Dig your own mega basement

Are you familiar with the story of London’s Mole Man? He was civil engineer William Lyttle, who over 40 years burrowed a maze of tunnels under his Hackney home. The late Mr Lyttle explained his burrowing as an attempt to create a wine cellar which got out of hand (we’ve all been there). The tunnels are thought to extend 20 meters from his house in every direction. Mr Lyttle was evicted from his home eventually, but only after years of complaints from the surrounding residents who, as one woman said, “half expected to see him pop up through the kitchen floor at any moment.”

Rather like that other great eccentric North London homeowner, Mr Trebus, the story of a man driven to destroy his own home with an obsession he can barely understand, let alone contain, is compelling, and can raise conflicting feelings. Living in a neighbouring house must have been terribly stressful – he managed to knock the power out on the whole road by hitting a cable on one occasion – and yet the grand ambition of this seemingly pointless project is just fascinating, and not a little touching. Not to mention the very contemporary issue of areas gentrifying around a person who certainly doesn’t view their home as an investment. Can I get a “Mega Basement*”?

Photograph by Jon Cardwell

Anyway, I was fascinated to read that the Mole house has been bought, not by a developer keen to get a prime bit of Hackney at a knock/tumble-down price, but by Brit Artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster. I love their work, and they’re probably best know for the assemblages of rubbish that create beautiful silhouette portraits when lit.

How very apt that they should turn out to be the people who bought this place at auction. Along with architect David Adjaye the couple plan to renovate the house and turn the basement maze into a studio, a project they admit will be a labour of love and a long time in the completing. You can read more about their plans, as well as more Mole Man facts, here. Also just have to point out, Ms Webster sure knows how to rock a house-rennovating look.