We love the beautiful houses in Leinster Gardens, they’re just so authentic… Or are they?

Properties number 23 and 24 of this seemingly ordinary road hide a surprising secret — they don’t actually exist.

The resplendent facades are in fact only that, as both houses had to be demolished for the then-new Metropolitan Line, London’s first underground line, to run underneath.

The gap where the houses stood was used for the trains to blow off steam before continuing their journey underground.

To avoid ruining the road, authorities decided to create two fake houses — you can spot them by looking for the blacked out windows and lack of letterbox.

Each facade is 1.5 meters thick and if you pop round to the back of the houses, you can see exactly why it was necessary — the tracks of the Metropolitan Line still run through the gap!