Architects, Engineers, Surveyors & Builders Under One Roof.
One Studio. One Contract. One Team.
RICS surveying support for party walls, licence to alter, conservation-area works & neighbour mattersFrom our Finchley Road studio we deliver house refurbishments, flat refurbishments, extensions, loft conversions, basement conversions and full residential renovations across St James's — coordinating design, approvals, structure, build and handover under one accountable route. A refurbishment company built for Jermyn Street, King Street, Duke Street and Pall Mall: mansion flats, period chambers and upper-floor conversions where conservation detailing and structural sequencing need handling properly with Westminster.
A St James's home needs more than a builder. The houses and flats of SW1Y are rarely a blank canvas: period fabric that has to be protected, conservation-area and listed-building controls, neighbour and party wall sensitivities, leasehold approvals for flats, structural alterations that have to be sequenced correctly, careful services upgrades and a level of finish that does justice to the address. Get any one of those wrong and a refurbishment stalls, overruns or loses the very character that made the property worth buying.
As a refurbishment company in St James's, our value is not only the quality of the workmanship on site. The value is coordination: architecture, structural design, planning, party wall, surveying support, procurement and site delivery all working together before the property is opened up — so the design is buildable, the budget is tested, the approvals are sequenced and the programme holds. Architects, engineers, surveyors and builders are coordinated under one roof, from our studio at 250 Finchley Road.
One team for the whole residential refurbishment route — from a single phase to a complete design-and-build programme. Each strand below links to the detail for St James's.
Whole-house refurbishment for St James's period homes, family houses and listed properties — strip-out, structural changes, rewiring, plumbing, heating, insulation, kitchens, bathrooms, joinery, flooring, decoration and handover.
Apartment, mansion-flat and leasehold refurbishment with Licence to Alter, freeholder coordination, managing-agent communication, acoustic upgrades, services planning, lift and communal-area protection, and refined finishes.
Complete renovation for houses and flats where layout, structure, services and finishes are planned as one programme rather than separate room-by-room works.
Rear, side-return, wraparound and kitchen-led extensions with architecture, structural calculations, planning, party wall and construction coordinated together.
Dormer, mansard and roof-space conversions planned around stairs, structure, daylight, insulation, conservation constraints and Building Control.
Basement and lower-ground refurbishment with structural engineering, waterproofing strategy, drainage, lightwells, party wall risk and Westminster’s basement planning requirements.
Feasibility, measured surveys, planning drawings, Building Regulations packages, 3D visualisation and build-ready detailing.
Load-bearing wall removals, beams, steelwork, temporary works, floor strengthening, basement structure and structural calculations.
Westminster planning applications, listed building consent, conservation-area strategy, heritage statements, Article 4 checks and design revisions.
Building surveys, party wall advice, Licence to Alter support, pre-purchase advice and quality monitoring through our separate sister company, Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy.
Bespoke kitchens, bathrooms, wardrobes, fitted furniture, panelling, stone, lighting and finishes delivered inside wider refurbishment projects.
Sash windows, lime plaster, cornices, fireplaces, timber floors, masonry, period joinery and sensitive listed-building repairs.
Most refurbishment problems are coordination problems. We remove them by bringing design, structure, approvals and build together from day one.
Clients look for us under many names — a refurbishment company, a property refurbishment company, a renovation company, a design and build company, refurbishment contractors or a residential construction company in St James's. They all describe the same accountable team. Here is how that works whichever phrase fits your project.
As a refurbishment company in St James's we deliver both house refurbishment and flat refurbishment under one roof — from a single-room update to a complete house renovation. Whether you call it house refurbishment, a flat renovation or full property refurbishment, the route is the same: one team for design, approvals, structure, build and handover.
People search for a property refurbishment company in St James's when they want the whole job coordinated rather than juggling separate trades. We are that single property refurbishment company — running the entire residential refurbishment from first survey to final snag, with one point of accountability for budget, programme and quality.
As a renovation company in St James's, much of our work is on period homes — Victorian and Georgian houses, mansion flats and conversions — alongside extensions and reconfigurations. A good house renovation company respects original fabric while bringing services, insulation and layout up to modern standards; that balance sits at the heart of our work as a home and flat renovation company.
We work as a design and build company in St James's: architects, structural engineers, planning consultants and builders coordinated by one team. Rather than appointing a designer, then a contractor, then a surveyor separately, a design-and-build refurbishment company carries the scheme from concept and drawings through approvals and into construction — fewer gaps, one price and one programme.
