Londoners have been trying to build on the Mounthill Bump since the 14th century - it normally doesn’t go well. Whether it’s a seismological fracture, a pocket of gas or some form of topographical haunting, no one seems to know. What is known is that whenever weight, in form of a building, is applied to this particular area then the Bump arrives - the ground rises up, foundations splinter, walls and windows crack and sooner or later the building is abandoned. The current strategy is to attempt to ‘shave’ the bump back to ground level before building work commences. No one is optimistic, but property prizes hereabouts mean that such attempts are inevitable.

Interesting sidenote: Mounthill Bump is a rare London example of a tryptotautologous name - ‘mount’, ‘hill’ and ‘bump’ all meaning roughly the same thing. Avenue Road is a favourite example of the slightly commoner bitautology.