London's 'iceberg homes' plumb the city's depths

London

IN London's most upmarket districts, shovel-wielding teams are hard at work in what look like mines hidden beneath luxury homes, sidestepping the British capital's planning rules by expanding underground.

Some of their more hi-tech kit may end up buried there - it is reported that the cost of bringing it back above ground is more than its value - and the bowels of the British capital have already become a graveyard for around 1,000 excavating machines.