For structural projects we are hands-on refurbishment contractors in St James's — managing steelwork and structural engineering, loft conversions, extensions and basement works with the right engineers, party-wall surveyors and Building Control sign-off. As renovation contractors we sequence the heavy structural stages first, then the fit-out, so the build stays safe, compliant and on programme.
On larger schemes we act as a residential construction company in St James's — full structural refurbishments, multi-floor reconfigurations and rebuilds behind retained facades. Clients looking for building contractors in St James's for a substantial project get the same single-team accountability, with design, engineering and construction management handled together.
St James’s sits in the City of Westminster, within the St James’s Conservation Area, on the historic streets between St James’s Park and Piccadilly. Its homes are largely mansion flats, period chambers and upper-floor conversions — many listed, above the famous galleries, clubs and shops — so refurbishment here is led firmly by consents and logistics.
Westminster scrutinises external change exceptionally closely, much of the area is listed, and the prestige mixed-use ground floor and tight streets shape every project. Depending on the property and scope, we confirm and sequence the right approvals before strip-out:
St James’s residential character sits above its famous ground floor. Jermyn Street and King Street carry period buildings with flats and chambers above the shops and galleries; Duke Street and the streets towards Pall Mall add mansion flats and upper-floor conversions in a strictly-protected setting.
That layered, prestigious grain drives the work. The flats and chambers are leasehold projects where structure, acoustics and managing-agent consents are central; many buildings are listed, so external change is exceptionally tightly controlled; and every scheme needs carefully-planned access on busy, narrow streets. Knowing Westminster’s conservation and listed-building rules early keeps a St James’s scheme on track.
Jermyn Street and King Street — leasehold homes above the galleries and shops, with structure, acoustics and consents handled together.
Duke Street and the Pall Mall streets — conversions in listed buildings, restored with authentic, conservation-led detail.
Much of St James’s is listed within the conservation area; consent strategy and access logistics lead the project.
For local controls, see Planning in St James’s and Heritage Restoration in St James’s.
We refurbish Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian and later family homes across SW1Y — whole-house projects that begin with strip-out and opening-up, where decades of damp, rot and hidden defects are discovered and dealt with before they reach the finishes. From there we coordinate structural alterations and new layouts, complete rewiring and plumbing, heating and hot-water upgrades, insulation and ventilation, kitchens and bathrooms, and the sash windows, plasterwork and period joinery that give a St James's house its character — through to final decoration and snagging.
Because the work is sequenced as one programme, the trades follow each other cleanly rather than tripping over one another, and the period fabric worth keeping is protected rather than lost in the rush. The result is a home that is warm, efficient and quiet to live in, finished to a standard that suits the address — without the character that made it worth buying being stripped away.
A whole-house refurbishment moves through the property in a deliberate order. Below ground and at the base, we address damp, sub-floor ventilation, drainage and any movement before anything is re-lined. On the ground floor, this is usually where the biggest spatial change happens — opening up reception rooms, forming a kitchen-dining-living space and connecting to the garden, with the structural beams and steel that requires. Through the upper floors, we re-plan bedrooms and bathrooms around new soil and water runs, add en-suites and improve storage, and at roof level we deal with the covering, insulation and any loft conversion. Running vertically through all of it are the services — a full rewire and consumer unit, new pipework and heating, hot-water provision sized for the house, ventilation and data — designed once, as a whole, rather than patched room by room.
Period fabric is handled with restraint. Cornices, ceiling roses, fireplaces, panelled doors and timber floors are protected and restored where they survive; sash windows are repaired and draught-proofed rather than ripped out; and lime plaster and breathable finishes are used where the building needs to move and breathe. Where a previous owner has stripped or botched original detail, we can reinstate it to the correct pattern. The aim throughout is a house that performs to a modern standard on warmth, services and layout while still reading, unmistakably, as a St James's home.
Explore House Refurbishment in St James's, Full Refurbishment, Heritage Restoration, Kitchen Renovation and Bathroom Renovation in St James's.
Flats are not just smaller houses. A leasehold refurbishment in a St James's mansion block is governed by the lease, by the freeholder and managing agent, and by the neighbours above, below and alongside — which means a different discipline from day one. We plan around lease terms and Licence to Alter, freeholder consent and managing-agent rules, lift and communal-area protection, restricted working hours and noise, service risers, bathroom and kitchen moves, ventilation routes, acoustic floors, fire stopping and the day-to-day reality of keeping neighbours onside.
For leasehold flats, Licence to Alter and surveying support can be coordinated through our sister company where appropriate, so the legal and professional side moves in step with the design and build rather than holding it up.
