EVER wondered what’s going on behind the front doors of London’s poshest houses? Well, we can reveal in two bizarre cases the answer is absolutely nothing.

One quiet road in Bayswater is lined with ornate Victorian terraced houses, many of which are listed buildings, but incredibly two of them are completely fake, just a pair of false fronts a little over 1.5m thick hiding what is now the Metropolitan line.

In the 1860s, during the construction of London’s underground network, the Metropolitan Line traversed the serene, leafy lanes of W2, a charming neighbourhood situated north of Kensington Gardens.

At the time the now conventional method of boring underground tunnels beneath the existing streets didn’t exist, so instead the railway engineers employed a ‘cut and cover’ technique. They excavated deep channels throughout the city and subsequently concealed them to form underground tunnels.

While the majority of the properties which were demolished to accommodate the railway tunnels were reconstructed, not all of them were rebuilt.

In an intriguing exception to the norm, London witnessed the emergence of a fascinating anomaly on Leinster Gardens in Bayswater. When the Metropolitan Line intersected the area, connecting Paddington and Bayswater stations, numbers 23 and 24 were demolished to make way for the construction.

However, instead of rebuilding them, the railway company ingeniously crafted a pair of deceptive fronts. These elegant facades seamlessly blended with the neighbouring five-story houses, yet they were merely 5 feet thick (1.5m) structures.

But why did they do this?

The rationale behind this peculiar choice stemmed from a practical consideration. The underground railway’s locomotives relied on steam generated by burning coal.

Equipped with condensers to capture most of the smoke and condensation, these locomotives required open-air sections of track to vent the accumulated steam and smoke, ensuring that the underground tunnels remained untainted and the air within remained breathable.

One such open-air venting section was located at Leinster Gardens. However, rather than subjecting residents to the unsightly process, the railway company erected façades at numbers 23 and 24. They skilfully adorned the structures with trees and painted upper-story windows to mimic authentic houses.

The only discernible hint exposing the façade’s deception was the absence of letterboxes on the front doors and the lack of curtains on the painted windows, unlike their genuine neighbours. As disguises go, it was a masterstroke. Unless closely examined, passers-by would be oblivious to the fact that the houses were anything but ordinary homes.