A slide? A bowling alley? Check out five London homes with outrageous features

The best of London’s clever and quirky homes

If your jaw drops looking at a plush pool or a 20-inch cinema in a London home then you, dear reader, haven’t seen anything.

From rooms appearing at a touch of a button to a swimming pool-cum-dance floor, London has a string of homes with extreme features.

Take a look at our pick of the top five:

1. A slide? Yes please!

This house is right out of Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree. Why? Well, to get to the master bedroom to the living room, you need to hop on to a silver slide. Not just this, the home comes with bright sofas, secret doors and multi-colored spiral staircases. No wonder, the architects have named it the Rainbow House.

2. Bowling Alley

This Surrey home might come with a helipad, tennis court and a gym but what we are excited about is the two-lane bowling alley in the basement. Designed by none other than the Candy brothers, this nine-bedroom home comes with other bells and whistles including an entertainment suite that seats 50 for supper, cinema with a 3.5m screen and a temperature-controlled wine room stocked with almost 2,000 bottles of fine wine.

3. Shhh! Secret passageways

In true Panic Room-style, this St James’ home comes with canopy slides to hide a ‘secret’ entrance to the home. Also, there is a wireless home control tablet in the reception which means that you can monitor the temperature or turn on a security light from any part of the world. Wow.

4. Swimming pool-cum-dance floor

Having a swimming pool in your house is no big deal. But what if the pool comes with a dance floor? A home in Chelsea has a three-metre deep pool which has a sliding steel floor that helps you adjust the depth. Also, you can cover the top to convert it into a dance floor for up to 60 people.

5. Yo! Home where rooms appear at a touch of a button

How would you like to live in a house where rooms appear at a touch of a button? Designed by Yo! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe, the master suite in the house descends from the roof and the dining table comes up out of the floor. The home, which is actually a one bedroom flat, also has a cinema, dining room, office, full-size kitchen, breakfast room, bathroom, party room and even a wine cellar. Now isn’t this the mother of all outrageous homes?