The construction of the Metropolitan District Railway

The gap through Leinster Gardens, Bayswater, where two houses, nos. 23 and 24, had been demolished to make way for the tunnel. The gap was later closed by a facade with painted-on doors and windows to match the rest of terrace. From a series of 64 photographs taken in the late 1860s by Henry Flather to document the construction of the railway from Paddington to Blackfriars via Kensington, Westminster and the new Victoria Embankment. Construction was by the 'cut-and-cover' method used to build the first underground railways before the development of the tunnelling shield by James Henry Greathead. The first tunnelled, or 'tube', railway in London was the City & South London Line, which opened in 1890.

IN37495 shows the same view before the houses were demolished.