@Irving: The best way I can answer that is "no idea". I'm in the end-terrace for a row that go back about 100-odd years. I suspect they were built with the attics as habitable by design. Ours has actual stairs that look like they were meant to be there, and I note that all the other houses left from this row also have dormer windows - though ours were replaced with a bigger dormer at some point.

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I've stuck my reloading/"clean" bench there for the moment. Well, I say "for the moment", there's no flippin' way I'm moving it. All the benches are designed with no removal strategy other than 30 minutes with a chainsaw

@Jonathan: Oh if I could get away with it I would be entirely up for it :D

@Michael: I've identified which ring it is on and what sort of loads I expect on it, so I am quitely confident. Quite quietly. Whisper-like, perhaps. In fact you might need a medium with a ouija board to hear my confidence, but it's there.