Pictures of No. 5 Thurloe Square in the well-heeled London district of South Kensington tend to provoke the same disbelieving reaction: how can someone live in something so thin? Viewed from head-on, the building looks perfectly normal, like its neighbors. However, from the side, it looks like a slice of a house shaved down to almost nothing. In reality, it's not a flat sliver at all, but a long triangular wedge about 6 feet across at the pinched end to a respectable 32 feet at its far end where the actual living happens. The building has become such a fixture of the neighborhood that it now features on tourist trails through South Kensington. The trick, once explained is simple enough. The wedge presents its sharp point towards the square. A photograph taken from just the right corner will flatten the whole triangle into what looks like a paper thin wall, hiding the depth that stretches away behind it. The apartments within are far from cheap, though. This is one of London’s most exclusive districts. An apartment inside the capital’s most famous skinny building can run from £750,000 ($1.3 million) to £1,100,000 ($1.4 million).
