The smallest house in Amsterdam

Singel 7
Hi, I'm Mary Thomas, your guide for today. You are now standing in front of the smallest house in Amsterdam. Can you see it? It's at number 7. But first let me tell you about this canal. It's called the Singel canal.
In 1480, this canal was dug to encircle medieval Amsterdam. About a hundred years later, the city was expanded beyond this moat to create more room to build houses. The first part of the Herengracht, the canal behind the houses to the west, was dug in 1585. However, an economic crisis thwarted the sale of building plots along the new quayside and the entire project was badly delayed.
During the Dutch Golden Age, the quayside finally became prime real estate for the up-and-coming merchant elite who, in their attempts to outdo their neighbors and other aristocrats, filled this street with one grand house after another. The only problem was the taxes; the broader your facade, the higher the tax on your house. Yet, this did not stop the merchants from building their grand houses and it was this extra income for the city council that financed the construction of the famous canal ring that we see today.
The narrowest facade in Amsterdam is located right here at Singel 7 and measures just over one meter wide. A standard door is about 90 centimeters, so that does not leave room for much else. Once you step inside, however, this small house gradually increases to a more comfortable width of around three meters. This strangely expanding house was not a construction error, but an early form of tax evasion! The owner built his facade to be as narrow as possible to reduce the amount of tax he had to pay, and although the house behind it was larger, he only had to pay tax on the frontage.