MM/2026/012
10 September 2026

The architectural plans of Extraordinary House are unusually complete.

They include every principal room, staircase, landing, cupboard, chimney and service passage known to have existed. They also include two doors that were never built and a dumbwaiter that appears to have served no floor in particular.

They do not include the Grey Room.

References to the room appear throughout the House papers. Members were asked to wait there, dine there and, in one instance, avoid it until Thursday. Bills survive for its curtains, coal and the repair of a ceiling rose. No corresponding space can be identified on any plan.

Descriptions are consistent only in their disagreement.

One member recalled a narrow room overlooking the garden. Another described it as square, windowless and directly above the ballroom. A third claimed that it was below street level and contained an excellent view of the river.

The room’s furniture presents similar problems. It reportedly held a green sofa, a red writing desk and no furniture whatsoever. All three descriptions occur in documents dated the same afternoon.

In 1927, the House Surveyor was instructed to establish the Grey Room’s precise location. His report concluded that the room could not be found but showed unmistakable signs of recent use.

A second inspection discovered a door behind a tapestry on the first-floor landing. When opened, it revealed a shallow cupboard containing six chairs, an umbrella and a bell pull. The bell was tested. Somewhere else in the House, a bell rang.

No member admitted hearing it.

The Grey Room subsequently disappears from the administrative record, except for an annual charge for dusting that continued until 1964.

Extraordinary House makes no claim that the room existed.

It would, however, be premature to claim that it did not.