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The paranormal
Original poster

Strange hidden bedroom

30 replies

EmeraldSpo · 21/03/2023 22:16

I've only recently discovered this topic board and realised I may have something of interest to share here... I'd love some ideas from others about this room.

Back 12 years ago as a teenager my friend moved into a detached four bed house with her mother and siblings. The house was unusual in layout and design. Things like a bathroom the size of a double bedroom, sinks in the bedrooms, unique windows and glass partitions etc. It's not a massively old town so the house can't be any older than 1920's. I always felt a bit unsettled there and didn't like to be left in a room alone.

A few weeks after moving there my friends younger brother went up into the loft when playing with his brother and discovered a furnished room up there. On a visit my friend took me up there to have a look around.

The loft was furnished like an old fashioned young girls bedroom - think floral wallpaper, pink carpet, chest of drawers and a bed made with frilly bedding. The loft also had a small crawlspace for storage that ran around it, but there was nothing unusual or to note inside. But the room felt "off". We couldn't spend long up there as we were both so creeped out.

My friend's brother was the first to discover this room and at about 10 years old was too young to have set it up. My friend swears the bed was made perfectly and it looked like someone had lived up there. The thing is, the only way up there was by a hatch with a steep ladder. You would have to let the ladder down when going up and then have someone help you push it back up once up there. There was no toilet or windows... I can't see how this could have been a child's bedroom. Plus the house was pretty big, so unlikely a family would be so tight for space they'd put someone in the loft!

So it's been bothering me ever since... why was there a bed up there? My friend no longer lives there and there haven't been any estate agent listings for the house since they moved so I do any digging that way.

I know nobody will know, but it would be fun to speculate

OP posts:
SunshineGeorgie · 21/03/2023 22:19

So how did they get a chest of drawers and bed through the loft hatch?

Wisteriaroundthedoor · 21/03/2023 22:22

SunshineGeorgie · 21/03/2023 22:19

So how did they get a chest of drawers and bed through the loft hatch?

must have determinedly flat packed it 😂

so op your question is what is the purpose of an additional bedroom, it is for someone to sleep in.

watcherintherye · 21/03/2023 22:22

SunshineGeorgie · 21/03/2023 22:19

So how did they get a chest of drawers and bed through the loft hatch?

They must have been dismantled, then reconstructed in the loft.

SunshineGeorgie · 21/03/2023 22:23

Is the furniture flat pack type?

Doesn't sound that odd to me

PrincessToad · 21/03/2023 22:24

Have you got a link to the house so we can see it?

Original poster
EmeraldSpo · 21/03/2023 22:24

I didn't think about how they'd get furniture up, but yes probably assembled it up there 😂

Well if course, to sleep! It just seemed very awkward as a bedroom. The place didn't come furnished when they moved in apart from the loft.

I do realise I sound a bit nuts now asking what the purpose of a room with a bed is 😂

OP posts:
ShirleyPhallus · 21/03/2023 22:25

There is a book with basically this premise. It’s a bedroom for the nanny but when she starts, but she has an affair with the husband and it turns out he is a psycho and keeps her locked up there

Kerfuffler · 21/03/2023 22:25

Yep, doesn't sound like anything hugely weird (other than probably totally contraventing safety regs).

Original poster
EmeraldSpo · 21/03/2023 22:31

Nope no photos of the house anywhere from what I've been able to find. The furniture was old so not likely to be Ikea flat pack 😁

@ShirleyPhallus you see my warped mind has always gone to someone being hidden up there

OP posts:
Kerfuffler · 21/03/2023 22:33

It'd be a right pain in the arse to sort out meals/drinks/loo with someone trapped in the loft with just a ladder and a hatch for access.
I'd assume somewhere like that would have a cellar, which would be far more practical.

Agapornis · 21/03/2023 22:42

Have you read/watched Mansfield Park? Fanny Price gets a room in the attic.

Other option is a Jane Eyre wife in the attic scenario.

Wink
MonumentalLentil · 21/03/2023 22:42

EmeraldSpo · 21/03/2023 22:24

I didn't think about how they'd get furniture up, but yes probably assembled it up there 😂

Well if course, to sleep! It just seemed very awkward as a bedroom. The place didn't come furnished when they moved in apart from the loft.

I do realise I sound a bit nuts now asking what the purpose of a room with a bed is 😂

Campaign furniture.
It folded up/was disassembled for transporting during military campaigns. I have a campaign chair, it folds like a deckchair but is a good strong piece of furniture. There were all kinds of pieces, chests of drawers etc.

Theunamedcat · 21/03/2023 22:48

Family secret? Children with down syndrome were regularly "hidden" not neglected as such but considered a family "shame" so put out of sight for guests

Yes its wrong yes I've seen it happen

Saschka · 21/03/2023 22:52

This sounds like the plot of the Biff, Chip and Kipper books. OP, if a tree blows down in your garden, and you find a chest under the roots containing a glowing key, for goodness sake steer clear of it.

Kerfuffler · 21/03/2023 22:53

What did her mum say about it?

NCGrandParent · 21/03/2023 22:55

My grandfather had a bedroom in the attic that me and my sibling would sleep in when we stayed with him. There was a spare room in the main part of the house but I think he thought it was fun. It was!

MaryKateDanaher · 21/03/2023 23:02

Mildly outing but a former friend of mine who was a letting agent found something like this in a house they were arranging to let. The room was only accessible via a loft hatch. Very weird and there seemed no explanation as to why it was like that.

PuttingDownRoots · 21/03/2023 23:11

My cousin had an attic bedroom. But it was a 2 bedroom house... he grew out of sharing with his brother so made a bedroom in the attic.

But families could be a lot bigger in the past... its very well saying four bedrooms but if there was 8 kids...

Jemandthehologramsunite · 21/03/2023 23:17

Ever read the book 'Flowers in the Attic' ... 😬

ComtesseDeSpair · 21/03/2023 23:22

My parents used to have a den for us kids in the hatch-accessed attic, before the times of fire safety education clearly. The furniture has since been mostly dismantled but there’s still the old decor, carpet, curtains, a load of toys and an old cabin bed they couldn’t be arsed to dismantle and shove back through the hatch again and which is our job to curse over when they eventually shuffle off this mortal coil.

I’d never thought it that odd but suppose anyone buying the house might.

Strawberries2023 · 22/03/2023 00:13

Why was there crawl space around it? To hide someone?

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 22/03/2023 07:43

We viewed a couple of houses with attic bedrooms like that, accessed by a loft ladder. It's a cheap way of creating an extra bedroom for an older child.

MontagueLeo · 29/03/2023 21:13

Servant’s accommodation?

Chocolateydrink · 29/03/2023 21:19

What's weird is that it was left by the previous owners and the OP's friend's parents hadn't set it up.

OP you are still very young. When you say it was old fashioned do you mean e.g. 1980s or 1940s?

twolilacs · 29/03/2023 21:44

Strawberries2023 · 22/03/2023 00:13

Why was there crawl space around it? To hide someone?

I think a 'crawl space' is just a descriptive term for the narrow boarded-up areas that go all around the edge of an attic room with a sloping ceiling. Sil has one in her flat. They usually have a little low-down door or hatch in them, and people store stuff inside. Otherwise it would be a waste of usable space.