The technical detail in a flat is unforgiving. Acoustic separation — floating floors, resilient bars and isolation at party walls and ceilings — is often a lease requirement and the single biggest cause of neighbour disputes when ignored. Moving a kitchen or bathroom means re-routing soil and waste within tight floor build-ups and existing risers, sometimes with pumped solutions where gravity falls are not available. Ventilation has to be designed for an interior flat with limited external walls, and fire stopping at every penetration is both a safety and a compliance matter. We resolve these on paper, with the freeholder and managing agent, before the Licence to Alter is signed — so the works on site are exactly what was approved, and access, hours and protection of common parts are agreed in advance.
Explore Flat Refurbishment in St James's, Licence to Alter, RICS surveying support, Bathroom Renovation and Kitchen Renovation in St James's.
Many St James's refurbishments grow because clients want more space, not just a better finish — and the right time to add it is while the house is already open.
Rear, side-return and kitchen-led extensions; dormer and mansard loft conversions handled within their conservation constraints; basement conversion and lower-ground redesign with the structural steel, temporary works, party wall, daylight and glazing, waterproofing, drainage and Building Control that subterranean work demands — all planned together so design, structure, approvals and construction are aligned rather than bolted on afterwards.
Extensions and lofts in St James's are shaped by the conservation context as much as by the structure. Rear and side-return extensions usually turn on how the new roof, glazing and brick read against the original house and the neighbours, and on the daylight and party wall implications for the homes either side. Loft conversions are often the most planning-sensitive element: in much of the conservation area the prominent mansard and dormer forms that work elsewhere in London are restricted, so the gain in head height and floor area has to be designed around what Westminster will accept on a visible roofline. We test feasibility early — head heights, roof pitch, the staircase route and the impact on the elevation — before committing to a scheme.
Basements and lower-ground works are the most technically demanding and the most heavily scrutinised. Westminster applies specific basement and conservation guidance, and any scheme has to demonstrate it can be built safely without harming neighbouring properties — which means structural engineering, temporary works, a considered waterproofing strategy (tanking and cavity drainage), drainage and sump design, and almost always a party wall award with the adjoining owners. Lightwells and improved ceiling heights transform a damp, underused lower ground into genuinely habitable space, but only when the structure, water management and approvals are resolved together at design stage rather than discovered on site.
Explore House Extensions, Loft Conversions, Basement Conversions, Structural Engineering and Planning in St James's.
On most refurbishments the client ends up as the unpaid project manager — carrying messages between an architect, a structural engineer, a surveyor and a builder who have never worked together, and discovering only on site that the drawings were never tested against the build cost or the structure. The design-build model removes that gap. Here, the architect who plans your floor layout sits with the engineer who has to make it stand up and the team who will build it, so a wall is never “designed” before anyone has confirmed it can come out, what it costs to remove, and how the floors above will be supported while it does.
In practice that means feasibility, budget, structure and the approvals route are pressure-tested together before the scope is fixed, the specification is priced into a single fixed-price contract rather than a stack of optimistic allowances, and one project manager owns the programme, the procurement, the trades and the quality control from first survey to handover. You have one number, one programme and one point of contact — and when something hidden emerges in a hundred-year-old building, as it sometimes will, there is one accountable team to resolve it rather than four parties pointing at each other. For complex St James's projects, that coordination is the difference between a refurbishment that runs to plan and one that drifts.
Our studio and material library at 250 Finchley Road, where design, specification and finishes are developed with you.
RIBA architects prepare and submit applications and develop build-ready detailing for Westminster schemes.
Structural calculations, steel and beam design, floor strengthening and basement structure, with Building Control coordinated end to end.
Directly-managed trades, procurement and site control under one project manager and one fixed-price contract.
Two companies, clearly separated. Hampstead Renovations delivers design, refurbishment, extensions and build work. Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy is a separate sister company providing RICS surveying and professional building consultancy support. Where appropriate, clients can benefit from joined-up knowledge before works begin. RICS surveying support →
We discuss the property, intended scope, budget, timescale and constraints.
We review property type, planning status, structural risk, leasehold constraints and the likely approval route.
Architecture, structural engineering, planning, Building Control, party wall and Licence to Alter are coordinated before the scope is fixed.
Once design, scope and specification are defined, the build is priced and programmed clearly.
The project manager coordinates trades, procurement, site protection, inspections, snagging, completion documents and handover.
Guide prices per sqm. All tiers include design, structural work, full M&E, kitchens, bathrooms and decoration. Costs depend on property type, listed / conservation status, structural changes, services upgrades, finish level, access, approvals and how much existing fabric is retained.
