here:
also should remember that the wondrous (in their time) victorians and their forebears had a limited understanding of physics, chemistry medicine you name it, they worked with what they had (or what they could buy for what they wanted to spend) as we all do.
Builders are not always the sharpest knives in the drawer, and I expect vast numbers of houses were thrown up without any real technical reference to their local conditions at all, i.e. on a "just like the last lot" basis, ultimately driven by cost, - they weren't "owner built".
I would expect that basically "hiding" cellar walls should not necessarily impinge on anything, given enough ventilation.
Jim K