Flat
refurbishment
in Camden Town, NW1
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Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building ConsultancyCamden Town flats come from divided family houses, rooms above shops and converted industrial buildings, and the lease and the building shape the work as much as the design.
The 2007 strategy notes empty or underused upper floors in many of the area's retail streets, often where the separate street entrance was taken out to make a larger shop, and says the council would like to see those premises re-used.
We start each flat with three documents side by side: the lease, the building's own record with Camden and our survey of what is shared with the neighbours.
Source: Camden: Camden Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 4 October 2007)
Flats above shops on Parkway and Pratt Street
From the mid 19th century onwards Parkway's north side was converted to retail at ground level, leaving only Nos 98 and 100 in their original state.
Most of the buildings on Pratt Street and Plender Street have a shop on the ground floor under two floors of rooms.
On the High Street, shops were built out across the front gardens of the original terraces.
A flat above a shop is often reached through a side door or a rear stair, so access, fire separation from the shop and delivery times are agreed with the business below.
Source: Camden: Camden Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 4 October 2007)
Flats in divided houses
From the mid-1960s, the Camden Square appraisal records, substantial houses were converted from multiple occupancy into self-contained flats or maisonettes.
On the upper stretch of Camden Road, many three-storey houses over semi-basements have been subdivided into flats.
Many of the houses in Bayham Street's humble terraces have been shared since the 1860s.
In a divided house the original plan shows through the partitions, so we draw the whole floor before moving a wall in one flat.
Sources: Camden: Camden Square Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011), Camden: Camden Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 4 October 2007)
Converted industrial buildings and mews
Facing Mornington Street, the rendered Nos 30 to 36 Arlington Road are cited by Camden as industrial buildings successfully converted to homes and offices.
In King's Terrace, a mews of the 1830s, unaltered buildings keep the original doors and windows Camden says should stay.
Old canal-side industrial buildings have few ground-floor openings, and Camden asks that new uses be balanced carefully against their historic form.
Tall industrial rooms suit a mezzanine or freestanding joinery; we keep new work clear of the brick so it can still be read.
Sources: Camden: Camden Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 4 October 2007), Camden: Regent's Canal Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 September 2008)
Shops turned into homes
Murray Street shows what can go wrong: shops converted at ground and basement level have gained front lightwells, lost or pierced fascias and had windows blocked or shrunk.
In the Camden Square area, a shop converted to a home should keep its shopfront, and new lightwells in front will generally be resisted.
Behind a retained shopfront we fit inner screens, blinds or etched glass, so the room gets privacy and the street keeps its frontage.
Source: Camden: Camden Square Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011)
Reading the lease first
Planning permission and building regulations approval are not the end of it: according to LEASE, the lease may still oblige a leaseholder to get the landlord's consent before altering a flat.
Even a lease that permits alterations can carry other limits, such as a rule that floors be carpeted, which would exclude timber or laminate.
A covenant against cutting the outside walls can prevent any new opening, pipe holes included.
Whatever the lease says, the law stops a landlord charging a premium to consent to non-structural alterations, LEASE notes.
Sources: LEASE: alterations and home improvements, LEASE: Alterations and home improvements
Floors, sound and the flat below
If the landlord owns the shared floor, underfloor heating that passes into another flat needs the landlord's permission.
LEASE also reminds leaseholders to think of the other occupiers while work goes on: excessive noise is to be avoided and corridors and stairs kept clean and clear.
Under a new hard floor we lay a resilient layer and isolate the skirtings from it, so footsteps do not carry to the flat below.
Source: LEASE: Alterations and home improvements
What a flat can and cannot do without permission
For permitted development purposes a dwellinghouse does not include a flat or a building containing flats, so the householder rights simply do not apply.
Camden's guidance limits dormer windows as permitted development to single family houses outside conservation areas.
The Camden Square strategy is wary of further subdivision: an extra unit in the roof or a dug-out basement is not normally acceptable where it harms the area.
Sources: MHCLG: Permitted development rights for householders, Technical Guidance (September 2019), Camden Planning Guidance: Home Improvements (January 2021), Camden: Camden Square Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011)
Windows in a converted house
Under the Camden Square strategy, repairing or replacing like for like needs no planning permission so long as the materials, colour, finish, dimensions, pattern and profile all match.
It records harmful changes nearby, timber swapped for uPVC and sashes turned into awning windows among them.
Energy improvements are to be weighed against the loss of historic character, and secondary glazing lined up with the existing glazing bars.
Source: Camden: Camden Square Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011)
Shared stairs, parking and deliveries
Camden's online bay suspension booking closes 17 days before the date, so we reserve the space outside the street door as soon as the start is fixed.
Neighbours above and below hear every drill, so noisy jobs stay within Camden's hours: weekdays from eight until six, Saturday from eight until one, and nothing on Sundays or bank holidays without authorisation.
We protect the common stair before the first delivery and give other residents a contact and a schedule of noisy days.
Sources: Camden Council: parking bay suspensions, Camden Council: noisy building works
Bins, front gardens and parking
For Camden Square the strategy asks that refuse bin stores, where needed, be placed in rear gardens if at all possible.
It will resist parking in front gardens, especially on Camden Road.
Across the Camden Town area, Camden opposes losing soft landscaping and original walls and railings from front and rear gardens.
Sources: Camden: Camden Square Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011), Camden: Camden Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 4 October 2007)
Flat refurbishment questions for Camden Town
Can a flat in Camden Town use permitted development?
Householder permitted development is not available to flats or buildings containing them.
Do I need the landlord's consent to refurbish?
It depends on the lease, which may require consent even after planning and building control are dealt with.
Can I lay timber floors in my flat?
Read the lease: a carpet requirement would exclude wood and laminate even where alterations are allowed.
Will Camden allow a new flat in the roof of a Camden Square house?
Not normally, where it would harm the character or appearance of the area.
Should a shop converted to a flat keep its shopfront?
In the Camden Square area, yes: Camden expects the shopfront retained.
How much does a flat refurbishment in Camden Town cost?
Your Camden Town figure is confirmed after a feasibility visit.
Sources: MHCLG: Permitted development rights for householders, Technical Guidance (September 2019), LEASE: alterations and home improvements, Camden: Camden Square Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011)
Sources
- Camden: Camden Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 4 October 2007)
- Camden: Camden Square Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011)
- Camden: Regent's Canal Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 September 2008)
- LEASE: alterations and home improvements
- MHCLG: Permitted development rights for householders, Technical Guidance (September 2019)
- Camden Planning Guidance: Home Improvements (January 2021)
- Camden Council: parking bay suspensions
- Camden Council: noisy building works
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