Filled in Cellars

[Edward Ian]

Hi, am planning a move to London shortly.
I am buying an Edwardian house in Woolwich, south London. I understand from speaking of one of the estate agents there, that after the war, a great many of the houses in the area had their cellars filled in with rubble for the ruined docks, factories etc. Why one would chose to do this is not clear.
The house I am buying has a cellar that is only about 3ft deep, and I suspect my have been filled in from a larger space.
A swankey new basement extension and modest house extension will set me back only about £500k :shock:
Does anyone have any knowledge of these cellars having been filled in or indeed being dug out again?

 

[Flyfisher]

Be careful not to upset your neighbours with your ‘swanky’ underground extension . . . :wink:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46616837

 

[paulc]

Could always follow in the footsteps of William Lyttle, the "Mole of Hackney". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18898642

 

[MikeG]

......many of the houses in the area had their cellars filled in with rubble for the ruined docks, factories etc. Why one would chose to do this is not clear.......

Because they were damp. Not just damp, but ankle deep in standing water at times. And because the original need for cellars (food storage, coal storage, etc) had gone.

 

[MikeG]

......many of the houses in the area had their cellars filled in with rubble for the ruined docks, factories etc. Why one would chose to do this is not clear.......

Because they were damp. Not just damp, but ankle deep in standing water at times. And because the original need for cellars (food storage, coal storage, etc) had gone.

 

[Edward Ian]

Thanks Mike. But surely in 1945 one still needed to store coal?

 

[Flyfisher]

My paternal grandparents lived in Crouch End, north London, and I well remember their cellar being used for coal storage, with delivery via a chute near the front steps, when I was a nipper back in the mid-1960s. But I think MikeG is basically right in that the traditional uses for cellars started to become unnecessary in the decades after WW2 and subsequently fell completely out of favour until 'new money' started taking over such areas and converting the cellars into underground fitness centres :wink:

 

[MatthewC]

... a great many of the houses in the area had their cellars filled in with rubble for the ruined docks, factories etc. Why one would chose to do this is not clear.

I know of a church in central London where the extensive cellar/crypt was filled in with rubble, possibly soon after WWII. Ths was all tall enough to walk in beforehand, so it was a huge amount of rubble. In theory it would possible to crawl around on the top of it between the rubble and the old ceiling but I never dared!

I was told it was simply an easy way of getting rid of the building work rubble (which, after all, was in some surplus in London after WWII).

 

[Edward Ian]

MatthewC,
This makes sense. I haven't explored the "cellar" yet, but will post when I eventually do.

 

[Lime]

I was told it was simply an easy way of getting rid of the building work rubble (which, after all, was in some surplus in London after WWII).

I believe that is correct.
Filling cellars with rubble was a convenient and cheap method of disposal.

 

[Feltwell]

I was told it was simply an easy way of getting rid of the building work rubble (which, after all, was in some surplus in London after WWII).

I believe that is correct.
Filling cellars with rubble was a convenient and cheap method of disposal.

Especially if you had a coal hole like Flyfisher's grandparents!

I've always thought that was a bit odd here - this house definitely was heated by coal (we're in the middle of the Shropshire coal field and would have had quite a large pit just down the road) but although we've got a cellar there was never a coal hole. But then I have a mystery small outbuilding on an old aerial picture, possible that it was a coal shed.

 

[JanieB]

Not in London or in a town, in fact a farmhouse. My parents in law had their cellar filled in when they moved into the house in 1945. I could never understand why. As for it being because of damp, my m-I-l said the damp came up through the rubble and made the ground floor damp. She wasn’t consulted over the filling and would have made good use of it as storage for all the preserving stuff she made and to put the very large chest freezer.

The family joke was about what we had for pudding, stewed plums, plum crumble, plum pie, cold plums and custard, plums and ice cream.

Oh, and f-I-l knew about the damp as he changed the name from S*****n Water Farm to Oxleaze Farm as he said the original name sounded too wet. The current owners have changed it back.