How a refurbishment is run day-to-day matters as much in St James's as what it delivers. The streets around St James’s — Jermyn Street, King Street and Duke Street — are prime, busy and controlled-parking, so deliveries, skips and access need tightly-planned logistics, so logistics have to be planned: timed deliveries, agreed loading, waste managed properly rather than piling up, and the public realm left clean. Get this wrong and a project quickly sours relations with neighbours and the council.
Inside and around the property we protect what stays — floors, staircases, retained period features, and the neighbours’ walls and gardens. Where party walls are involved we keep the relationship with adjoining owners professional and informed, working to the agreed award and minimising noise and disruption within permitted hours. On flats and mansion blocks we protect lifts, hallways and communal areas and keep the managing agent updated, because a considerate site is usually the difference between consent renewed without fuss and a complaint that stops the job.
At the end, the work is snagged properly, the property is cleaned, and you receive the completion documents, certificates and warranties you need — followed by aftercare, because a refurbishment relationship should not end the day the scaffold comes down.
The per-square-metre tiers above are a planning guide. Within any project, the spend lands in five broad areas — and on a St James's property the balance often tips toward the first two.
Opening up, beams and steel, underpinning where needed, roof and damp works, and repairs to walls and floors. Older St James's houses often need more here than buyers expect — which is exactly why we survey before pricing.
Full rewire, plumbing and heating, hot water sized for the house, ventilation, lighting and data. In period properties these are usually replaced wholesale rather than extended.
The most specification-sensitive line. The gap between a good and a furniture-grade kitchen, bespoke cabinetry, stone and sanitaryware is where much of the difference between the price tiers sits.
Flooring, plaster, decoration, lighting fit-out and the restoration of period detail — cornices, fireplaces, panelling — that a St James's home is bought for.
Architecture, structural engineering, planning and Building Control fees, party wall and Licence to Alter where they apply, plus a sensible contingency for what opening up an old building reveals.
The honest message is that two identical-looking houses on the same St James's street can carry very different budgets, because what is hidden — the state of the structure, the services and the existing fabric — matters more than the floor area. Our survey-first approach exists to find that out before a number is committed, so the fixed price you sign reflects the real building rather than an optimistic guess.
You have bought a Georgian or Victorian house that has not been touched in decades and want a whole-house refurbishment before moving in. We survey, agree the scope and a fixed price, secure any approvals, then strip out and rebuild in one programme — structure, services, kitchen, bathrooms, period restoration and decoration — so you move into a finished home, not a building site.
You love the house but need another bedroom, a bigger kitchen or a usable lower ground. We combine the refurbishment with an extension, loft or basement, coordinating planning, party wall and structural design so the new space and the existing house are delivered together rather than as two disruptive projects a year apart.
You own a leasehold flat that needs reconfiguring and bringing up to standard. We manage Licence to Alter and freeholder consent, design the acoustic and services solution the lease requires, and run a clean, considerate site that keeps the managing agent and neighbours on side from first notice to handover.
Your home is listed or sits in the St James's Conservation Area, and change has to be handled sensitively. We lead with the heritage and planning strategy — listed building consent, conservation detailing, sympathetic materials — so the modern home you want is achieved without putting the building’s character or its consents at risk.
Most refurbishments need consents before work starts. As a design-and-build company we confirm and sequence them — with RICS sister-company surveying support for leasehold consent, party walls and neighbour matters.
We work across the capital — explore our refurbishment company in London hub for every area we cover.
Representative whole-house and apartment refurbishments completed across prime London.
Sensitive whole-house refurbishment: new kitchen-diner, three redesigned bathrooms, period joinery restoration and complete M&E upgrade.
View case study →Full strip-back and reconfiguration: new open-plan ground floor, three bathrooms, bespoke kitchen and complete rewire / replumb.
View case study →Complete 95 sqm flat refurbishment: new layout with en-suite master, open-plan kitchen-living and full rewire.
View case study →A selection of real refurbishment projects in and around St James's and prime London — each shown with its true location.
The same studio and design-build team cover the neighbouring prime Central London areas:
Useful background before you start a St James’s refurbishment.
Westminster · SW1Y
“I would like to thank Ross and his team for their consistent commitment to quality and their unerring reliability. They delivered our property to specification and on time, proving to be an extremely effective, experienced, and proactive contractor.”
“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.”
The more you tell us, the more useful our first response. We’ll come back with a realistic budget range, the approvals you’ll need and how we’d run it — no obligation.
Send us the address, property type and intended scope. We’ll help you understand whether the project needs design, planning, structural engineering, Licence to Alter, party wall support, surveying input or a full design-and-build route.
We survey your property, discuss scope and provide a clear, honest budget framework.
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