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Barnsbury N1 · Flat refurbishment

Flat refurbishment in Barnsbury

Mansion blocks, estate flats and homes above shops

Islington’s own documents name the kinds of flat a Barnsbury refurbishment meets: the 1930s mansion blocks of Old Barnsbury, the post-war blocks of New Barnsbury, homes above the Local Shopping Areas and flats within older houses. Landlords, consent routes and the limits on what can change vary among them, so this page takes them one at a time.

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Flat refurbishment in Barnsbury at a glance

The first question for a Barnsbury flat is who your landlord is. The Barnsbury Estate, south of the conservation area by the canal, belongs to Newlon Housing Trust, so the consent you need there comes from Newlon under your lease or tenancy. Where Islington Council is the freeholder, it runs a written process of its own and issues a Licence for Alteration before alterations start. In a converted house or above a shop, the landlord named in your lease decides. Planning and the Building Regulations run alongside, whichever landlord you have.

Islington Planning Committee report: New Barnsbury Estate, 29 November 2022 (PDF) · Islington Local Plan: Site Allocations, adopted 28 September 2023 (PDF) · Islington Planning Committee minutes, 6 December 2022, item 7: Old Barnsbury · Islington Council: alterations to your property (council leaseholders) · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

For the whole area, including conservation areas, permissions and working hours, read our Barnsbury renovation guide.

Approved guide prices

What does a flat refurbishment cost in Barnsbury?

A flat refurbishment in Barnsbury runs £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, and a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically lands between £60,000 and £110,000. Most programmes take 16–32 weeks on site. A written scope and site assessment are needed before any project price can be fixed.

Scope of workGuide rateTypical total
Full flat refurbishment (2-bed)£900–£1,700/sqm£60,000–£110,000
Typical programme16–32 weeks on site

Guide rates exclude VAT and are set by depth of work, not by postcode. Compare scopes in our London refurbishment cost-per-square-metre guide or try the cost calculator.

The buildings

Old Barnsbury, New Barnsbury and the shopping parades

Islington’s planning reports and its Local Plan describe the flats a refurbishment here is most likely to involve, and say who owns some of them and what the council has planned for them.

Old Barnsbury, east of Charlotte Terrace, was built in the 1930s: 275 homes in eight five-storey red-brick mansion blocks, Berners, Corbet, Fisher, Samford, Roding, Copenhagen, Payne and Vittoria Houses, which face inwards rather than to the street. The council’s November 2022 report describes them as pre-war London County Council blocks with prominent roofs, and places the estate between King’s Cross, Angel and Barnsbury to the north, with Caledonian Road and the canal as its edges.

Islington Planning Committee report: Old Barnsbury, The Barnsbury Estate, 6 December 2022 (PDF) · Islington Planning Committee report: New Barnsbury Estate, 29 November 2022 (PDF)

New Barnsbury, the other part of the estate, has 16 blocks of four to nine storeys, built from the 1950s and substantially complete across the estate in the 1960s. Islington’s Site Allocations allocate Old Barnsbury for refurbishment and New Barnsbury for redevelopment, and the council’s November 2022 report concerned a hybrid application for phased demolition and redevelopment. If you have a home in a New Barnsbury block, ask the landlord about that programme before spending on a refurbishment.

Islington Planning Committee report: New Barnsbury Estate, 29 November 2022 (PDF) · Islington Local Plan: Site Allocations, adopted 28 September 2023 (PDF)

The third kind is the home above a shop. Islington’s Local Plan lists Roman Way, three stretches of Caledonian Road (Cottage Road, Central and Copenhagen Street) and Liverpool Road/Barnsbury Street among Islington’s 40 Local Shopping Areas, and Policy R4 says new homes there that do not replace shop or other town-centre floorspace must be on upper floors. The plan gives the names only; each parade’s extent is on its map, so check whether your building is inside one.

Islington Local Plan: Strategic and Development Management Policies

Permissions and local rules

Landlords, windows and shopfronts: checks for a Barnsbury flat

The landlord’s consent comes first

Whose permission does a Barnsbury flat need?

