This is Leinster Gardens, an upmarket residential road near Hyde Park in Central London. But though it may seem like an ordinary London street, it's hiding a rather unusual secret.
這是倫斯特花園大道，倫敦中心區海德公園附近的高級住宅區。儘管看起來跟一般倫敦街道無異，卻藏著一個不尋常的秘密。
These two houses behind me, numbers 23 and 24—they're fake. They're not real buildings; they're just a facade, but with no actual house behind them.
我身後這兩棟房子，23、24 號－－是假的。它們不是真的建築物，只是一道正面的牆，牆後沒有真正的房子。
But someone's gone to extraordinary lengths to make them look real. They perfectly match their neighbors, to the extent that you most likely wouldn't even notice if you were to walk past. The only telltale signs are the lack of door handles or letterboxes.
但有人大費周章讓它們看起來像真的。它們跟左鄰右舍毫無違和，逼真到如果你從這裡經過，很可能不會察覺異樣。唯一可能穿幫的是門上沒有門把，也沒有信箱。
It's not even wooden; that's rock-solid.
門甚至不是木頭做的；是非常堅硬的實心材質。
And the 18 windows are all simply painted on, without any glass.
這十八面窗也都是畫上去的，沒有裝上玻璃。
So why exactly are there a pair of fake houses right in the middle of this seemingly normal London road? It's a story that begins over 150 years ago in 1963, when the world's first underground line opened, the Metropolitan Railway.
那為什麼會有兩棟假的房子矗立在看似平凡的倫敦街頭中央？這要從 150 多年前的 1963 年開始說起，那年，大都會鐵路開通了世界上第一條地鐵。
Its tunnels were built using a method known as cut-and-cover, where rather than boring a tunnel through the ground, instead, a massive trench is dug, the railway built, and then the trench roofed over again. And as can only be expected when digging an enormously long trench right through the middle of Central London, some buildings needed to be demolished.
地鐵隧道是以明挖覆蓋式工法興建，不直接挖穿地面，而是挖掘坑道、興建鐵路，再將地面回填。那想當然爾，要挖掘一座大型綿長隧道從中切穿中倫敦，勢必要拆除一些建築物。
And five years later, when the line was extended to include a section between Paddington and Bayswater, Leinster Gardens found itself directly in the path of destruction. Numbers 23 and 24 were torn to the ground, and the earth beneath them excavated to make way for the quickly growing London underground.
五年後，地鐵範圍拓展至帕丁頓及貝斯沃特，倫斯特花園正好位於拆除路線上。23、24 號被夷為平地，下方土石被掏空，以便興建迅速發展中的倫敦地鐵。
And if you've gone to the street behind, you can see the trench where the houses used to be.
如果你繞到街道後方，就可以看到兩棟房的舊址。
So, why the fake fronts?
那麼，為什麼要建造假的正面？
Well, this particular stretch wouldn't be recovered. Back then, they didn't use the modern tubes we use today, but steam train's pulling wooden carriages.
嗯，因為這個特定路段不會回填。當時的倫敦地鐵跟今日的地鐵不同，是以蒸氣列車去拉動木頭車廂。
And as you can imagine, all that steam had to go somewhere. The trains were fitted with a device called the condenser, which essentially held onto that steam when the train was traveling through a tunnel, and then released it once outside. It was therefore necessary to have sections of the line that weren't enclosed—out in the open air—to allow for proper ventilation.
所以可想而知，蒸氣必須排放到某處。每輛列車都配有冷凝器裝置，列車穿梭隧道時，冷凝器可以暫時凝結住蒸汽，等列車行駛到戶外空間再行釋放。也因此，在途中留有未封閉的開放空間是很重要的，這樣才能將氣體適當排出。
But Leinster Gardens was a very affluent and prestigious London road, and now there was this very unsightly scar right down the middle of it. The perfect terrace of elegant Victorian houses has been starkly broken, and the posh residents weren't happy about it. And so a rather unique agreement was made. The railway company would rebuild just the fronts of the two houses they demolished.
但倫斯特花園是倫敦著名的高級路段，現在中間卻平添一道不堪入目的傷疤。曾經優雅完美的一整列維多利亞建築，如今支離破碎，當地富裕居民對此相當不滿。雙方因而達成一項特殊協議。鐵道公司會重建拆毀的樓房，但只有正面。
It was win-win. The Metropolitan Railway got what it wanted: an open-air section for their trains to let off steam. And the residents no longer had to look at it, and had their pristine and uninterrupted row of ornate houses restored to its original glory.
這是個雙贏局面。大都會鐵路得償所願：獲得讓列車排放蒸氣的通風空隙。居民也不必再直視那缺口，還能讓他們原先棟棟相連的美麗樓房門面修復如初，找回昔日榮光。
And today, these fronts remain in place—one of the lesser-known oddities of London's weird and wonderful history.
今日，這些房屋正面依然存在－－成為倫敦美好歷史上一段少有人知的奇特片段。
- 「大費周章、全力以赴」- Go To Extraordinary Lengths
But someone's gone to extraordinary lengths to make them look real.
但有人大費周章讓它們看起來像真的。
