Point of Interest Dossier: Arthur Dent's HouseCopy Anchor Link

"The house stood on a slight rise just on the edge of the village. It stood on its own and looked out over a broad spread of West Country farmland. Not a remarkable house by any means — it was about thirty years old, squattish, squarish, made of brick, and had four windows set in the front of a size and proportion which more or less exactly failed to please the eye.

The only person for whom the house was in any way special was Arthur Dent, and that was only because it happened to be the one he lived in. He had lived in it for about three years, ever since he had moved out of London because it made him nervous and irritable."

— The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Chapter 1

Location & Architectural OverviewCopy Anchor Link

Located on a slight rise on the edge of the village in the English West Country on planet Earth (Sol III), this unpretentious domestic residence achieved singular historical notoriety during the final two hours of terrestrial history.

On Wednesday night it had rained very heavily, leaving the lane wet and muddy, but the Thursday morning sun was bright and clear as it shone on Arthur Dent's house for what was to be the last time.

• Architecture: Squattish, squarish, made of brick, about thirty years old, with four front windows that more or less exactly failed to please the eye.
• Domestic Amenities: An electric kettle, plug, fridge, milk, coffee, a shaving mirror that temporarily reflected bulldozers, and a wardrobe mirror where a yellow hungover tongue prompted realization.
• Surrounding Landscape: A broad spread of West Country farmland, wet muddy lanes, and a garden path rapidly blocked by big yellow bulldozers.

The Great Bypass StandoffCopy Anchor Link

At approximately 8:00 AM on the final Thursday in Earth's history, the house became the focal point of two nested, conflicting infrastructure initiatives:

1. The Cottington Municipal Bypass: Commissioned by the local district council and supervised in the field by Mr. L. Prosser (a direct patrilineal descendant of Genghis Khan, whose warrior instincts had unfortunately been diluted into a fondness for tweed jackets and mild nervous migraines). The planning notice had been on display for nine months in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard".
2. The Barricade in the Mud: Clad only in his pyjamas, Arthur Dent lay face down in the cold mud directly ahead of the bulldozer's caterpillar tracks, steadfastly refusing to permit the demolition.
3. The Hyperspatial Irony & Actual Demolition: Ford Prefect persuaded Mr. L. Prosser to lie in the mud on Arthur's behalf while the two friends slipped off to The Horse and Groom for three pints of bitter. While Arthur was struggling through his third pint, a dull rumbling crash filtered into the pub: taking advantage of Arthur's absence, the yellow bulldozers actually knocked down Arthur's house, reducing it to rubble.
4. Arthur's Charge Up the Lane: Waving a nearly empty beer glass, Arthur sprinted back up the lane through sudden cold, wind, and an irrational squall of rain, bellowing at the caterpillar bulldozers crawling over the rubble of his home ("Stop, you vandals! You home wreckers! You half-crazed Visigoths, stop, will you! ... You barbarians! I'll sue the council for every penny it's got! I'll have you hung, drawn and quartered! And whipped! And boiled... until... until... until you've had enough... And then I will do it again! And when I've finished I will take all the little bits, and I will jump on them!")—before tripping headlong onto his back and finally noticing the Vogon Constructor Ships screaming through the clouds overhead while the bulldozer men fled and Mr. Prosser stared hectically into the sky.

Current Cosmic StatusCopy Anchor Link

Following the vaporization of Earth, the physical cottage was dispersed into an expanding cloud of free hydrogen and brick molecules along the Sol orbital plane. It remains commemorated throughout the Guide as the ultimate monument to stubborn domestic resistance against arbitrary bureaucratic transit corridors.