Nestled amidst the elegant Victorian townhouses of Leinster Gardens, a peculiar secret awaits. The Fake houses at numbers 23 and 24 stand as silent witnesses to London’s innovative past. These facades, built in the 1860s, conceal a vital part of the city’s infrastructure: the Metropolitan Railway. During the railway’s construction, steam locomotives required open-air sections to vent smoke and steam. Rather than disrupting the refined aesthetic of Leinster Gardens with a gaping hole, engineers devised a clever solution. They constructed these fake facades, seamlessly blending them with the neighboring houses. The facades, a mere five feet thick, mimic the ornate balconies, Ionic columns, and windows of their genuine counterparts. Behind this illusion, however, lies not a home, but the railway line itself. These Fake houses are not just architectural curiosities. They have played roles in popular culture, appearing in the BBC series Sherlock. They’ve also been the target of pranks, including a fictitious “charity ball” where bewildered guests were met with an empty facade. The Fake houses of Leinster Gardens serve as a testament to Victorian ingenuity. They showcase a harmonious blend of form and function, where the demands of infrastructure are masked by the elegance of architecture.
Southfields Methodist Church
Curiosity stirred within the heart of Southfields as a new chapter began. Southfields Methodist Church held its first public service