Well.....what a surpise I had

Browsing though some blogs the other day I came across Susan's Mini Homes

Susan was asking about a house she had purchased from a thrift store called the Stockbroker Tudor dollhouse and was asking if anyone knew of this house and it's history.

Well, you can imagine the shock I had when I saw the photo and realized that this was the house I grew up in back in Birmingham,England.

After, getting over my initial shock I started to read the description and look at the interior photos.

Not only was the exterior identical but also the interior. The layout, the alcoves in the living room, the tiny kitchen and third bedroom and even the coal cellar under the stairs.

I'll admit it was a rather spooky experience....I've not thought of this house in years and all of a sudden there was.... an exact 12th scale replica of it right in front of my eyes.

Mick and I literally grew up around the corner from each other so he is familiar with the house as well. When I showed him he was amazed. I even called my Mom in England to tell her to go look at Susan's blog.

I have permission from Susan to repost her photos here and went onto google street view to get pictures of my house. Unfortunately I have none of the interior of my house but trust me when I say it was identical to this dollhouse.

My old house has been renovated a lot since I lived there. They have added a porch, new windows and an extension so I scooted down the street to find a photo of the same style house that had been altered less.

This is the front of Susan's dollhouse.

This is the real house.

How strange is that huh !

My 'real' house had the more squared bay windows and the curved brick on the porch entryway but as I mentioned, my house has changed too much to see it as it was then.

The 6 small windows at the top of the bays opened and were originally stained glass.

Susan mentions how tiny the third bedroom was...and it was indeed...this was my bedroom. As the eldest I got my own room and my brothers had to share the larger back bedroom. The box room, as it was known, was probably little more than 8ft squared .

Susan also mentioned a small cupboard under the stairs, with no access from inside the house. This 'cubbyhole' as we called it, with it's outside door was where the coal was kept.

Once we moved onto gas fires, many people, including my parents, added an interior door to this cupboard as well. It was where we kept the vacuum, coats etc. It was also a great place for sneaking in and out place as we still had the outside door :-) You can see it was a decent size.



The living room would have originally been 2 rooms separated by a solid wall. Each room having it's own fireplace and alcoves.

It was common for people to knock these 2 rooms though into one larger room as is shown here.

Originally there would have been a door at the front right of the picture that led into the hallway and opened just in front of the kitchen.

You can see the bookcase in the center alcove. When this was still 2 rooms the alcove would have been half this size and half was in each room. Once knocked through it was common for people to build bookshelves into it. Even down to the 1970's style sliding bottom doors and teak wood color.


The small inset porch had small alcove either side...this would be where the milkman left the milk, eggs and butter and the pop man left the pop.

Many people have now either added modern porches or added doors.

The step was made from red brick just like this is and one of the earliest chores I remember having was polishing this step with something similar to shoe polish...obviously some kind of red wax.



This is the back of the house.


The small window on the top right was my bedroom.

My brothers room was the larger upstairs window.

The bathroom was the other small room at the front of the house.

The lower right is the kitchen and the lower left was the dining room. This had windows and a central opening French door.

So.... how about that then. How would you feel if you saw a dollhouse that was the replica of your childhood home ? I have to confess it was rather a strange feeling.

If anyone knows anything about this house please let us know. I am convinced that, although it was found in a thrift store in Canada, it came from England originally. Who knows, perhaps someone had a woodworker for a Grandad like I did and he built this for one if his grandchildren. Wouldn't it be fascinating to find out the history and where it came from.

Susan, you are one very lucky lady, I would give anything to have this house but I know it is unlikely I'll ever find one. If you would like to see more homes of this style, go to Google maps, look up Jayshaw Avenue, Great Barr, Birmingham B43 and go to street view. You can meander up and down the street and see more.


Thanks so much for sharing Susan and for kindly allowing me to post about it over here.