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Whether you call them ‘basements’ or ‘lower ground floors’, the space in commercial properties that sits below street level has always been problematic. Now its popularity is on the increase. Greg Stalcup reports.


I


t’s a decade since the ban on smoking in public came into force in the UK. The new law had far-reaching – and often unintended – consequences. One of these was that the suitability of basement space for restaurants and bars became compromised. This was because operators


recognised that post-ban they’d need outside smoking space for customers and that wasn’t terribly compatible with being underground. In effect, the smoking ban stubbed out the appeal of quite a lot of subterranean space.


More recently, we’ve also seen such a boom in the eating and drinking sector that landlords – in the face of huge demand – have been far more amenable to make street level space available to operators.


To compound the woes of basements, far fewer people now drive to work so the need for onsite car parking has also diminished – although the demand for bike racks and shower facilities has increased to slightly offset this.


Accordingly, landlords and their agents have had to become a lot more creative in their thinking with regard to lower ground space. In that respect, they’ve been greatly helped


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