32 C O N T E X T 1 3 9 : M A Y 2 0 1 5 dropped to 393 in 2014. Basements are a contentious subject.The borough is divided into those who want to extend in this way and those who will be impacted by issues such as construction noise, delivery access and potential damage to neighbouring properties. It was in response to such neighbour complaints that the borough decided to publish guidance to control how they are built and limit the harm they cause. Early on, conservation officers took the view that to excavate underneath any historic part of a listed terraced house would harm the hierarchy of rooms, which is of intrinsic significance to this type of building. It would also have the potential to cause physical damage to the host house or its neighbours.We had taken a consistent line on this, and planning inspectors regularly supported our planning refusals at appeal. In 2009 we adopted our first supplementary planning guidance called ‘Subterranean Development’, which advised against the building of basements underneath listed buildings. Our policy has recently been updated to further limit the extent of new basements (adopted January 2015) and a new draft supplementary planning document (SPD) called ‘Basements’ was out for consultation until 1 April 2015. That will eventually replace the 2009 guidance. Some might ask if it is not better to build a basement under a house, where it will not affect the appearance of the historic environment, than to extend externally, but RBKC has identified many conflicts. At the IHBC/ CIfA seminar Jim Gardiner of Alan Baxter Associates likened digging basements to major heart surgery where listed buildings are concerned. He admitted that harm did occur to (other engineers’) badly specified schemes, including cracking, walls collapsing and ultimately, but very rarely, complete collapse. Collapse seldom happens, but soil movement is a real concern. A terrace of houses built with lime A large skylight and plant in a garden. Several basement excavations in the same street Soil being taken out of windows. Most of the plaster has been removed.
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