Why a Pair of Fake Ornate Houses on an Exclusive London Street Are Neighborhood Matching Facades

British vlogger Half Asleep Chris traveled to Numbers 23-24 Leinster Gardens in London, where a pair of houses with ornate facades stand without any point of entry whatsoever. As it turns out the homes themselves are just the facades for a tunnel that was built in 1863 for a steam condensing locomotive that ran right through the neighborhood.

Back then they didn’t use the modern tubes we use today but steam trains pulling wooden carriages and as you can imagine all that steam had to go somewhere. The trains were fitted with a device called a condenser which essentially held onto that steam when the train was traveling through a tunnel and then released it once outside …But Leinster Gardens was a very affluent and prestigious London Road and now there was this very unsightly stall right down the middle of it. The perfect terrace of elegant Victorian houses had been starkly broken and the posh residents weren’t happy about it and so a rather unique agreement was made.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.

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