Area is the name given in architecture to an excavated, subterranean space around the walls of a building, designed to admit light into a basement

Basement

__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...

, often providing access to the house for tradesmen and deliveries and access to vaults beneath the pavement for storage of coal and ash.
The term is most commonly applied to urban houses of the Georgian period in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, where it was normal for the service rooms, such as the kitchen

Kitchen

A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...

, scullery

Scullery

Scullery may refer to:*Dishwashing*Scullery * Scullery maid...

 and laundry

Laundry

Laundry is a noun that refers to the act of washing clothing and linens, the place where that washing is done, and/or that which needs to be, is being, or has been laundered...

, to be in the basement.