American Block Redevelopment | 3 fl | U/C

[ijmorlan]

I assume that the building was subdivided many years ago.  I'm still puzzled, however, over the half painted window (third in, from Queen St).  I assume that window is entirely in one property or the other and not shared.

Just speculating: is it possible the main floor is subdivided where the paint colour changes, but the upstairs is either not subdivided or divided elsewhere?

There is an even stranger situation in Waterloo in the Crystal Palace at King St. S.:

https://goo.gl/maps/5BesSkzf8D2fsw7h6

The sign for the Crystal Palace appears to extend a short way into the next building, just enough to extend above the entrance door for the upstairs apartments. But if you go inside, indeed the Crystal Palace itself extends over — you can see the sloped ceiling under the stairs, and where you would expect the common wall between the buildings there is empty space (possibly some posts; I can’t remember exactly, although my recollection is actually that the posts are further from the wall then the common wall would have to be).

So it looks as if at some point the occupant of what is now the Crystal Palace needed a bit of extra space and the wall was moved to give it to them, by shrinking the space shown in the photo as being the Helen Anne Shop (I can’t remember if it is still there; I have a vague recollection it might have closed). I’ve seen quite old photos that show this strange renovation had already happened. It seems like a very expensive way to get an extra 2m.