Bathroom renovation
in a Marylebone townhouse or flat

In a leasehold flat, the lease decides first. Depending on its wording, LEASE explains, a lease can require the landlord's consent to alterations that already have planning or building regulations approval.

The Portman Estate's licence FAQ adds two points for its flats: modernising may need the approval of the immediate landlord and of the freeholder, and because leases commonly specify carpet and underlay or other suitable material, a switch to ceramic tiles or hardwood may need a licence.

Where the house is listed, Policy 44 of the City Plan expects the work to keep its special interest, with original or significant detail and old fabric protected or, where appropriate, put back. In the Harley Street area almost every terrace and house surviving from the first phase in anything like its original condition is listed.

Sources: LEASE: alterations and home improvements, The Portman Estate: licence to alter, Westminster City Plan 2019-2040 (2026, adopted January 2026), Westminster City Council: Harley Street conservation area mini guide

Westminster's 2008 Harley Street audit warns that minor additions such as wires, pipework and flues, when carelessly sited, harm individual buildings and the wider street scene, and it records numerous cases of poorly located plant on the backs of buildings, in mews and on roofs.

New soil and vent pipes therefore run inside the building wherever the structure allows, in existing service voids or new boxing, rather than down a rear elevation facing a mews.

Upper floor bathrooms sit behind the house's recessed timber sashes, which the audit says diminish in height above the first floor. Extract is routed so that it never cuts through a sash or its brick arch.

Where a bathroom is in one of the Edwardian or late Victorian flats above shops on Marylebone High Street, the shop ceiling below is inspected and its owner consulted before waste routes are fixed.

In a listed Marylebone house a new bathroom is planned where an earlier one stood or inside a later partition, so that historic floors, ceilings and joinery are not cut, and the drawings show every pipe route before consent is sought.

Sources: Westminster City Council: Harley Street conservation area audit (SPD, adopted 16 June 2008), Westminster City Council: Westminster's conservation areas, character summaries and overview

After a feasibility visit we measure the room, trace the waste, water and extract routes, and check the lease, any estate licence and the list entry. The bathroom is drawn by our in-house designers, and any floor strengthening needed for stone is designed by our in-house structural engineers.

With fittings and finishes chosen, a written quotation follows (No Deposit Required), and the fitting is timed around the deliveries of tiles, stone and sanitaryware.

I would like to thank Ross and his team for their consistent commitment to quality and their unerring reliability.

We have worked with Ross and his company many times. They are extremely professional and hardworking individuals who can work under any circumstances. There was no variation to the works.