History Main / StrangeSecretEntrance

* In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series is Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters, a secret [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin train platform between numbers 9 and 10]], at the King's Cross railway station in London. Wizards and witches (but not {{muggles}}) can get to this hidden stop by walking through a certain brick pillar that separates Platform 9 from Platform 10. (At the real King's Cross, incidentally, the real platforms 9 and 10 are actually on opposite sides of the railway lines.)
** ''Literature/HarryPotter'' also has Diagon Alley, whose most mundane entrance can be accessed by going through an inn (which seems to be enchanted to keep {{muggles}} from seeing it anyway) and tapping exactly the right spot on a brick wall with a wand.
** A third ''Literature/HarryPotter'' example is the Room of Requirement in Hogwarts, which one accesses by walking past its door while consciously thinking of needing something. The room then supplies what you need.

[[folder:Film]]
* In the first ''Film/OhGod'' movie, God meets the main character on the 27th floor... in a building with only 17.

A Strange Secret Entrance is the hidden place--a SecretRoom--that you access by seemingly impossible means. When Alice first tells Bob about the Strange Secret Entrance and how it is reached, Bob (usually) doesn't believe what he's hearing until he sees Alice easily access this hidden area with the exact same method that she described to Bob.

He can't make his way in at first, even by copying Alice exactly. But eventually he will figure it out, and gain access to whatever strange thing lies behind the door. It may be a BookcasePassage or a SecretUndergroundPassage.

A Strange Secret Entrance is the hidden place that you access by seemingly impossible means. When Alice first tells Bob about the Strange Secret Entrance and how it is reached, Bob (usually) doesn't believe what he's hearing until he sees Alice easily access this hidden area with the exact same method that she described to Bob. He can't make his way in at first, even by copying Alice exactly. But eventually he will figure it out, and gain access to whatever strange thing lies behind the door.

* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': The Sallow Man's VolcanoLair is hidden behind a HardLight illusion of a cave wall. To enter, the player character needs either to have a unique artifact of TrueSight to {{dispel|Magic}} it or to win admittance with [[DemandingTheirHead the head]] of the Sallow Man's enemy.

* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': The Sallow Man's VolcanoLair is hidden behind a HardLight illusion of a cave wall. To enter, the player character needs either to have a unique artifact of TrueSight to {{dispel|Magic}} it or to offer a {{MacGuffin}} the Sallow Man wants so he'll admit them.

* In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', Narnia is, at least in the ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'', accessed by walking through the wardrobe. Other ways to get in include [[Literature/TheMagiciansNephew trans-dimensionally-travelling magic rings]], [[Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader accidentally falling through a 2D painting]] and [[spoiler: [[Literature/TheLastBattle getting hit by a train]].]]
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': The Eye of The World can only be found once by any person, with a single exception. It moves, but always within a specific, very dangerous region.
** Similarly are the worlds of the Finn (Snake and Fox People) which are accessed through two doorways with eye-wrenching curvature. [[spoiler: Or entering through the tower of Ghenjei, but that's more dangerous because the doors bind them to bargains and certain rules.]] The main characters have an argument when three of them come out of the door and are informed that at most one person should be inside and that one of them was using magic, which is a no-no.
* ''Literature/WaysideSchool'' is thirty stories tall, but of those thirty, [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext they forgot to build the nineteenth]]. It does not exist, and its resident teacher Miss Zarves and her entire class are entirely imaginary. Nonetheless, a student ends up there by accident in one story.
* In David Eddings' ''Literature/TheTamuli'', the city of Cyrga is found this way, involving a long and detailed set of instructions from an oasis across the desert and culminating with finding the exact spot where an illusion conceals an entrance through the mountains by lining them up with the Pillars of Cyrgon.

* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', OnceAnEpisode, Perry gets to his secret lair(s) by using some zany entrance hidden somewhere around the [=FlynnFletcher=] household and sometimes beyond that. [[RuleOfFunny He rarely ever is shown using the same entrance twice.]]

* Some secret levels in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'' are accessed by unintuitively jumping down "bottomless" pits into off-screen barrel cannons.

