Kitchen
renovation
in Dartmouth Park, NW5
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Many Dartmouth Park houses have a garden floor below the street, and a kitchen there is planned around the slope, the stairs and the flue.
Most houses in the conservation area went up between 1840 and 1890, built by many firms rather than to one formal plan.
So each kitchen is measured from scratch: two houses on one road can hide different structures behind similar fronts.
Source: Camden: Dartmouth Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Statement (adopted 22 January 2009)
Kitchens on the garden floor
Between Grove Terrace and York Rise, Dartmouth Park Road is mostly three-storey villas in pairs over semi-basements.
On Dartmouth Park Avenue the slope makes the basement more of a garden floor.
A garden-floor kitchen usually runs front to back, cooking at the street end and the table by the garden doors; the stair up to the raised ground floor decides where the larder goes.
Where the front of that floor sits partly below the pavement, we check the walls for damp and the floor for its make-up before any cabinet is planned against them.
Source: Camden: Dartmouth Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Statement (adopted 22 January 2009)
Houses in threes on Boscastle Road
On the east side of Boscastle Road most houses stand in threes with semi-basements and raised front doors, and the rears of Nos 8 to 24 show three-storey closet wings.
A closet wing gives a narrow room off the half landing; we often put the utility or a pantry there and keep the main kitchen in the back room below.
Source: Camden: Dartmouth Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Statement (adopted 22 January 2009)
Kitchens in the smaller terraces
Twisden Road's houses are mostly two storeys of stock brick, stepping down the slope in pairs.
The neighbourhood plan contrasts these smaller terraces of Twisden Road and Spencer Rise with the larger villas at the heart of the area.
In a two-storey house the kitchen shares the back room with the table, so we plan one run along the party wall and keep the window wall clear.
Sources: Camden: Dartmouth Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Statement (adopted 22 January 2009), Dartmouth Park Neighbourhood Plan (made by Camden, 2 March 2020)
Kitchens in mansion and estate flats
The Lissenden blocks light and ventilate their inner rooms through deep returns between pairs of flats, not light wells.
Camden Council manages many of the area's blocks, which the appraisal finds have often had well-meant but unsympathetic alterations.
A leaseholder may need the landlord's consent before altering a flat, depending on the lease.
For a flat kitchen we ask for the lease, the managing agent's rules and any earlier licence before drawing.
Sources: Camden: Dartmouth Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Statement (adopted 22 January 2009), LEASE: alterations and home improvements
Opening up the back rooms
Opening up an outside wall, or widening an opening, means carrying the wall above, usually on two beams, and the steel needs fire protection.
Taking out a chimney breast inside the house is not a planning matter, but building regulations approval is required every time.
Our engineer's calculations come before the quotation, so beams, padstones and propping are priced from fact.
Sources: Planning Portal: Extensions, Building Regulations: Structural Opening, Planning Portal Interactive House: Do I need permission to remove chimney breasts?
Extraction and ventilation
Every new kitchen needs extract ventilation, the Planning Portal says.
Camden's 2012 guidance adds that extract fans must blow to the outside, never into a loft or garage.
It also warns that insulating and draught-stripping a house cuts its natural airflow, so ventilation has to be designed in.
We take the duct to the back wall by the shortest route and specify a quiet fan with a timed overrun.
Sources: Planning Portal: Extensions, Building Regulations: Ventilation, Camden: Energy efficiency planning guidance for Dartmouth Park Conservation Area (adopted 23 August 2012)
Boilers and flues
A condensing boiler needs a condensate drain, and most modern boilers have a balanced flue taken straight out through the wall.
Because the slope puts roofs on view, Camden asks for existing chimneys to be reused where possible and keeps new flues off fronts and sides seen from the street.
The guidance also wants heating sized to the house's real heat loss, after or alongside any fabric improvements.
Source: Camden: Energy efficiency planning guidance for Dartmouth Park Conservation Area (adopted 23 August 2012)
The window over the sink
Camden's guidance says replacement double glazing should match the original window exactly, down to glazing bars, meeting rail and horns, with any coloured glass kept.
Secondary glazing lets the old sash stay in use and should be draught-proofed against condensation between the layers.
By a sink, where steam gathers, we fit a slim secondary pane inside and keep the outer sash in good repair.
Source: Camden: Energy efficiency planning guidance for Dartmouth Park Conservation Area (adopted 23 August 2012)
Cabinets made for the room
Painted panelled doors suit most villa kitchens here; wall cupboards line up with the window heads and stop short of the cornice.
A dresser in a chimney alcove keeps everyday china to hand, and a tall unit on a windowless wall holds the oven at a comfortable height.
Our joinery workshop makes the cabinets to the room's own measurements, floors that are out of level included.
Getting a kitchen up a steep, narrow street
Camden takes skip licence applications only from skip firms, at least five working days ahead, and parking bay suspensions are booked online at least 17 days before.
The appraisal notes cars parked on Chetwynd Road's York stone pavement and heavy through traffic on a very narrow road.
Worktops and tall units come in small vans at quiet times, and boards go down over old paving before anything is carried in.
Sources: Camden Council: skip licence, Camden Council: parking bay suspensions, Camden: Dartmouth Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Statement (adopted 22 January 2009)
When the kitchen moves into an extension
If the kitchen moves into a new rear room, Policy DC4 still asks that the garden keeps the space that gives the area its character.
The Dartmouth Park extension page explains what Camden and the neighbourhood plan allow behind a house here.
Source: Dartmouth Park Neighbourhood Plan (made by Camden, 2 March 2020)
Questions about kitchens in Dartmouth Park
Can the kitchen go on the garden floor?
Often, where the house has a semi-basement or garden floor, as many villas on Dartmouth Park Road and Avenue do.
Must a new kitchen have extraction?
Yes, and the fan must discharge outside, not into the loft.
Can the boiler flue go through the front wall?
Camden's guidance keeps new flues off fronts and sides that can be seen from the street.
Do I need permission to take out a chimney breast?
Not planning permission for an internal one, but always building regulations approval.
Can the kitchen sash be double glazed?
Only if the new window matches the old one exactly; otherwise secondary glazing is the route.
Do I need the landlord's consent for a new kitchen in my flat?
Possibly; LEASE says it depends on the terms of the lease.
Sources: Camden: Dartmouth Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Statement (adopted 22 January 2009), Planning Portal: Extensions, Building Regulations: Ventilation, Camden: Energy efficiency planning guidance for Dartmouth Park Conservation Area (adopted 23 August 2012), Planning Portal Interactive House: Do I need permission to remove chimney breasts?, LEASE: alterations and home improvements
Sources
- Camden: Dartmouth Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Statement (adopted 22 January 2009)
- Dartmouth Park Neighbourhood Plan (made by Camden, 2 March 2020)
- LEASE: alterations and home improvements
- Planning Portal: Extensions, Building Regulations: Structural Opening
- Planning Portal Interactive House: Do I need permission to remove chimney breasts?
- Planning Portal: Extensions, Building Regulations: Ventilation
- Camden: Energy efficiency planning guidance for Dartmouth Park Conservation Area (adopted 23 August 2012)
- Camden Council: skip licence
- Camden Council: parking bay suspensions
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