Snape and Spinners End house.

[wynnleaf]

No: HPFGUIDX 167352

 <katmandu2007 at ...> wrote:
>
> I'm just curious.  Is there any evidence that the house on
> Spinners End is the house Snape grew up in?  Or that Snape
> even owns it?  I know Bellatrix uses the phrase "lives here"
> and Wormtail says "your house", but I know of people who use
> both phrases even when renting over a summer.  Maybe he
> snitched it, like Slughorn does? It doesn't seem to be an
> overly "ordinary" house with a hidden doorway with a
> mysterious narrow staircase.  Then another hidden doorway??
> ---sheesh, English homes are so much more interesting than
> American homes!
>
wynnleaf
First, I think we should assume that the direct statements that 
people make about the house are likely to be true.  Since Peter 
calls it Snape's house and Bella says Snape lives there, it is 
probably his house.

But was it the house where he grew up in?

The house has an air of neglect and appears that no one regularly 
lives there.  This does not seem to me like someone's summer home, 
as most people keep up their summer/vacation home.  Therefore it's 
unlikely to be a house Snape uses a lot.  We know he has stayed at 
Hogwarts for some holidays.  Further, the books are high quality -- 
leather bound -- yet left in a house that is neglected.  If the 
books are Snape's personal collection, and he bought high quality 
books, why would he put them in a house that he was neglecting?  In 
other words, if he cared enough to buy quality books, why not take 
care of them?  Further, the furniture is worn, which also speaks of 
long use, yet with the "air of neglect" seeming as though Snape 
isn't there often, then how did the furniture get so much use?

>From several essays by people in the UK, the house is apparently a 
common style in mill towns -- a two-up-two-down, in which the house 
is either two rooms wide above and below, or (as is more likely in 
this case) two rooms deep with the front door entering into the 
middle of the front room downstairs and the kitchen behind it.  You 
might want to check out some of the essays on this subject.  I could 
link you to one, if you like.  Apparently some people who are 
familiar with the mill towns of Northern England think it looks like 
that's the kind of town where Spinner's End is located.

Add to that, the notion that some readers have that Snape is a 
northerner, and it would make sense that his childhood home was in a 
quintessentially northern town, and his house be a typical older 
mill town house.

wynnleaf