On the Barnsbury Estate, Islington’s Site Allocations name Newlon Housing Trust as owner, so begin by asking Newlon what its consent covers. Where Islington Council is your landlord, its leaseholder page says alterations or refurbishment need the council’s permission, given in writing as a Licence for Alteration before work starts. That consent is separate from planning and building control and can be refused even when they are granted, and work without it breaches the lease and brings penalty fees above the normal charge.

Islington Local Plan: Site Allocations, adopted 28 September 2023 (PDF) · Islington Council: alterations to your property (council leaseholders)

Windows and balcony doors in Old Barnsbury

Can I change the windows of an Old Barnsbury flat?

Islington’s 2022 report found every original street-facing window in Old Barnsbury already replaced with white uPVC of inconsistent design, and the windows to living rooms retrofitted with uPVC balcony doors in the early 2000s. The landlord applied to replace them all with double-glazed, composite aluminium-framed units, and the planning committee resolved on 6 December 2022 to grant permission. Before ordering a window or balcony door for a flat there, ask the landlord where that scheme stands.

Islington Planning Committee report: Old Barnsbury, The Barnsbury Estate, 6 December 2022 (PDF) · Islington Planning Committee minutes, 6 December 2022, item 7: Old Barnsbury

Shop space and the homes above it

What applies in a building with a shop below?

Where a project would turn shop space in a Local Shopping Area into a home, Policy R4 asks for evidence that the premises have stood vacant, and been marketed, for a continuous period of at least two years, and Policy DH7 says a shop converted to a home, even under permitted development, keeps its shopfront windows. Within the conservation area, Schedule 10.1 of the Barnsbury guidelines also lists shopfronts to be kept on Caledonian Road, Liverpool Road, Copenhagen Street and Roman Way.

Islington Local Plan: Strategic and Development Management Policies · Islington: Barnsbury (CA10) Conservation Area Design Guidelines, January 2002 (PDF)

If Islington Council is your landlord

What do the council’s leaseholder rules say about layout?

Consent is needed for any change to structure or layout, even removing an internal wall, and the council does not normally allow a room’s use to change, because in most of its flats bedrooms sit above bedrooms and living rooms above living rooms to limit noise. Floors, including passages and stairs, must be substantially covered to reduce noise. You must also use the council’s own Building Control service and obtain approval before the landlord makes its decision.

Islington Council: alterations to your property (council leaseholders) · Islington Council: building control FAQs

Working hours, skips, parking and the conservation area maps for the whole area are in our Barnsbury guide. Local guidance checked ; requirements depend on the address, the building and the complete proposal.

What the work covers

What a Barnsbury flat refurbishment takes in

Layout, floors and sound

The scope draws the new layout over the plans of the flats above and below, so that a kitchen or living room does not end up over a neighbour’s bedroom, and specifies how each floor is built up and finished against sound. Where a wall is to come out, its structure is checked first, and in a mansion block or an estate block the landlord’s own rules on structural work apply too.

Heating, water and the shared risers

Pipes, risers and soil stacks in a block usually serve more than one home, so the scope marks what belongs to the flat and what is shared before any route moves. On a communal heating system, plan to stay connected: Islington will not consent to its own leaseholders disconnecting, and says any new flue must be agreed with the council beforehand.

Islington Council: alterations to your property (council leaseholders)

Front door and common parts

A replacement flat entrance door needs Building Regulations approval: Islington asks for an FD30S fire doorset with a self-closing device, inspected by a building control surveyor while it is fitted, and a full plans application for the entrance doors of its own leasehold flats. The scope also sets out how stairs, lifts and the entrance are protected and how materials reach the flat.

Islington Council: building control FAQs

How we work

How we run a Barnsbury flat refurbishment

  1. First visit

    We see the flat, then the entrance, stairs or lift that serve it.

  2. Lease and consents

    We go through the lease’s consent requirements with you and the managing agent at the start.

  3. Survey and design

    Drainage and services are traced on site. Our own architects and structural engineers design the layout and any structural change around those routes, and any new external vent or window is checked for planning.

