Garret

---

title: "Garret" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["military-terminology", "rooms"] description: "Small attic used as apartment" topic_path: "history/military" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garret" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Small attic used as apartment ::

::callout[type=note] a habitable attic ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Joseph_Mallord_William_Turner_(1775-1851)_-The_Garreteer's_Petition-N00482-_National_Gallery.jpg" caption="Turner]], 1809"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Carl_Spitzweg_-Der_arme_Poet(Neue_Pinakothek).jpg" caption="Der arme Poet}}), 1839, depicting a garret room"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Place-saint-georges.jpg" caption="Place Saint-Georges in Paris, showing top-floor garret windows"] ::

A garret is a habitable attic, a living space at the top of a house or larger residential building, traditionally small with sloping ceilings. In the days before elevators this was the least prestigious position in a building, at the very top of the stairs.

Etymology

The word entered Middle English through Old French with a military connotation of watchtower, garrison or billet a place for guards or soldiers to be quartered in a house. Like garrison, it comes from an Old French word garir of ultimately Germanic origin meaning "to provide" or "defend".

History

In the later 19th century, garrets became one of the defining features of Second Empire architecture in Paris, France, where large buildings were stratified socially between different floors. As the number of stairs to climb increased, the social status decreased. Garrets were often internal elements of the mansard roof, with skylights or dormer windows.

A "bow garret" is a two-story "outhouse" situated at the back of a typical terraced house often used in Lancashire for the hat industry in pre-mechanised days. "Bowing" was the name given to the technique of cleaning up animal (e.g. rabbit) fur in the early stages of preparation for turning it into hats. What is now believed to be the last bow garret in existence (in Denton, Greater Manchester) is now a listed building in order to preserve this historical relic.

References

References

1. (2009). "Oxford Dictionary of English". Oxford University Press.
2. "Mansard roof {{!}} architecture".
3. [http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/two-storey-planking-shop-bow-garret-6857125 Denton bow garret becomes listed building] {{Webarchive. link. (2014-03-28 , Manchester Evening News.)

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::