Why would there be a false wall in my kitchen?

[starrychime]

It's a sort of galley kitchen, but a bit wider. As you go in the fridge is on the left with normal wall behind it, then the wall turns in at 90 deg and carries on to the other end. This bit has units with built in oven and worktop with hob and cupboards along the wall over the oven and hob. The wall after the fridge seems to be board or something - sounds different when I knock on it. Why would this be?

Covering unsightly pipework?

Narnia?

The 'wall' goes from floor to roof though, I would have though pipes would have just been boxed in maybe.

Wiring behind?

To hide dead bodies obviously!

No bodies I think unless they were really skinny - the false bit comes out about 4 inches or so from the bit behind. It's puzzling as I would have thought it would be easier to attach units to brick than to a wooden panel, more secure?

Could they have done it to even out the wall, maybe there would have been a shallow jog in it and needed a straight run for the cupboards.

We had loads of these in our last house. Some over pipework, running floor to ceiling and far larger than actually required to cover the pipes; and a bigger one in the kitchen that 'hid' a wooden joist (although I use the term ' joist' extremely loosely as it wasn't attached to anything) that was supposed to support the joists that were rotten under the bath upstairs and didn't actually touch the side of the house anymore. Now that really was a surprise when we finally ripped it off. Gained a half a foot by 6 foot bit of kitchen, cost a fortune to put in a new floor/ceiling!

our bathroom had fake walls to cover the centuries of wallpaper & crumbling plaster.

Our old house had a fake wall to cover damp stains.