Inside the smallest shoe shop squeezing in customers

By Ed Chatterton via SWNS

Britain's smallest shoe shop has been squeezing in customers for the past 25 years despite being a tight fit - at just 3ft (0.9m) wide.

Peter Scott Shoes is based in the village of Woodhall Spa, Lincs., and is so tiny that you can touch both walls while standing in the same place on the shop floor.

At the equivalent width of around three size 11 shoes the business is one of the smallest stores in the country and could well be the narrowest in Britain.

The 169-year-old building used to be a booking office on the platform of the former railway station where trains ran from in the spa town between 1855-1954.

Following the lines closure, it became a number of stores including a funeral directors, bank, auctioneers and jewelers until it opened as a shoe shop in 1999.

Current owner Oliver Salter, 31, has owned the historic store for the last three years after buying it in September 2021.

Because of limited space, he can only store one pair per size in the shop and customers have to view the displays in single file.

Oliver reckons the capacity of the shop would probably be around 20 people -although they wouldn't be able to move and be shoulder to shoulder.

And workers only do three hour shifts at a time in either the morning or afternoon as there's no staff facilities on site.

Oliver, of Stixwould, Lincs.,said: "We were attracted to is quirkiness mainly - it is just so unique.

"My partner and I took it over three years ago thinking we might rent it out but the current owner who was retiring wanted it to remain a shoe shop.

"So we sat down and looked at the numbers and thought we could do this and I wanted a change from selling agricultural machinery.

"We have four staff who are semi-retired. They only do a morning or an afternoon shift as we don't really have facilities on site.

"They will do three hours or so and then go home.

"It's pretty much the shape of a cheese wedge. At it's very narrowest you could probably say its as small as 2ft wide.

"It's quite unusual to have a shop where you can put your hands on both the front and back walls.

"By knowing representatives of various companies in the industry we're confident to say that we are the smallest shoe shop in Britain.

"There may be smaller shops in general out there but I can't imagine many as are narrow as this either."

The 30ft (9m) long building has also been a funeral directors, a general store, a property lettings agent, an electrical store, a bank, an auctioneers and a jewellers.

Oliver added: "It has been a shoe shop since 1999 but it has had many incarnations as various shops over the years.

"We've looked into the history of the place and we think the widest part of the wedge is where the booking office would have been for the old railway station.

"The line passed by it diagonally, hence the wedge shape. It's a historic building and really unique.

"You can probably fit around 20 people in at the same time - but it would be pretty crammed and you couldn't move.

"People come and take photos of the place and if you get a coachload of visitors, the store can fill up pretty quick.

"We only display one size of each shoe at a time because of the lack of room. My garage at home is absolutely full of shoes.

"In the summer, you sort of have to sacrifice slippers to display flip-flops and sandals and then vice-versa in the winter.

"We stock everything really from shoes, trainers, slippers and sandals - you have to move with the fashions too.

"A lot of women seem to like smart, stylish and comfy trainers these days over traditional high-heels, so you need to know what to put out when there's not loads of space.

"We stock Rieker, Hotter, Lotus, Sketchers, Jana, Wald Laufer, Gabor and lots more we also go to a lot of country shows too.

"We've changed things a little bit but not too much as the shop did well beforehand under its previous owner.

"We've added new lines and brands along the way but still try and stick to our core customers, while trying to entice some others."