Leinster Gardens False Facades

The lowdown

In an elegant white stucco terrace in Bayswater, two of the grand houses, numbers 23 and 24, are complete fakes. Look closely and you will see the windows are painted blacked-out boards and there are no real doors behind the steps. Behind the five-foot-thick facade is nothing but an open railway cutting.

When the world's first underground railway was built here in the 1860s, steam trains needed an open stretch to vent, so two houses were demolished and false fronts put up to keep the smart terrace looking complete. It is free to spot the trick, a wonderful piece of Victorian sleight of hand still fooling passers-by today.