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Grange Park N21 · Flat refurbishment

Flat refurbishment in Grange Park

Flats over the Grangeway shops, and a few inside older houses

In and around the Grange Park Conservation Area, Enfield’s documents place flats above the three Grangeway parades, inside some houses on The Chine, in Old Park Ridings houses converted in recent years and in a new building just outside the boundary. This page covers the parade flats’ windows and shopfronts, flats inside houses, Enfield’s presumption against conversions in the conservation area and what it has decided and required, noise between flats and the papers to collect first.

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Flat refurbishment in Grange Park at a glance

For a flat above one of the Grangeway shops, the outside of the building matters as much as the rooms. Enfield’s 2015 appraisal finds the shopping and commercial area of the western Grangeway, up to and just beyond the railway bridge, more vulnerable than the residential streets, with earlier damage still there, including replacement windows, poor maintenance and satellite dishes. Work only inside a flat is generally not development, but flats lack householder permitted development rights, so any change to its windows or outside walls needs checking with Enfield, and the lease may need the freeholder’s consent too.

Enfield: Grange Park Conservation Area Character Appraisal, approved June 2015 (PDF) · When planning permission is required · Householder permitted development technical guidance · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

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

Approved guide prices

What does a flat refurbishment cost in Grange Park?

A flat refurbishment in Grange Park 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

Where Grange Park’s flats are, building by building

Enfield’s appraisal, planning register and building control records describe three groups of flats in and around the conservation area, and each raises its own questions before work starts.

The three parades on the western Grangeway have flats over the shops, and their details echo the houses: cambered arches, curved hood moulds, oriels, brick bands on rendered gables, tile hanging and porthole windows. Over many years, the appraisal records, upper-floor windows there have been changed to inappropriate forms and materials, and poor maintenance is most noticeable at the back. It calls one first floor, where traditional casements replaced the non-traditional design recorded in the original 2008 appraisal, a welcome improvement. The 2015 proposals add that the loss of surviving traditional shopfronts should be resisted.

Enfield: Grange Park Conservation Area Character Appraisal, approved June 2015 (PDF) · Enfield: Grange Park Conservation Area Management Proposals, approved June 2015 (PDF)

The planning register records flats in two houses on The Chine in 1990 and 1991, when Enfield granted loft-room dormers, and on Old Park Ridings a 1993 rear extension to an existing flat; all before the 2008 designation. A December 2020 building control record for a flat in a house on The Chine, covering internal alterations with a new WC and en-suite, is marked complete. That shows some houses used as flats, not which were built so. Dividing a house in the conservation area into flats would now face the DMD’s general presumption against it.

Enfield: Find a planning application (the council’s online planning register) · Enfield: building control · Enfield: Development Management Document, adopted November 2014

A 2016 officer report described Old Park Ridings as mainly large detached family houses, where very few flat conversions had been allowed, all before designation. The adopted DMD sets a general presumption against converting single dwellings into flats in conservation areas (para 2.3.9). Enfield then granted, each time as one decision on its own facts, the conversion of one house in the conservation area into four flats in 2016 and, revised, into three in 2018, and in 2023 a two-flat conversion outside it. Building control marks that house’s three-flat conversion complete, without showing which permission was used.

Enfield: Find a planning application (the council’s online planning register) · Enfield: Development Management Document, adopted November 2014 · Enfield: building control

Permissions and local rules

Consents for a Grange Park flat, and Enfield’s conversion decisions

Windows above the shops

Can new windows go into a flat above a Grangeway shop?

Only after two checks. Flats have no householder permitted development rights, so new windows that materially change the building’s appearance need planning permission, and your lease may need the freeholder’s consent as well. In Grange Park the 2015 management proposals name inappropriate replacement of traditional joinery and signage, and damage to the fabric, particularly at The Grangeway’s commercial properties, as a threat to the area’s special character. Ask Enfield before ordering anything, and take the original window pattern as the starting point.

Householder permitted development technical guidance · When planning permission is required · LEASE: alterations and home improvements · Enfield: Grange Park Conservation Area Management Proposals, approved June 2015 (PDF)

Converting a house into flats

Where does Enfield start on a house conversion?

With adopted policy: a general presumption against converting single dwellings into flats in conservation areas (DMD para 2.3.9). Borough-wide, DMD 5’s tests include the London Plan’s internal space standards, no unacceptable noise or disturbance, and conversions on no more than a fifth of the properties along a road, a calculation that includes purpose-built flats and, on a classified road such as Old Park Ridings, treats each side separately. Dividing a family home requires a home of three or more bedrooms within the scheme, one at least a double, with its own amenity space reached directly at ground level.

Enfield: Development Management Document, adopted November 2014

Conditions on recent conversions

What did Enfield require of the Old Park Ridings conversions?

Each was one decision on its own facts, and none changes the presumption above. The 2016 permission for a house in the conservation area required revised details showing that the flats would meet all the M4(2) accessible and adaptable standards before work began, and a BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment rating of at least Very Good; its report raised no concern about noise because rooms of compatible use were generally stacked above or beside each other. The 2016, 2018 and 2023 permissions each require details, before occupation, showing water use of no more than 105 litres per person per day.

Enfield: Find a planning application (the council’s online planning register) · Enfield: Development Management Document, adopted November 2014

Adding or dividing a flat above a parade

Would Enfield support another flat above the shops?

Possibly. Enfield’s adopted Core Strategy names The Grangeway among the Local Parades in Table 6.3, its hierarchy of town centres, and Core Policy 17 steers new residential and other uses into the centres of that hierarchy. DMD 30 encourages the reuse of upper floors in Enfield’s town centres, homes included, and backs the subdivision of existing homes above shops that meets the relevant DMD criteria; its own include a separate, adequate way into the upper floor. Ask the council whether DMD 30 covers a Local Parade such as The Grangeway, and whether the presumption above applies there.

