Loft conversion in Arkley

Test the roof space before settling on a layout.

Start with the loft conversion brief

A measured roof survey should establish headroom, structural spans and where a staircase could meet the floor below. Plan the stair, escape route, insulation and building services together before treating the loft as another room.

Compare the proposed roof shape with the address-specific design guidance below. Record chimneys, shared walls and neighbouring rooflines, then ask the appointed designers to identify the structural work and consents the proposal needs.

The local building context

Planning data places Arkley Windmill, Arkley War Memorial and the mapped points of many Arkley tree preservation orders in the London Borough of Barnet and its High Barnet ward. Arkley sits on the county boundary with Hertsmere, in Hertfordshire. In 1959 it lay in the Urban District of Barnet, then part of Hertfordshire, and a boundary order made in 1992 moved land both ways from 1 April 1993: its explanatory note says part of Arkley Lane went to Hertsmere, while housing development north-west of Whalebone Park came into Barnet.

Historic England’s list, as planning data records it, includes Arkley Windmill at Grade II*, list entry 1359022, the barn in its grounds at Grade II, Arkley War Memorial at Grade II and the Grade II Church of St Peter, mapped beside the memorial. Elm Farmhouse and adjoining barn, Grade II, is mapped near Galley Lane, and Trinders Lodge and Hyver Hall, both Grade II, are mapped elsewhere in High Barnet ward, inside the Green Belt record. Listing is recorded entry by entry, so read the entry for the exact building.

Neither the name Arkley nor an EN5 postcode tells you which council decides, whether land is in the Green Belt or a conservation area, whether a building is listed, which Article 4 direction reaches it or which consent route the work takes. The 1992 boundary order’s explanatory note says part of Arkley Lane went to Hertsmere, so confirm the council with the official lookup, then read the conservation area and Green Belt records, the list entry, the Article 4 directions and their mapped areas, the title or lease and the planning history of the property.

Local design and consent context

Planning data lists 16 conservation areas in Barnet, among them Totteridge, Mill Hill, Monken Hadley and Wood Street; none is named Arkley or Barnet Gate, and none is mapped at the points of Arkley Windmill, Arkley War Memorial, the Church of St Peter or the many Arkley-area tree orders we checked. That does not rule out every Arkley address, so check the map for the property itself.

Barnet has 15 Article 4 directions on planning data. Apart from two, each is for a named conservation area, none of them Arkley, and none of those is mapped at the points of Arkley’s listed landmarks or of the many Arkley-area tree orders we checked. Barnet’s direction on small houses in multiple occupation, in planning data from 29 May 2016, does cover those points, but it withdraws only the permitted development right in Part 3 Class L, for changes between a house and a small house in multiple occupation, and does not concern building works.

A direction sealed by Barnet Urban District Council on 15 April 1959, and approved by the Minister of Housing and Local Government on 7 July 1959 subject to modifications, withdrew permitted development for agricultural building and engineering operations on agricultural land of more than one acre, on the lands in Totteridge, Arkley and Rowley shown on a plan annexed to it. Planning data records it as the Article 4 Agricultural Land Restriction, A4D15, starting on 17 April 1959; its first mapped area covers the point of a tree order at Rowley Green Road and Barnet Road, and its rights are translated into modern agricultural and forestry classes. It concerns farmland, not the alteration of homes.

Access and site planning

Plan where deliveries stop, where waste waits and how any shared drive or entrance is protected before work starts. A skip on a public road needs a council licence, which in most areas the skip hire company obtains, while a skip entirely on private land needs none; scaffolding or hoarding on a public highway needs a licence from the local authority, so confirm which council covers the road at the address. TfL licenses such items only on its red routes, so check whether the road outside is one, and on Galley Lane keep vehicles and materials clear of the protected trees on the roadside verge.

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The Arkley area guide · Loft conversion across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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