Talk:English basement

Quality scale?
Is there a level for "crap"?

First off, this is a regionalism, and a realtorism. Realtors call property anything they like, as long as they think it will sell it; barbarisms like "norman queen anne" and "two-story Cape Cod" are the lifeblood of realtor-speak, just as property developers seem to have a Code of Dishonor that requires them to name streets and subdivisions for things which were destroyed in development, or never there at all.

An "english basement" is one in which the service rooms are in the mostly below-grade floor, generally about 3 feet is above grade, but some arrangement is made for direct entrance to that floor; the "ground floor" -generally raised about 3 feet- "public rooms" are raised enough for privacy from the sidewalk. The "american basement" has some of the service rooms, the kitchen and those associated with it on the ground floor, which may be raised as little as one foot. Either way, we are not looking at a big increase in height. The term was a newyorkism, but died out somewhat because it became genericized for any vaguely livable troglodytic dwelling space, but it seems to be going great guns in DC. Chicago occupied basements did tend to be a little higher, but that was true regardless of what went in 'em. Anmccaff (talk) 21:38, 12 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Great observations. I had a couple questions about this article, myself. First, are such spaces not referred to as 'garden apartments' in the Northeast, at all? (Not a rhetorical question; I have no idea.) Secondly, I don't understand the reference to "older" cities, such as "Boston; NYC; Washington, DC; London; and Edinburgh" (I believe the list was), while Chicago (though mentioned in the article) is left out of this list. While Chicago is obviously a younger city than the others, I think the architecture we're referring to here is largely 19th-century, whether it's in Chicago, NYC, or the European cities mentioned. So why split up the two groups? And shouldn't 19th-century be the relevant piece, age-wise, rather than some vague descriptor like "older"? And how about more information on the historical background of these types of buildings -- when they were built, what preceded them, where (which [types of] metro areas, worldwide), etc.? SteGenevieve (talk) 14:41, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

Since basement conversions to flats are becoming ever more popular in the UK because of the housing shortage it is a needed article. It needs improvement of course GRALISTAIR (talk) 23:40, 26 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Agreed, I can see this article really being built up, as in any big city these basement spaces are being converted - pretty rough article but hey as a community we can improve it LegalSmeagolian (talk) 22:00, 2 February 2023 (UTC)