Enfield: The Enfield Plan Core Strategy, adopted November 2010 (PDF) · Enfield: Development Management Document, adopted November 2014

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

What the work covers

What a Grange Park flat refurbishment covers

Windows and the front of a parade flat

Above the shops, the upper-floor windows are surveyed first: what is original, what has been replaced, and whether timber casements can be repaired or remade to the original pattern. Oriels, porthole windows and other details are protected during the work, and any change that materially alters the building’s appearance goes to Enfield for planning permission, and to the freeholder under the lease, before anything is ordered.

Enfield: Grange Park Conservation Area Character Appraisal, approved June 2015 (PDF) · Householder permitted development technical guidance · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

The floor over the shop and the rooms around the stack

Over a business, the floor has to deal with noise, and sometimes smells, coming up from below, so if its build-up changes it is designed with the lease and Approved Document E on resistance to sound in mind. Kitchens and bathrooms are planned around the existing stack where possible, with wet rooms kept above wet rooms or the shop rather than above a neighbour’s bedroom, and wiring and heating are renewed in the same programme.

GOV.UK: Approved Document E, resistance to sound · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Inside a flat within a house

In a flat within a house on The Chine, or in one of the converted houses on Old Park Ridings, the work often covers opening up rooms, a new kitchen, a WC or en-suite, and new services. Removing walls and adding wet rooms can be Building Regulations work, and the lease may require the freeholder’s permission even once that approval is in hand, so both are settled before the strip-out.

When Building Regulations approval is needed · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

How we work

How we run a Grange Park 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 Grange Park. 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. Tell us the building and who owns it

    Say whether the flat is above a Grangeway shop, inside a house or in a newer building, which floor it is on and how it is reached. Tell us who the freeholder or managing agent is, and whether the shop below or the rest of the house is in the same ownership.

  2. Send the lease and the permissions

    Send the lease, including its plan and whatever it says about alterations, windows and floors. If the flat was created by a recent conversion, add the planning permission with its conditions and the building control completion certificate, so we can see what the original scheme was required to provide.

  3. Separate inside from outside

    List the work inside the flat apart from anything that changes its outside, such as windows, a dish, a vent or a new opening. Outside items go to Enfield and the freeholder before they are priced as firm, and every quotation can then show them in the same way.

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 Grange Park: questions

Is a house conversion treated differently outside the conservation area?

The presumption in DMD para 2.3.9 is against conversions in conservation areas; outside the boundary, DMD 5’s other tests still apply. In 2023 Enfield granted the conversion into two flats of a house on Old Park Ridings that the officer report places outside the conservation area. The report found that the three-bedroom flat met DMD 5’s requirement for a family-sized unit, and that a records search and a brief street survey confirmed the scheme was in line with DMD 5. That was one decision, so check your own address against the boundary.

Enfield: Development Management Document, adopted November 2014 · Enfield: Find a planning application (the council’s online planning register) · Enfield: Grange Park Conservation Area Article 4(2) Direction map, 12 November 2008 (PDF)

Are there newer buildings of flats near the conservation area?

In July 2017 Enfield permitted a new house and a building of three flats on a site just outside the conservation area, within its setting, designed to look like a large two-storey house with rooms in the roof rather than a purpose-built block. In May 2021 it refused a six-flat scheme there as an overdevelopment out of keeping with the area’s residential character, and as short of private amenity space. Neither was a house conversion, which in conservation areas faces DMD para 2.3.9’s presumption; both were decisions on one site, not limits elsewhere.

Enfield: Find a planning application (the council’s online planning register) · Enfield: Development Management Document, adopted November 2014

Does the Article 4 direction cover a flat above a shop?

Only if the address is on its schedule. The 2008 direction lists only some numbers on The Grangeway, so check the schedule for yours. A flat has no householder permitted development rights in the first place, so outside changes that materially alter how the building looks generally need planning permission. At an address on the schedule, the direction also withdraws rights including those to paint the exterior and to put up, alter or demolish a gate, fence or wall, where they front a highway, open space or waterway.

Enfield: notice of the Enfield Borough Conservation Areas Article 4(2) Direction 2008, made 12 November 2008 and confirmed 29 January 2009 · Householder permitted development technical guidance · When planning permission is required

Can two flats be turned into one house?

Enfield allowed it here before its current plan: in 2000 and 2001 it granted the conversion of a house on The Chine from two flats into a single family house. Today, adopted DMD 4 permits losing a usable home, particularly a family home, only in limited cases, the first of which is that no residential floorspace is lost overall, so raise a merger with the council before design starts. The DMD’s presumption at para 2.3.9 runs the other way, against dividing houses into flats in conservation areas.

Enfield: Find a planning application (the council’s online planning register) · Enfield: Development Management Document, adopted November 2014

Do the conditions on those conversions apply to refurbishing my flat?

No. The M4(2) and BREEAM requirements of the 2016 permission, and the 105-litre water limit of the 2016, 2018 and 2023 ones, were conditions on permissions for creating flats on Old Park Ridings, individual decisions that leave the DMD’s presumption against conversions in conservation areas in place. A refit inside an existing flat answers instead to Building Regulations if the work is notifiable, to your lease, and to planning only if the outside changes. If your flat was itself created under a recent permission, read its conditions in case any still apply.

Enfield: Find a planning application (the council’s online planning register) · Enfield: Development Management Document, adopted November 2014 · When Building Regulations approval is needed · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

How much does a flat refurbishment cost in Grange Park?

Guide rates in Grange Park 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 Grange Park flat

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

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

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