Being underground and out of sight means this kind of conversion has a good chance of being granted planning consent. ‘If the building is not listed, it is generally just the size, shape and location of the basement lightwell that will be affected by planning rules, and these can vary from borough to borough, and even street to street.
A listed building is a special case for a basement extension, and we advise people to talk to our sister company, The Oxford & London Building Consultancy as we have years of experience in dealing with these more complex listed building applications for basement conversions in the most demanding boroughs such as Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea,’ says Rosie.
Provided the house is suitable, clients and designers wanting to create basement media rooms are now limited only by their imagination. ‘As it’s a totally new floor the room can be as big as you want it to be, and size, shape and soundproofing can be designed to suit your requirements,’ says Rosie. ‘It’s a chance to experiment with different architectural and design ideas too, as the basement floor plans rarely resemble the typical traditional houses they are built under.’