File:5 Whichcote street, Waterloo.jpg

English: This house, in front of London's Waterloo station, seems to have been rather forgotten amid the development in Waterloo – not only have all the other houses in its street disappeared, but the street has gone too (the only remnant is an arched underpass into Waterloo station following the old street line – though it does feature on some maps).

Development hasn't been kind to it over the years – there's a busy railway viaduct slicing over the back garden, as well as a bus interchange to the left, a vast sixties multilevel roundabout in front, and some huge (and rather decrepit) office towers just off the photo to the right.

Meanwhile its foundations have also been nibbled away – the large drum at the left of the house is a ventilation shaft for the extension of the jubilee line, and a complex network of pedestrian subways leading from the centre of the roundabout to the station entrance weave just under the surface, following the route of the arches under the viaduct.

Yet surprisingly it survived all this comprehensive redevelopment. Maybe someone *very* stubborn lived there – it can't have been much fun, as the warren around Waterloo roundabout was notoriously dodgy and dangerous until the Imax cinema was built there about ten years ago ("cardboard city"), and the road used to be even more of a motorway than it is now. Or maybe it was so small and tucked away that no-one ever bothered to actually knock it down. Partly recognising this luck, it was listed at Grade II* in 1981 – here is an extract of its listing (the mention of "Graded partly for prominent island position" says it all).

Location: LAMBETH, GREATER LONDON
IoE number: 1081060
Date listed: 27 MAR 1981
WHICHCOTE STREET SE1 (south side) No 5
Listed Grade II

Early C19. Two-storey, 2-window cottage with sunk basement. Stock brick, parapet front. Gauged flat brick arches to sash windows with glazing bars in stucco-lined reveals. Boot-scraper in wall at right of 4-panel door with narrow pilasters, cornice head and blocked fanlight under round gauged brick arch. Graded partly for prominent island position.

I'm clearly not the only person who wondered how this place survived – there's more on this mysterious survivor here [1].