Leinster Gardens
What to discover
At first sight, Leinster Gardens is just a normal street in Bayswater, London. But there's one quite abnormal house which you should definitely visit on your tour through London. From the street it seems like a normal pompous façade of a house. But if you take a closer look, you will recognize the painted windows and the missing postboxes. And when you go to the street parallel to Leinster Gardens, Porchester Terrace, you will discover that there's only the front façade there and no real building. Image source
History
In the past, the façade was used to cover a very ugly-looking pipe which was needed to take the steam away from the Tube. Since Leinster Gardens was a pricey residential area, a hole in the row of houses would have been a Desaster and would have made the prices for properties in the area drop. It even actually happened that someone invited people to a party at this location. They even paid for tickets. But when they got there they realized it was a fraud. Image source
Connection to Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes used this false frontage as a hiding place in the street. This location really turned out as a good filming spot for one of the episodes of the BBC series "Sherlock", namely "His Last Vow". For all fans of the brilliant detective it really is a must-see.
Leinster Gardens is located near Hyde Park. For more information on the location of this "sight", you can consider the map to the left.