Kitchen renovation in Cockfosters

Plan the kitchen around movement, storage and services.

Start with the kitchen renovation brief

Map preparation, cooking, washing and storage before choosing cabinet fronts. Measure clearances with doors and drawers open, and decide which existing walls, floors and details belong in the finished room.

Coordinate the cabinetry with water, drainage, extraction, electrics and lighting. Confirm appliance dimensions and access for installation before the layout is signed off; structural alterations need their own design and approval checks.

The local building context

Along Cockfosters Road, the appraisal records Cockfosters Cottages, built in the 19th century for the Bevans of Trent Park to house estate workers. It dates Nos. 337–345, a red-brick terrace with small-paned sashes, to about 1800–20; Nos. 325–335 are a grade II listed Tudor revival group of 1837–1840 in yellow stock brick with four-centred arched porches; and Nos. 305–319 are a late-Victorian terrace with unusual triangular dormers. It finds a degree of unity in their consistent scale, eaves lines and brick and slate on low-pitched roofs, with small front gardens and picket fences softening them.

Around the Chalk Lane cricket ground, the appraisal finds formally arranged suburban housing on three sides, and calls Christ Church, built in 1839 of stock brick, an important local landmark whose spire is highly visible, particularly from the Underground station. Across the boundary, Barnet’s 2007 Monken Hadley appraisal describes Games Road with housing on one side only, set back behind greens, including Nos. 10 to 18, a terrace of modest cottages built in 1750. It records Ludgrove Hall, of the 1830s, and West Farm Court as converted into apartments, and The Grange as a modern block of neo-Georgian flats.

Neither the name Cockfosters nor an EN4 postcode settles which council decides, whether a home is in a conservation area or listed, which Article 4 direction applies or which consent route the work takes. Enfield’s Cockfosters ward also takes in Hadley Wood, Barnet uses the name for streets in its East Barnet ward, Heddon Court Avenue appears in both councils’ records, and Enfield’s own records list some Enfield properties with a ‘Barnet’ postal address. Confirm the council with the official lookup using the full postcode, not EN4 alone; Barnet notes that postcodes do not match administrative boundaries exactly. If in doubt, ask the council. Then read that council’s conservation map, the list entry, the Article 4 schedule or mapped area, the title or lease and the planning history of the property.

Local design and consent context

Trent Park, reference CA18, is one of Enfield’s 22 conservation areas and is separate from the Hadley Wood Conservation Area. It was designated in 1973 and extended to include Cockfosters Cottages in 1990 and the area around Chalk Lane in 1993. Its character appraisal, first adopted in 2006 and reviewed in February and March 2013, was approved in February 2015, with separate management proposals. It describes five character areas, including Cockfosters Cottages and Chalk Lane with the cricket ground, and roughly eighty residential addresses, and says about half of the conservation area is on the register of parks and gardens at grade II.

The appraisal says designation brings a general control over the demolition of unlisted buildings and over lopping or felling trees above a certain size, while some changes to family houses do not normally need planning permission and an Article 4 direction can withdraw particular permitted development rights. The management proposals say development affecting listed or locally listed buildings, buildings identified as making a positive contribution, or buildings affecting their setting, should normally use matching traditional historic materials and detailing, and that mass-produced materials such as uPVC and concrete roof tiles will not normally be appropriate within the conservation area.

In its Trent Park West area, the appraisal lists the offices at 2 to 6 and 8 Games Road, the Cock and Dragon public house on the corner of Chalk Lane and Games Road, 4, 6, 8 and 10 Verwood Drive, West Farm Court and 1 Gatcombe Way. It recorded Ludgrove Hall, Nos. 10 to 18 Games Road and West Farm Court as locally listed in 2007, so ask Barnet whether they remain on its current list. Its guidance says extensions should normally be subordinate to the main building, and that windows, doors and decorative features should generally match the existing building or show a creative use of high-quality contemporary materials.

Access and site planning

Enfield’s appraisal describes Chalk Lane, for much of its length, as a winding lane bounded by a hedge on the cricket-pitch side and without a footway, so plan where deliveries stop and waste waits. In Enfield, a skip company must register with the council before placing a skip on any road, each licence lasts 14 days unless extended, and a skip on the road or pavement must be lit at night. Scaffolding or hoarding on a road or pavement needs a licence, valid for 30 days and extendable, and if Enfield decides the road should be closed, a temporary traffic order needs at least six weeks’ notice. Enfield asks for applications to suspend parking restrictions at least 10 working days ahead, and a temporary dispensation to park for building works does not assure you of a space. For a Barnet address, ask Barnet what its own licences require.

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The Cockfosters area guide · Kitchen renovation across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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