Help, they’re digging up the city in huge spadefuls

Michael Simkins on the current craze for homeowners excavating basements in London.

A Union flag hangs across a street of houses in London. British house prices in parts of the country have increased significantly in recent years (REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett)

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” So wrote the essayist Samuel Johnson but his oft-quoted phrase is beginning to wear a bit thin for many who have to dwell in this city.

London has never been an easy place in which to live. Exciting, yes, stimulating, undoubtedly, but also crowded, noisy and cluttered. And with living space so cramped, it’s perhaps no wonder that Londoners are by nature a tolerant and stoical bunch.

But for many residents, the fabric of metropolitan living now threatens to be undermined, quite literally, due to the current craze for homeowners excavating basements.

And it’s not just basements that are proliferating, but attic conversions, annexes, conservatories – in fact, just about anything that can be dug out or pushed out in an attempt to find a few more square metres of living space. Until recently, a small extension or conservatory used to be the zenith of most householders’ architectural ambitions. But with house prices soaring along with the influx of the super-rich from all corners of the globe, expansions are more likely to be grander.

The tension between those who want to enhance their investment and those condemned to endure it is crystallised by the current furore over a project proposed by ex-Arsenal footballer Thierry Henry. Mr Henry is attempting to pull down a structure that he bought some years ago in north London and replace it with an entirely new dwelling. So far so good, but he has also submitted plans to excavate a great swath of England’s green and pleasant land immediately beneath his property in order to add a cinema, gym, swimming pool and even a spiralling 40-foot fish tank.

However disruptive the project, its unlikely to affect its owner, who presumably has other properties in Europe in which to take refuge during the long months in which rubble, mechanical diggers and trundling lorries will be around. But for his neighbours, who can’t escape, the prospect is wearisome. If I sympathise with their plight, it’s simply because my own little corner of heaven is under similar threat.

A developer has purchased a decrepit one-storey garage that abuts the rear garden wall of my small terraced house in West Hampstead. Although his proposal to replace it with a residential dwelling doesn’t include an aquarium, it does have a basement and a second storey, resulting in a structure that threatens to dwarf the surrounding houses.

Whatever the outcome, the plans will inevitably involve him having to seek permission to tear down my entire garden wall and deposit most of my flower beds into the nearest skip. And the resulting structure will ultimately afford me a birdseye view into its rear bedroom.

My local neighbourhood’s attempts to oppose the plan have already resulted in sleepless nights and considerable expense for us all. Yet our dilemma mirrors the inevitable conflict of interests faced by many. With space at a premium, and available housing lagging far behind the seemingly insatiable demand, extra room simply has to be found for its residents to live in if the city isn’t to grind to a halt.

So what to do? The obvious choice would be to simply up sticks and move to the suburbs, but even that would mean incurring swingeing costs.

Indeed, as one wag suggested upon hearing of my intended downsize: “Why not just brick up the top floor of your existing house and keep the money?” There’s got to be a flaw in his reasoning if only I were clever enough to think what it is.

Meanwhile, London remains a veritable obstacle course of cranes, hard hats, pile drivers, hoardings and wrecking balls. And so, rather than turning to Samuel Johnson for comfort, I prefer GK Chesterton’s rather more tart observation on urban living.

“We should always love our neighbours and our enemies,” he once wrote, “‘probably because they’re one and the same people”

Michael Simkins is an actor and writer who lives in London

On Twitter: @michael_simkins