Camden News: Edith Bowman | Radio 1 DJ | basement plan | home improvement scheme

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Camden News - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 9 April 2009

Radio 1 DJ Edith Bowman

Radio 1 DJ has basement plan

Presenter wants to build under home

RADIO One DJ Edith Bowman has come up with a home improvement scheme that is set to test Camden Council’s planning policies on basement developments.
The celebrity music show presenter, who lives in a Victorian terrace in Gospel Oak with her partner Tom Smith of rock band Editors, wants to excavate new rooms under the house.
Work would be carried out in a manner that has attracted fierce opposition in the past from residents in the north of the borough who fear months of disturbing building works, subsidence and flooding.
Ms Bowman joins other well-known Camden residents including Ricky Gervais who have asked for permission to build beneath their homes. The basement boom shows no sign of slowing down in the borough with seven other applications for new underground developments at separate private homes in the borough hitting the planning department’s desk this week.
Ms Bowman’s proposal show that the new space would be used for a games area and a study which could be used as a music room.
The DJ’s agent, Jonathan Hackford, said she had decided to pursue the expensive project as she loved living near the Heath and wants to bring up her family there.
He said: “Edith is very attached to living in the Gospel Oak area. With a young family, she would like more space, hence the application. She has applied for planning permission for an extension by creating a new basement, as other people have locally, and now awaits the decision of the council. Of course, she would not do anything that compromises the architectural integrity of her home or that of her neighbours, and has spoken to them about her plans.”
Evelyn Simpson, of the Oak Village Residents Association, said they would “wait and see” if they were going to officially object.
She added: “We need a guarantee that neither of the neighbouring houses will collapse and fall in if work starts. But we want to see the plans and what is going to be put in place before we make a judgment.”
Ms Simpson said that Oak Village had a high water table, which meant there were fears over subsidence and flooding.
She said: “It is a lovely road and any work must be done extremely carefully. We will keep an eye on this and hope to be kept closely informed.”

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