May involve passing through a CoolGate. In video games, frequently overlaps with DevelopersRoom.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: The entrance to Paula von Gunther's hidden Holliday College laboratory is disguised in a maintenance room full of plumbing. This usually keeps it well hidden but on one occasion two blindfolded students managed to stumble through, partially because the usual visual trick didn't apply to them.
[[/folder]]

* Played with in Alan Dean Foster's ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' series. Book three involves the search for a mysterious town called Crancularn which no one seems to know the way to; legend has it that the town moves from place to place, and even requires TheHero obtain a magic map from a village of fairies to find it. It later turns out the town doesn't move, only seems to because those looking for it ''[[YourMindMakesItReal believe]]'' it does; however to find it/be able to see it you still have to ''want'' to. DoubleSubverted, however, since when the heroes later flee the town they see it and its residents change into ghosts and demons, then fade away, though whether this was due to their own expectations, the fact they were leaving and thus didn't want to find it any more, or an illusion created by [[spoiler:an evil genie they'd just faced]] is never revealed.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies,'' there are a zillion of these. It's a RunningGag that OnceAnEpisode, the girls will be yanked into WOOHP headquarters by increasingly bizarre means. Once, just once, they get to turn the tables on their boss and yank ''him'' into the headquarters without warning.

* Many real world Rapid Transit systems (usually the older ones) are sprinkled with abandoned platforms, stations, or even entire lines. They often must be reached through nondescript doors, hatches or even by walking through the tunnels themselves. Often these locations will be stuck in some sort of [[RetroUniverse retro stasis]] reflecting the time period in which they were closed.

** London Tube has several good real life examples, some complete with WWII posters from the time they were used as bomb raid shelters. [[http://underground-history.co.uk/front.php Well-documented website]] exists.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': The entrance to Paula von Gunther's hidden Holliday College laboratory is disguised in a maintenance room full of plumbing. This usually keeps it well hidden but on one occasion two blindfolded students managed to stumble through, partially because the usual visual trick didn't apply to them.

* ''WaysideSchool'' is thirty stories tall, but of those thirty, [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext they forgot to build the nineteenth]]. It does not exist, and its resident teacher Miss Zarves and her entire class are entirely imaginary. Nonetheless, a student ends up there by accident in one story.

A StrangeSecretEntrance is the hidden place that you access by seemingly impossible means. When Alice first tells Bob about the StrangeSecretEntrance and how it is reached, Bob (usually) doesn't believe what he's hearing until he sees Alice easily access this hidden area with the exact same method that she described to Bob. He can't make his way in at first, even by copying Alice exactly. But eventually he will figure it out, and gain access to whatever strange thing lies behind the door.

* In David Eddings' ''[[Literature/TheElenium Tamuli]]'', the city of Cyrga is found this way, involving a long and detailed set of instructions from an oasis across the desert and culminating with finding the exact spot where an illusion conceals an entrance through the mountains by lining them up with the Pillars of Cyrgon.

* In the first ''OhGod'' movie, God meets the main character on the 27th floor... in a building with only 17.

* Some secret levels in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' are accessed by unintuitively jumping down "bottomless" pits into off-screen barrel cannons.

* There's a village in ''GeneratorRex'' that is hidden behind some sort of invisibility field. You can only get into it if you know where to walk into/through it.
* In ''TotallySpies,'' there are a zillion of these. It's a RunningGag that OnceAnEpisode, the girls will be yanked into WOOHP headquarters by increasingly bizarre means. Once, just once, they get to turn the tables on their boss and yank ''him'' into the headquarters without warning.

* Many real world Rapid Transit systems (usually the older ones) are sprinkled with abandoned platforms,stations or even entire lines. They often must be reached through nondescript doors, hatches or even by walking through the tunnels themselves. Often these locations will be stuck in some sort of [[RetroUniverse retro stasis]] reflecting the time period in which they were closed.

A StrangeSecretEntrance is the hidden place that you access by seemingly impossible means. When Alice first tells Bob about the StrangeSecretEntrance and how it is reached, Bob (usually) doesn't believe what he's hearing until he sees Alice easily access this hidden area with the exact same method that she described to Bob. He can't make his way in at first, even by copying Alice exactly.

A StrangeSecretEntrance is the hidden place that you access by seemingly impossible means. When Alice first tells Bob about the StrangeSecretEntrance and how it is reached, Bob (usually) doesn't believe what he's hearing until he sees Alice easily access this hidden area with the exact same method that she described to Bob. BonusPoints if Bob can't make his way in at first, even by copying Alice exactly.

* In the first ''OhGod'' movie, God meets the main character on a floor that doesn't exist. It's something like floor 49 on a building that goes up to the 30th floor.