  4. Price and contract

    A fixed written price and a JCT contract follow the survey, scope and specification. The price names its allowances and exclusions, with consent fees and any common-parts work shown separately.

  5. Working in the building

    Common parts are protected and their condition recorded; deliveries keep to the building’s rules, and noisy work to those rules and the council’s permitted hours; key decisions go to a director.

  6. Handover

    Commissioning, drawings, certificates and any managing-agent close-out. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our flat refurbishment work elsewhere in London

None of these projects is in Barnsbury. Each card names where the work was done, so you can judge the finish and the approach before you brief your own.

Your brief

Before you ask for a quotation

  1. Name the landlord and send the lease

    Tell us who your landlord or freeholder is, whether Newlon, Islington Council or a private freeholder, and send the lease or tenancy agreement with any building rules or estate handbook. Note any consent you have already asked for and the reply, so that the scope starts from what the landlord has already said.

  2. Describe the block and your floor

    Give the block’s name, the floor the flat is on, whether there is a lift, and what lies directly below: another flat, a shop or the ground. In Old Barnsbury or any other estate block, tell us where the bin stores, bike stores and loading points are, because they decide how materials arrive.

  3. Mark what is yours and what is shared

    List the rooms and fittings you want to change, and mark anything that might be shared: the entrance door, windows, a balcony, the heating, the soil stack or a wall to the stairwell. Where you are unsure, say so; the lease plan usually settles it, and the answer decides whose consent each item needs.

Ready to take the next step? Send the address and a short outline of the work.

Book a free feasibility visit

Questions before you begin

Flat refurbishment in Barnsbury: questions

My flat is above a shop on Caledonian Road or Liverpool Road. What should I check first?

Start with the lease, which should say who owns the shop, the front wall and the roof. Ask what the shop does and when it trades, because cooking, deliveries and opening hours affect noise, smells and access, and plan the sound and fire separation in the floor between the shop and your home before choosing finishes. The shopfront itself, including its glazing, usually goes with the shop and its own consents, but check the lease.

Can a Barnsbury house be split into more flats?

Only within Islington’s Local Plan Policy H2. Besides its size test, the new mix must contain no studio or bedsit and no more than one one-bedroom home, because the policy aims to keep a supply of family homes, and for that purpose any home of two bedrooms or more counts as one. Losing a self-contained home is permitted where at least the same floorspace is replaced and no more than one home is lost overall.

Islington Local Plan: Strategic and Development Management Policies

Our block has a tenants’ association. Can it help with the shared parts?

In Barnsbury ward, Islington’s community plan lets tenants’ and residents’ associations and tenant management organisations ask for money from a fund for smaller estate improvements; one completed project added bicycle shelters at Thornhill House, where the bike parking had been full. The fund is for estate improvements, so speak to the association before planning anything that would change a communal area.

Islington Council: Barnsbury community plan

Can a new flat be made in a basement?

Islington’s Basement SPD says new self-contained basement homes, with no access to the floors above, will generally be resisted in Local Flood Risk Zones because of their flood risk; where a basement connects to upper floors, the application must show that the design keeps flood risk to a minimum. The zones are shown only on the council’s maps, so ask about your address. Refurbishing an existing basement flat is a different matter from creating a new one.

Islington Basement Development SPD, January 2016

I am an Islington Council leaseholder. Can I replace my windows?

Islington allows its leaseholders to fit their own windows only after buying them through a Deed of Variation, and planning permission is also needed where the building is listed or in a conservation area. The council does not permit it where any part of the flat is on the sixth floor or above. Settle the Deed of Variation before choosing frames, because until then the windows are not yours to replace.

Islington Council: alterations to your property (council leaseholders)

How much does a flat refurbishment cost in Barnsbury?

Guide rates in Barnsbury are £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, with a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically between £60,000 and £110,000, over a 16–32 weeks programme. A written scope and site assessment come before any fixed price.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your Barnsbury flat

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your Barnsbury flat. We reply within one working day, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Or call 020 7101 3168. We serve Barnsbury from our studio at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN.

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