Ever fancied living in a $4.1 million townhouse on a charming historic street in Spitalfields, rent-free? We know it sounds too good to be true, but every few years, this dream becomes a reality for one lucky flatseeker on London’s biggest flatshare website, SpareRoom, as its founder lists his very own home on the site.

While Hunt’s last listing closed in October of 2024, it may only be a matter of time before he’s seeking a new roommate, so why not take a look around?

Click or scroll to step inside Hunt’s spectacular Grade II-listed home…

While renting in London has certainly developed a reputation as an impenetrable morass of steep prices, confusing legalities and demanding landlords, there is one site which aims to help connect flat-seekers with their ideal home as painlessly as possible: SpareRoom.

The UK’s biggest flatshare website, SpareRoom, was launched in 2004 by Rupert Hunt (pictured) as a solution to London’s chronic flatmate-hunting problem.

The website’s goal is to help people find a living situation that matches their specifications through an easily navigable, refinable and trustworthy tool.

From a credit card-funded whim in his parents’ spider-riddled back garden shed, SpareRoom spiralled into a huge success, featured on TV and radio stations, written up in newspaper articles, and receiving two million visitors every month.

More than 20 years later, the site remains strong and has been the starting point for countless friendships and even relationships. It is perhaps not so surprising, therefore, that its creator found himself, after separating from his wife in 2013, turning to SpareRoom to seek out a flatmate…

Hunt is fortunate enough to own a Grade II-listed townhouse in one of East London’s trendiest neighborhoods: Spitalfields.

The home is in the heart of the neighborhood, as close to Old Spitalfields Market as it is possible to be without actually being a vending stall, and within a stone’s throw of the iconic Brick Lane.

The 300-year-old, six-bedroom townhouse is packed with character and charm, all of which would cost you about $4.1 million, were it ever to be placed on the market.

Fortunately, Hunt offers a much more affordable scheme to the lucky individual who applies to be and is accepted as his housemate.

While the average rent for a room in the area will set you back approximately $1,704 a month, according to SpareRoom itself, Hunt regularly offers up his home on a “pay what you can” scheme.

“Some of my previous housemates haven’t paid at all to live here, and one or two have paid full market rent. Most are somewhere in between,” he told British newspaper The Standard.

Ever since Hunt and his wife separated in 2013, the founder has been using his own website to source a constant supply of flatmates, arguing that living with the right people beats living alone any day.

In the past decade, Hunt has shared the townhouse with 14 different flatmates, ranging in age from 21 to 51, most of whom have opted to pay something between the market value of the property and, well, nothing at all.

Hunt, 49, explained that he does this because “rents have become so expensive and I’m keen to find someone who fits the house, not just someone who can afford the rent.”

In his most recent advertisement in October of 2024, Hunt requested that candidates submit a video of themselves describing what they were looking for and what makes them a great flatmate.

“I’m looking for someone I’ll genuinely get on with,” Hunt explained. The last time he posted the SpareRoom listing, he received more than 7,000 applications.

It’s not hard to see why. Not only is the townhouse a dream in terms of both its affordability and its ultra-hip location, but the home itself is stunning inside.

Worthy of an Architectural Digest spread, the artfully decorated space boasts original hardwood and flagstone floors, panelled walls and sash windows.

Flatmates will have access to the kitchen, equipped with an Aga, the lounge, complete with its original fireplace and slightly more contemporary disco lamp, and a cinema room.

In fact, it becomes somewhat difficult to qualify the types of rooms, what with the many variations of living spaces scattered across the slightly haphazard stories, a few steps up here and down there, a doorway halfway up a wall, an odd corner or a seemingly purposeless space.

Mysterious, curios fill every room, from a row of top hats suspended on staffs to a collection of bell jars containing anatomical models, even a large, seemingly random egg.

As if to further illustrate this melange of unusual spaces with unfixed purposes, enter the garden room, which is to say, a room next to the small garden, pictured here.

The room currently boasts a large sculpture originally intended for the garden itself, but upon its arrival was left in the middle of the room by the delivery men, and was too heavy to move further, so there it now lives, adding a further touch of slightly eerie whimsy to the home’s living spaces.

