Bespoke joinery in Fitzrovia

Start with the bespoke joinery brief

Start with what the furniture needs to hold and how you use the room. Record alcoves, ceiling heights, skirtings, sockets and radiator positions before setting cabinet depths or door swings. Keep the details worth retaining in the measured brief.

Agree internal layouts, lighting, ventilation, hardware and finish samples before manufacture. Drawings should show how new joinery meets uneven walls and existing cornices, and how access for installation will work.

The local building context

On the Westminster side, the Fitzrovia West Neighbourhood Plan describes a Georgian grid laid out by the Cavendish-Harley estate, its terraces of basement, ground and three or four storeys, with mews converted for mainly residential use. The East Marylebone area mixes offices, light-industrial buildings, shops, terraced housing and mansion blocks, growing more residential to the north, while Charlotte Street West has largely red-brick buildings of three to five storeys, narrow pedestrian passages and a substantial residential population.

On the Camden side, the Fitzrovia Area Action Plan says the area grew more piecemeal than the planned Bloomsbury estates, and that by the turn of the 19th century its grand houses were subdivided and rented out. The Charlotte Street appraisal records a fine grain of mainly four-storey Georgian townhouses, long since divided into smaller dwellings, shops and businesses, with a significant proportion of homes on the upper floors. Around Fitzroy Square, mansard roofs sit behind parapets.

Historic England lists 1, 1A and 2–8 Fitzroy Square on the east side and 33–40 on the south side at Grade I, both by Robert and James Adam from the 1790s. Across the boundary, 139 Cleveland Street, of about 1790–1800 in stock brick over a rusticated stucco ground floor, is Grade II, as are the terraced houses at 143–149, some with shops. The entry for 93 Great Titchfield Street notes interior features very little altered.

• Fitzrovia West Neighbourhood Plan
• East Marylebone conservation area audit SPG, 17 March 2006
• Westminster’s conservation areas: character summaries and overview
• Camden: Fitzrovia Area Action Plan, adopted March 2014
• Charlotte Street conservation area appraisal and management strategy, 24 July 2008
• Fitzroy Square conservation area appraisal and management strategy, 16 March 2010
• Historic England: 1, 1A and 2–8 Fitzroy Square, Grade I
• Historic England: 33–40 Fitzroy Square, Grade I
• Historic England: 139 Cleveland Street, Grade II
• Historic England: 143–149 Cleveland Street, Grade II
• Historic England: 93 Great Titchfield Street, Grade II

Local design and consent context

The Fitzrovia West plan names the Charlotte Street West, Cleveland Street, East Marylebone, Hanway Street and Harley Street conservation areas on Westminster’s side. East Marylebone, designated in 1982 and extended in 1990 to take in the Middlesex Hospital, has an audit adopted on 17 March 2006. Cleveland Street, designated on 20 November 1990, covers the west side between Greenwell Street and Carburton Street, with an audit of 11 April 2006. These audits cite replaced policies, so read them with the 2026 City Plan.

Camden adopted the Charlotte Street appraisal on 24 July 2008, for an area first designated on 26 March 1974 and extended in 1981, 1985 and 1999. The Fitzroy Square appraisal followed on 16 March 2010 and the Hanway Street appraisal on 23 March 2011, both covering areas once within Bloomsbury. Westminster has its own Hanway Street conservation area across the street, with an audit of 23 March 2006. The Charlotte Street and Fitzroy Square documents also refer to superseded policy.

In Westminster, a basement direction covering the whole city has been in force since 31 July 2016, having been made on 22 July 2015 and confirmed on 4 July 2016. It removes householder rights to enlarge or alter a house by basement development, lightwells or other works below the house or its curtilage. None of the council’s listed conservation-area directions for minor alterations falls in Fitzrovia, and its Class MA directions, which concern commercial-to-residential changes rather than existing homes, cover parts of the city only, so check the map.

• Fitzrovia West Neighbourhood Plan
• East Marylebone conservation area audit SPG, 17 March 2006
• Cleveland Street conservation area audit SPG, 11 April 2006
• Westminster: conservation areas and audits
• Westminster: adopted planning policies and made neighbourhood plans
• Charlotte Street conservation area appraisal and management strategy, 24 July 2008
• Fitzroy Square conservation area appraisal and management strategy, 16 March 2010
• Hanway Street conservation area appraisal and management strategy, 23 March 2011
• Westminster Hanway Street conservation area audit SPG, 23 March 2006
• Camden conservation areas and heritage statements
• Westminster: city-wide basement Article 4 direction, confirmed July 2016
• Westminster: Article 4 directions and address map

Access and site planning

Walk the route from the kerb, through any street door beside a shop, to the flat. In Westminster a skip licence lasts one month, and a skip in a bay or on a yellow line also needs a suspension or dispensation, with ten working days’ notice for a bay. In Camden only the skip company can apply, at least five working days ahead, and bay suspensions need booking at least 17 days ahead. Each council licenses scaffolds and hoardings; on Euston Road, a TfL red route, apply to TfL.

• Westminster: skip licences
• Westminster: parking bay suspensions
• Westminster: temporary structure, road closure and crane licences
• Camden: skip licences
• Camden: parking bay suspensions
• Camden: building licences for scaffolds and hoardings
• TfL: red routes and the TLRN map
• TfL: highway licences on red routes
• LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Continue planning

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