House refurbishment in Emerson Park

Bring the whole-house scope together.

Start with the house refurbishment brief

Survey the rooms, structure and building services before separating repairs from alterations. Identify the features to keep and the rooms that must remain usable, then coordinate heating, electrics, bathrooms, kitchens and finishes in one written scope.

Record allowances and exclusions against the drawings. Plan inspections before work is covered, agree how changes will be priced and keep a clear handover list for certificates, commissioning and snagging.

The local building context

The document divides the area into sectors with their own criteria. Sector 1, on Butts Green and Ardleigh Green Roads, has been substantially developed for flats. Sectors 2, 3 and 4, including Nelmes Way, Nelmes Crescent, Great Nelmes Chase and Ayloffs Walk, contain mainly medium-sized family houses. Sector 5, including Curtis Road, Beverley Gardens and Woodhall Crescent, mixes medium and large detached houses with smaller, often semi-detached homes of the kind found in the other sectors. Sector 6, including Woodlands Avenue, Sylvan Avenue, Elm Grove and Parkstone Avenue, is typified by medium and large houses in spacious, well landscaped grounds.

Capel Nelmes is listed at Grade II, and the Sector 6 schedule names “Sylvan Avenue 1 (Capel Nelmes)”. Havering’s Local Heritage List of July 2024 has a section headed Emerson Park, whose entries lie near the Policy Area rather than in its schedule. They include the platform canopy of Emerson Park station, which opened in 1909 as Emerson Park Halt; seventeenth- to nineteenth-century timber-framed cottages at 264, 266, 268–270 and 274–276 Wingletye Lane; and the Cattle Bridge between Woodhall Crescent and Burnway.

The 2009 schedule lists properties as they stood in February 2009, and it overlaps: Nelmes Way appears in Sectors 2, 3 and 6, and 2 Ardleigh Green Road in Sectors 1 and 6. Emerson Park is also the name of a council ward, which is not the same as the Policy Area, and an RM11 postcode says nothing about sector, listing or consents. Havering asks owners to make sure no Article 4 direction or planning condition applies before building. Check the council’s map and schedule for the exact property, then the title or lease and the planning history.

Local design and consent context

Rules for every sector: houses may not be converted to flats or communal uses; no development may cause a significant loss of landscape features that contribute to the area’s character; a new building or extension must suit the street scene in massing, architectural character and the space left between buildings; every development must include a generous level of landscaping; and where land is assembled for new houses, existing plots may not be cut below a size consistent with the surrounding properties.

Havering’s Residential Extensions and Alterations document of 2011, also retained, lists the Emerson Park document first among those to read alongside it. It says dormers should normally face the rear garden and stay well below the ridge; that where hipped roofs are characteristic of the house or street and the council has control, a gable end will not be acceptable; and that flat roofs are generally acceptable for single-storey rear extensions except where easily seen from the street or where an adjoining property already has a rear extension with a pitched roof.

The council’s Article 4 page lists directions for houses in multiple occupation, Gidea Park and Upminster, none of them specific to Emerson Park. HMO Direction 2 was confirmed on 3 November 2015 and came into force on 13 July 2016. Across the borough except four wards, which do not include Emerson Park, it means that turning a flat, terraced or semi-detached house into a house in multiple occupation needs planning permission. Detached houses are not covered, and the 2022 ward changes left its boundaries unchanged.

Access and site planning

Havering reminds owners that placing anything on the highway without a written licence is an offence: a skip or materials on the road need a licence and must be signed, guarded and lit after dark. Skip licences are sent to the skip hire company, while a resident or the contractor may apply for a building materials licence. Scaffolding, hoarding or fencing on the highway needs its own licence, with 10 working days’ notice and proof of public liability insurance. Parking bay suspensions are open only to utility and street-work companies; tradespeople are pointed to the council’s parking dispensation page.

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The Emerson Park area guide · House refurbishment across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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