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Anundercroft is traditionally a cellar orstorage room,^[1] often brick-lined andvaulted, and used for storage in buildings sincemedieval times. In modern usage, an undercroft is generally a ground (street-level) area which is relatively open to the sides, but covered by the building above.^[2]

While some were used as simple storerooms, others were rented out as shops. For example, the undercroft rooms atMyres Castle inFife,Scotland, ofc. 1300 were used as the medieval kitchen and a range of stores. Many of these early medieval undercrofts were vaulted orgroined, such as the vaulted chamber atBeverston Castle inGloucestershire or the groined stores at Myres Castle. The term is sometimes used to describe acrypt beneath achurch, used for burial purposes. For example, there is a 14th-century undercroft or crypt extant atMuchalls Castle inAberdeenshire inScotland, even though the original chapel above it was destroyed in an act of war in 1746.

Undercrofts were commonly built inEngland andScotland throughout the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. They occur in cities such asLondon,Chester,Coventry andSouthampton. The undercroft beneath theHouses of Parliament in London was rented to the conspirators behind theGunpowder Plot.

In modern buildings, the term undercroft is often used to describe a ground-level parking area that occupies the footprint of the building (and sometimes extends to other service or garden areas around the structure). This type of parking is, however, discouraged by someurban design guidelines, as it prevents the ground floor from having activities (shops, restaurants or similar) that provide for a lively streetscape.^[3]

• The Undercroft, Guildford
• The Undercroft, Southbank Centre – skateboarding and graffiti centre in London
• Void deck

• Rooms

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