The history of the Crooked House of Windsor begins in 1592 with the construction of the ‘Market Cross House ‘ on the edge of Windsor’s market square.
In 1687 the council ordered the building to be torn down in order to make room for the neighboring Guildhall . What followed next was some primetime seventeenth-century legal drama over land rights, in which the council was rebuked for destroying Market Cross House, and ordered to rebuild it just the way it was. To rebuild it as quickly and as cheaply as possible, was the decision that gave the Crooked House its famed lean. Building with unseasoned green oak, rather than a sturdier wood, meant that once the wood dried out, it buckled rather noticeably, and hardened into the shape you see today.
The Crooked House of Windsor has been a butcher’s shop, a brewery, and an antique shop.
