Homeowner Shocked to Discover Secret Staircase Hidden in Plain Sight

A woman who bought an old Victorian home was shocked when she discovered a secret staircase.

Kirsty, 41, who bought the historic home in Matlock, England, was inspecting her new property when she made a discovery that resulted in her going viral on TikTok.

In a video posted to her @peakviewhouse account, Kirsty wrote: "POV: Opening a cupboard in your new house and finding a servant staircase."

The clip showed her opening a cupboard door and finding shelves and paint pots in a little room. But hidden behind this was an entire secret staircase.

Kirsty zoomed in on the dusty stairs, which appeared to curve around the back of the room and lead to the next floor.

While Kirsty, a business owner, is based in the U.K., Victorian-style houses can also be found in the United States. The styles include Second Empire, Queen Anne, Stick, Shingle and Richardsonian Romanesque, according to OldHouses.com.

Kirsty's discovery caused a huge reaction on TikTok, where the clip has received over 1.7 million views since it was shared May 1, with commenters pleading with her to "explore" the staircase and see where it leads.

"Don't leave us hanging like that," one user wrote. Another insisted: "We're going to need you to demolish that cupboard ma'am."

One person wrote: "Rip those shelves out immediately, I need to know what it all looks like." Another joked: "I'm so nosey I would have squeezed through the shelves or ripped them out there and then."

"Out come the shelves, you have to go up there," another said. Kirsty replied in one comment that she suspects the stairs lead to a bathroom, "as there are a lot of pipes."

Kirsty told Newsweek: "The stairs are on the floor plan, but we hadn't noticed." She added, "Apparently, they were mentioned on our second viewing, but I only saw the pots of paint."

Kirsty pulled out the shelves and followed the stairs as far as she could before meeting a dead end with a solid brick wall, which possibly leads to the loft.

But Kirsty is just as keen as the TikTok sleuths to learn more about the mysteries of the Victorian house and intends "to go into the loft to see what we can find."

"We've been researching the house as it apparently links to Joseph Whitworth, a famous engineer in this area," she said.

Sir Joseph Whitworth was born in the U.K. in 1803 and is most famous for devising the British Standard Whitworth system used for screw threads and for creating the Whitworth rifle, also known as the sharpshooter.

Kirsty has been blown away by the sheer amount of views, likes and comments on her video.

She said she had "only just joined TikTok and am still learning to use it so I was shocked at the response."

She added: "But I love that people are as interested in these old houses as I am."

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