At first glance, the building looks like you would have to be two-dimensional to live there.
The block of flats at 28-32 New Station Road in Fishponds is one of Bristol’s unsung optical oddities.
My editor’s interest was piqued when she saw a picture on social media of just how, well, slim it looked – almost as if it were just a facade.
Ordered to investigate, I took a closer inspection of the three-storey property, which contains five flats.
Its frontage of pebbledash and stone is connected, on its left side, with a low brick wall, above which you can see the side wall of the building.
And that stone-brick gable end is bafflingly narrow, just a couple of feet in width.
It is only when you view the property from a few different angles that you see it has an almost triangular shape, with the frontage and red-brick back wall tapering down to the narrow side.
The other gable end is far wider, and unlike its counterpart, not an at all jarring sight.
Who lives there?
When I knocked on the door to find out who lived in the quirky bit of architecture, 59-year-old Andy Watson answered.
He told me he had rented a flat in the building for 19 years, but only noticed the strange perspective about three years ago, when his brother visited and pointed it out.
Mr Watson said: “The thing is I rarely walk from that direction – I usually come from the other side, from Fishponds Road.
“My brother found it quite amusing because it’s a weird shape. I was a bit annoyed with myself for not noticing it, because it’s part of where I live.
“I have noticed that kind of architecture elsewhere in Bristol. The corners of some streets are very narrow.
“I have seen a few like that in Easton. Ironically, the only one I didn’t see, at least not for a long time, was the one where I live.”
Inside the building
Mr Watson’s own flat is not in the really thin bit of the block. Showing me in, he reveals a utility room containing four washing machines for the tenants.
This room, while narrow, does not go all the way to the side wall – a door is in the way.
It is impossible to overstate how disappointed I was when Mr Watson said: “The landlord’s had the door locked for a couple of weeks. I don’t know why.”
Mr Watson informed me the door leads to a tiny lavatory but, in a hammer blow to my journalistic curiosity, not one I was to see with my own eyes.
“I think a business selling spare parts might have been in this building before they turned it into flats,” Mr Watson said.
Asked if he enjoys living in the property, he replied: “You are spoiled for shops in Fishponds, and the bus service is excellent.
“But I’m planning on leaving this year. It will save me having to clean my dirty room.
“I want to move somewhere I’m not allowed to smoke inside. I do it far too much here.”
Today’s top stories
For the latest news in and around Bristol, visit and bookmark Bristol Live’s homepage.
You can follow us on Twitter here and on Facebook here and here.
You can also join our traffic and travel,crime and parenting Facebook groups.