The quirkiest homes for sale in Britain, from a converted underground reservoir to a cavernous chapel on the sea

We love quirky and unusual homes — and so, it seems, do you. In the last couple of years, we've had all sorts. There was Magna Carta Island, an island on the Thames featuring the stone on which Magna Carta is said to have been sealed. We had an underground home in the Peak District that's somewhere in between a Hobbit house and a nuclear shelter. Then there was a Victorian sea fort that came up for auction with a guide price of £50,000 (it smashed its estimate, eventually going for £121,000). All that is to say nothing of pink granite chateau, the 1,000-year-old monastery, or the home of a 1970s rock legend which hadn't been decorated since he was last on Top of the Pops. And we can't forget the artist's home for sale in Suffolk that's a classic East Anglia cottage on the outside, and a wild fantasy of Bohemian genius with.

Many of us live in much more ordinary homes, but sometimes, a two-up, two-down simply won’t cut it.

For adventurous buyers with a taste for the unconventional, houses with intriguing forms, colourful back stories and plenty of quirks are more likely to fit the bill. Here's our pick of the best of them currently up for sale.

Isle of Wight — £1.65 million

Alexandra House is a blank canvas. The Grade II-listed building in the heart of the sailing paradise that is Cowes currently consists only of floors, walls, staircases and a new slate roof, as well as lapsed planning consent for four storeys of accommodation and an extension.

The approved designs use dramatic expanses of glazing to ensure uninterrupted views across the harbour and the spectacular Solent beyond. This, therefore, would be a project for the brave and the bold, but they would end up with an enviable home that not only has a direct water frontage, but also a sheltered deep-water pontoon berth.

As well as investing in a thrilling project, the new owners would be buying into a fascinating back story, for Alexandra House, built in 1831 as a Wesleyan chapel and decommissioned at the turn of the 20th century, became the workshop of renowned boat and aircraft builder Sam Saunders: it was here that Miss England, which won the World Motorboat Championship in 1929, was created.

For sale via Spence Willard — see more details and pictures.

East Sussex — £1.4 million

Curves bring softness and a sense of flow, and so it is with the very 21st-century The Roundhouse at Cross in Hand on the outskirts of Heathfield, where award-winning RX Architects have crafted a building with a facade of one lengthy sweeping curve. Some interior walls have gentle bends, too, and, also inside, a mass of raw materials, including polished concrete floors and exposed glulam beams, are employed to create a warm, tactile aesthetic.

The pièce de résistance in terms of space is the 39ft by 21ft kitchen/dining/family area, where parties wouldn’t be out of place and nor would quality family time. This room has access to a covered area — the perfect spot for external gatherings even in inclement weather.

The principal bedroom (one of four) has its own dressing room. The Roundhouse sits in just over an acre of biodiverse grounds that contain a truly quirky detached retreat: a restored 18th-century brick windmill base with a conical roof.

For sale via Strutt & Parker — see more details and pictures.

Northamptonshire — £650,000

The Old School House, which once rang with the clamour of children’s voices, is now a quiet place in which to pause, ponder and recharge. The lower ground floor houses the kitchen and a bedroom; the ground floor consists of a dining room, sitting room and a mezzanine study; and there are two further bedrooms on the first floor.

Dating from the early 19th century and Grade II-listed, this property adjacent to the village green in Badby (close to Daventry), boasts period features aplenty, from exposed timbers and stonework to diamond leaded windows.

Tall hedges lend a sense of privacy to the garden, which is mainly laid to lawn, although there are also flower and shrub borders and maturing trees.

For sale via Jackson-Stops — see more details and pictures.

Wiltshire — £1.5 million

In a former life, Ancliff Down, which is concealed and built into a hillside, was an underground water reservoir. ‘Its pioneering owners were ahead of the Grand Designs curve [and] skilfully and lovingly converted it in the late 1990s into the fun and distinctive family home it is today,’ says the agent, who also notes that this house with four reception spaces would benefit from a little updating.

Most rooms, including the three bedrooms, are on the ground floor, although the spacious living room, as well as a study area, are upstairs. The landscaped grounds that extend to about two acres would suit those who love to get up close and personal with Mother Nature. Access to the River Avon and the Kennet & Avon Canal is easy. Beautiful Bradford-On-Avon, with its shops and supermarkets, is only three miles away.

For sale via Savills — see more details and pictures.

Surrey — £1.25 million

No 79 High Street, Oxted, a swish, renovated five-bedroom family home, once had a very different existence, as T. Troughton London Stores — and indeed it is still known today as London Stores — a provincial department store that sold china, glass, ironmongery and bed linen. It also contained a grocer, draper and wine, spirit and beer merchant. The myriad people who browsed and shopped here may be long gone, but fascinating reminders of this early history remain, in the form of the staircase (which still rises through the centre of the property), as well as two of the original shop counters on the ground and first floors.

One of these is in the 30ft sitting/dining room, which also has exposed floorboards and a panelled ceiling and walls. Two double bedrooms on the first floor overlook the rear garden that, when this building was much newer, was occupied by stables that housed the horses who pulled the shop’s delivery carts.

For sale via John D. Wood — see more details and pictures.