For sale: unusual property. Must like concrete

LONDON (AFP) - It could best be described as compact, but how many other potential homes are impervious to machine gun fire?

In one of the more unusual property sales seen for some time, a World War II pillbox on a picturesque island in southwest England is being auctioned for use as a home, reports said on Friday.

The 1940-built structure on Burgh Island, Devon, has only one room, but it does boast 17-inch (43-centimetre) thick concrete walls and is located on the shoreline, giving fine views of an adjoining bay.

The setting is "unrivalled" for a summer barbecue, according to the auctioneers, who have set a guide price of around 70,000 pounds (100,000 euros, 125,000 dollars) for the sale.

Used until recently as a local fisherman's summer retreat, the pillbox has electricity and water piped into its single bedroom-cum-kitchen, as well as what the auctioneers describe as "glazed machine gun slit windows to three sides".

"The property is certainly not the sort of thing we come across very often. But that's part of its charm and it is surprisingly cosy," Neil Yeoman of auction house Bradleys told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

For those who find cosy becoming claustrophobic, the island boasts a famous Art Deco hotel and is only a short walk to the mainland at low tide.

Thousands of concrete pillboxes were built around Britain's coastline in the early part of World War II as a defensive shield against possible German invasion, and many survive.

link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040827/323/f1bw9.html