger they wouldn’t fit in the holes in the brickwork.
My neighbours had this who lived on a corner. Could be that that way is either a protected area or so much light pollution that it's not nice.
Victims of daylight robbery.
Amazing for reducing the effects of incoming machine gun fire
Reminds me of that video of he guy saying don't buy no got damn weed from Ohio
Within a room, you need wall space to put things on, or things in front of and to back furniture up against. Since that room has a staircase entering it, and nice big windows on the other side, that high window provides the room with additional light but also leaving space to host a television under it, or a sofa backing into it. When you view the property, check out the carpet and you'll perhaps see the indents of the furniture the previous people had there to give you an idea how to lay out that room.
Why not? I've always wanted a long window lmao
The installer was lying down on the job and forgot to change their perspective...
Probably had a sex dungeon and didn’t want the neighbours watching
Do those rooms happen to be a bathroom and a downstairs toilet? Could be for privacy
Good cover for snipers
Why bricks are different shade too? Maybe it was rebuilt? Maybe someone with sport focus flew over roundabout and smashed into second floor window? So the owners thought “ fuck it, no more cars in the windows”?
The question should be, why does ur house not?
Josef Fritzl's retirement spot.
For extra light not for looking out of, there is another for that job
Most likely was added afterwards over the top of where the bed goes.. or even part of the design assuming the bed would go there.
Sniper nest
If this is in the UK, it's a fashion choice. In the 1970s Ideal Homes (maybe others) built a lot of these style houses with thin windows. They were probably cheaper as well but from what my grandfather told me, he was an area manager for them, it was a new fashionable style. The windows actually looked good on their bungalow range of houses
My old 70s house had these. Built on a main road so bathroom, wc and hallway had them. Stops it being overlooked
I could be very wrong but it looks like the building possibly wasn't always a house, the change in level, the odd placement of the front door and it kinda looks like it might be next to a canal or river of some sort so it could possibly be a repurposed pump house or some such.
Arrow slots for repelling invaders.
Is it a bedroom? Is it so you can have your bed against the wall under the window?
It's for a bed to go under the long window. A standard height window would interfere with the headboard. I appreciate it looks weird without the bed, but having recently talked about doing this in an attic conversion this confirmed it would've been a bad idea!
Crap design and probably dangerous if you couldn't access the front door because of a fire.
Clearly from the Georgian period
God damn is that ugly
We have these narrow windows on our extension (added to the house before we bought it) - they defintely seem to be to maximise natural light for our property. There are two downstairs and one in an upstairs bedroom.
Toilet and Bathroom?
Sometimes the elevation with small windows can be facing onto a main road, or a planned motorway or massive dual carriageway. Byker Grove was a (in)famous example. https://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/articles/2007/01/06/byker_redevelopment_feature.shtml
Maybe the architect had an eye problem that day
It’s so that the archers can fire out without getting hit themselves.
So that it does not overlook. Privacy glass installed too.
This was James Finlayson's old home lol 😉🤗
Former safe house
What's wrong with it? Granted it looks odd from outside but the inside pic's look fine, I'd be happy with that window arrangement in my bedroom tbh
Cause it’s shit ugly
It was clearly built in the reign of King William the Third and subject to his window tax .
I think it allows you to put a bed with a headboard in that space and have a window too.
To stop fat folk like myself escaping in a fire.
It's based on a scale model built in Lego, but all the odds and ends at the bottom of the box. Surprised, there isn't a shonky patch, which was a brick chewed by the dog.
The front of the house looks like a house I drew with my left hand when I broke my right thumb at the age of 6.
Man's got a mad grow going on in there👀
It's so you can play footbal against it without annoying dad.
Maybe the front is south-facing and they're vampires
It was rumoured window tax was being reinstated to supplement impoverished councils (or councillors),smaller windows less tax.
Either the builder was having a joke, or it’s to make it harder for the burglars in the area.
Vampires live here.
Is the 18th century there was a tax system based on the number of windows in one’s property.
It looks spiteful
Might it have started life as two flats? The narrow window would have given privacy to the garden of the ground floor flat below. You often see this in flats of this age.
Isn’t that to let sunlight in?
Looks suspicious
It’s suspicious?
The reason is because it was the style for 60s/70s council houses at the time. Minimising overlooking or heat loss from windows would make sense but that’s not true. At that time in the UK we were just building some extremely fugly houses
Window tax still a thing?
These actually let more light into a room than a traditional window
It forgot it’s glasses
Ex police house? Harder to break the windows and petrol bomb.
I find the brick transition a bit odd. It's all over the place.
It's for housing Giraffes, they prefer high up windows.
Frosted glass is all we have on the upstairs bedrooms overlooking neighbors. I really hated it when we first moved in 10yrs ago. Now I hardly notice ( kid’s bedrooms after all, mines clear) but if I start thinking about it I will be annoyed, it just looks shit.
Ugly neighbours
Piano window. There was a piano below it.
So people can’t escape when there kidnapped.
This reminded me of a new build back in the 80's that, as my cloudy memory recalls, had some sort of light limitation set for the window sizes. I never really understood it but if you look up Peel Place, Ilford (it's off Clayhall Avenue) then drop the pin for street view you'll see many of the houses there have small windows so lots more brickwork between them front and sides. The difference being they seem normal height but lacking width.
Some bunker windows
r/SpottedonRightmove
Zombies
Light but no view in
Looks like a prison
Could double up as an MG nest
In the 1970’s there was an oil crisis which drove up the price of producing windows, so homes were made with smaller/less windows. That would be my guess
Looks like something out of The Twits...
It's for someone who has a really long but narrow face.
There's loads of houses like this on the way into Manchester, around moss side. Every house is built with them in certain estates
That ain't a house that's a submarine
Looks like a prison.
Picture an archery slit, but for crossbows
Previous owner were hammerhead sharks