An English basement is an apartment on the lowest floor of a building, generally a townhouse or brownstone, which is partially below and partially above ground level and which has its own separate entrance from the rest of the building. English basements are often rented out separately from the main dwelling, either by a single landlord who own both portions of the building or by the tenant of the building who sub-lets the English basement. They are most common in larger, older cities like London, New York, and Washington, D.C.