4,650 London basements in a decade

This is a report from July 2018. A study counted 4,650 basements approved under London homes between 2008 and 2017. They included 112 described as mega basements.

• Plans from 2008-17 feature 1,000 gyms, 380 pools and 460 cinemas. They also feature 380 wine cellars and 120 staff rooms
• Combined depth of all basements approved in London since 2008 is 50,000ft. That is 50 times height of Shard

The scale of London’s basement building was set out today. The study found 4,650 approvals in a decade. Most of them added swimming pools, wine cellars and gyms.

Iceberg homes up to 59ft, or 18m, deep are being dug. They are in the wealthiest parts of the city, including Kensington and Chelsea. The listed uses run to artificial beaches and car museums.

Turkish baths, cigar rooms and banqueting halls are also among the features. Basement plans in the capital from 2008 to 2017 included around 1,000 gyms. They also included 380 pools, 460 cinemas, 380 wine stores and 120 staff rooms.

The study covered every basement approved by seven London boroughs in the past decade. Their combined depth is 50,160ft (15,289m), 50 times the height of The Shard. Two of the basements are said to include multiple pools.

The basements feature a total of about 550 media rooms and 340 games rooms. There are 240 saunas or steam rooms, and 60 underground garages and parking facilities.

Emma Dent Coad, the Labour MP for Kensington and Chelsea, told the Guardian this. “I have sympathy for people who need more space for an expanding family.

While we have people sleeping on the streets we really have to look. At what we’re doing in our borough because that is bad planning.”

The study looked at the sharp rise in basement construction over the past decade. It concluded the rise is “emblematic of the profound plutocratisation of London”.

The authors, led by professor of cities Roger Burrows, added this. “The global excesses of wealth. They are focused upon such a small fragment of the global population. They now find spatial expression in many of the neighbourhoods of central London.

At a time when so many households face a crisis in their housing circumstances. The new subterranean geography of London is deeply symbolic of the realities. Those are the intensification of global inequalities and their spatial expression.”

The researchers looked at seven boroughs. These were Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Haringey. The others were Camden, Islington and Wandsworth.

NU Projects builds basements in several of them. Are you considering one? First, read the ten checks worth making before you appoint anybody. Then tell us about the house.