The architecture trend dividing London's elites

Underground lairs have hollowed out London.

One of London’s most unusual luxury trends might be its gigantic basements.

Professor Roger Burrows and his coauthors collected data on every basement construction project in from 2008 to 2019, and mapped it. They found more than 7,000 basement additions had been built. A combination of historic preservation laws, rapidly ballooning property values, and changing tastes have led to a boom in basement building.

This construction hasn’t been without complications. Many of the existing residents see the constant construction as a “plague” that’s hollowed out the city, contributed to air pollution, and even changed the acoustics of their homes. Burrows sees it as a symbol of increasing wealth inequality in the global city.

Correction: Typo 1:25, Roger Burrows is Professor of cities at Newcastle University.

Further Reading:

This DailyMail article chronicles the collapse of a mega-basement:

Here’s Brian May’s Instagram post, included in the video, about his basement flooding:

[Vox]

Thanks for watching! If you’re wondering about the most unusual basement Professor Roger Burrows found, he had this to say:

“It bends belief what’s in some of these. We found one example of a particularly colossal dig with two swimming pools and a beach. A sandy beach. And the pool had a wave machine.”

[raydunakin]

Maybe I missed something, but I didn't see any explanation in this as to how the home got flooded with sewage, nor what evidence there was that underground construction was to blame.

[matthewmelange]

That was a very empty episode.

The topic was interesting but there wasn’t much to discuss beyond “London homes are building big basements and their rich neighbors are upset & blaming things on them.”

[vykana]

This video explains how rich people like building basements and that some people don't like it. Other than that there was no further discussion on why it's a problem, its connection to sewage, or anything.

[NiallEveritt]

There are cases where the street and some houses have collapsed or sunken into the dig sites. It would have been good if you'd included those or gone more into detail about the construction issues and engineering risks.

[jacobbwalters]

I wish that Vox would have gone into depth a little more about what makes these basements problematic. Are there studies that support flooding being caused by them? I live in Michigan, USA, where flooding is relatively common and everyone has a basement, yet no one has ever blamed the flooding on the basements here…

[luisgaldamez]

So you’re telling me, I should move my waterproofing company to London?

[sharsasuke]

I didn't even know you could build a basement after a house has been constructed.

[bjarnisvanurbirgisson]

I'm still confused on the problems of these basements, could we have had a better explanation on those?
How are they causing flooding, and what examples of basement related collapses have occurred in London?

[Falco.]

Professor Burrows knew at his birth that he would become an expert in underground lairs

[jackrotz]

1:24 When he stated where he was a professor in the school of architecture, planning and landscape, and went on to say he wasn't an architect and he wasn't a planner, I was assuming he was going to say he was a landscape

[youarewinston]

Always thought London planning approval was that you can build up to 4 houses and then a hotel

[rosgill]

The "haves and have yachts" needs to take off as a meme NOW! lol

[ryanmalyk]

This video just explained that there are alot of basements in London and that they are bad...with no explanation of why or how

[beanboi]

Give it decade and soon there's gonna be an underLondon

[SirAdser]

For those not based in London. The May story, his basement flooding, was caused not by mega-basements, but rather some extremely heavy rain that caused the sewage and drainage pipes to burst in various places all over Kensingtong & Chelsea. It flooded Portobello Road, Notting Hill Gate and a few other high streets. Basements flats and basements in general are always suspect to flooding issues in areas with heavy rainfall. Really a better framing for this might have been a story on that rainfall and the other adverse weather that the UK has has over the last few years due to climate change and how the UK, a country that has historically had little cases of adverse weather, is now slowly struggling to cope with extreme weather events.

[pepessz]

London's superrich: "Well, we have our own private pool and cinema on our basements."

Bruce Wayne: "That's nice."

[shedactivist]

My heart bleeds for the rich complaining about the antics of the super-rich

[x-shadow-x]

And what was now the relationship between basements and the flooding?

[LeanneModenPoet]

Professor Burrows writing about digging underground. That's some lovely nominative determinism!