Kitchen renovation
in Marylebone's houses and mansion flats

For a kitchen in a flat, start with the lease: LEASE notes that, depending on its terms, the landlord's permission may be needed for alterations even once planning permission or building regulations approval is in hand. On the Portman Estate a tiled kitchen floor raises a particular point, because leases commonly allow only carpet and underlay or other suitable material, so replacing carpet with ceramic tiles or hardwood may need a licence.

Where knocking through to a dining room is structural and changes how the property looks, the estate says planning permission and building regulations approval may be needed as well as the licence.

In a listed house, a new opening or extract route is weighed against Policy 44, which asks works to protect original or significant detail and historic fabric. The Harley Street area alone has about 260 Grade II buildings, 33 at Grade II* and two at Grade I, and the Portman Estate area about 600 listed buildings.

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 City Council: Portman Estate conservation area mini guide

Most Georgian and Victorian houses in the central part of the Harley Street area were built with front railings around open basement lightwells, which Westminster's 2008 audit says mark the distinction between the main and service areas of a house. The lower ground floor was the service floor, and it remains a natural home for a kitchen.

Every one of those houses has an open lightwell behind its railings, with stone steps up to the front door, so the lightwell gives the kitchen its daylight and often its delivery route. Steps and railings are protected before any units arrive.

The audit counts poorly located plant among the area's negative features, most often found on the backs of buildings in mews and alleys, and it warns that even pipework and flues can spoil a building when carelessly placed. Kitchen extract is taken to the least visible point the structure allows, with the duct boxed in.

Source: Westminster City Council: Harley Street conservation area audit (SPD, adopted 16 June 2008)

A worktop slab cannot be carried far, so a parking bay suspension outside is applied for first. Westminster asks for 10 working days' notice of a bay suspension for building works, and a request made less than 10 calendar days before the start pays a short-notice fee, and its Code of Construction Practice keeps construction vehicles to the agreed site hours.

Strip-out is booked between 8am and 6pm on a weekday or 8am and 1pm on a Saturday, when the Code's lower noise thresholds apply. A skip on the road needs its own council licence before it arrives, and the Code asks for care before a skip stands over a vault. Cabinetry made to measure for period rooms comes from our joinery team: see bespoke joinery.

Sources: Westminster City Council: parking bay suspensions, Westminster City Council: Code of Construction Practice (May 2026), Westminster City Council: noise problems we can investigate

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.