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Other bonus spaces include a cinema room and the elegantly appointed ‘band room,’ where Hunt, a self-professed “frustrated” musician, keeps a drum kit, upright bass and grand piano, which he encourages flatmates to share.

Packed with plants, eclectic art, antiques and other period curiosities throughout, the house has a madcap yet highly curated air of decaying charm, with perhaps a hint of Dickensian haunted house.

We can certainly understand why Hunt wouldn’t want to rattle around there alone…

The property also includes a particular bonus for any London home, a leafy outdoor terrace easily accessible from the downstairs bedroom, the very one which is available to rent.

The ‘room’ is actually more of an entire private floor, including a bedroom, an ensuite and an adjacent room which could be turned into a home office, gym or private lounge.

Talk about value for money, especially when you’re determining that value yourself!

Pictured here, the bedroom is spacious and comfortably furnished, with an original flagstone floor, plenty of storage space and a large mirror fitted into its stone walls, making the space feel even larger and brighter than it is.

Not that space is in short supply, with the adjoining anteroom and set of French doors leading out onto the patio. Through the other set of doors is the ensuite, which boasts its own freestanding, rolltop bathtub.

New arrivals will have to put up with sharing the space with one other flatmate in addition to Hunt, a “ridiculously cute” Scottish Fold cat, Boo, who reportedly gets a vote in whomever Hunt selects to share their space.

In fact, in his recent posting, Hunt was seeking someone who worked from home a good bit, enabling them to take on responsibility for Boo while Hunt himself is away on one of his frequent business trips.

However, Boo isn’t the only furry friend new flatmates will have to contend with. An older version of Hunt’s SpareRoom listing warns that he currently shares the flat with “a small mouse, a bear, two peacocks (and various other birds and animals)” – quite the menagerie. 

However, “all except the mouse are stuffed,” he hastened to add, and the bear at least, pictured here, certainly adds a touch of festive whimsy to the décor, if you don’t mind a bit of taxidermy.

As far as how Hunt decides with whom he’d like to share his home, he’s no different to any other London flatmate seeker. “The truth is I’ll do what everyone else does in this situation,” he told The Standard. “I’ll meet a few people I think might be good and I’ll see who I click with.”

For Hunt, finding the right fit is more important than the money. “I’m lucky enough to live in one of the more expensive parts of London, but I don’t want to limit my search to people who can afford the rent,” he says.

There are actually two rooms in the flat which Hunt has previously opened up to SpareRoom renters, though the second story ensuite, pictured here, has often been filled by a rotating cast of family members, friends and even friends of friends.

While the secondary bedroom doesn’t offer the same amount of space as the downstairs apartment, it does boast some nifty architectural features, including a shower hidden within a latched cabinet, and a view into the neighboring house, which frequently gets used as a film set.

In fact, the entire street where Hunt’s townhouse sits, easily viewed from the building’s rooftop terrace, is often used as a filming location.

Atmospherically twisty and lined with plenty more period townhouses, the street immediately takes you back in time and has been used for scenes in both Woman in Black and Suffragette.

Perched high above the pavement, you might be able to sit back and watch a crew set the stage for whatever period drama inevitably films here next!

Of course, such an old house comes with its drawbacks. The plumbing is tired, the fixtures out of date. In the winter, the hallways get cold and drafty, and, perhaps most shocking of all to a millennial flat-seeker, at least as of 2016, there was no television.

As for sharing the home with Hunt himself? Well, “even if this is the house of your dreams I might be your flatmate from hell,” says the SpareRoom founder, self-deprecatingly.

However, Hunt tempers this by clarifying that he himself has never had a bad flatmate experience. That’s why he puts so much time and care into the selection process, and why he removes the limiting factor of affordability, he explains.

More than that, Hunt hopes his story might inspire others to do the same thing. “There are 26 million empty rooms in owner occupied houses - encouraging more people to rent theirs out would really help the housing crisis. More rooms means lower rents, which has to be a good thing.”

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