We have a basement window that looks into a hole in the ground (we think it's for overflow rainwater drainage), with a bit on the top of the window allowing daylight in. The window needs replacing, but I'm trying to find out the cheapest option. Could we just brick up the window entirely, with a line of ventilation bricks at the top? The window hardly lets much light in at the moment, so I don't see the point in installing a whole window replacement.
There are a couple of other windows that have been bricked up in the past; the house is Victorian end terrace and used to have a coal chute as well.