Kitchen renovation in Hadley Wood

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

Enfield’s Hadley Wood Conservation Area Character Appraisal places Hadley Wood in the north-western corner of the borough and describes it as essentially the creation of Charles Jack, then tenant of Beech Hill Park, who part-funded the new station. Designated in 1989, the conservation area covers 13.4 hectares at the centre of Hadley Wood, with 75 houses and a church. Its heart is the horseshoe of Crescents East and West off Camlet Way, with Lancaster Avenue branching north-east from Crescent East, and the railway cutting and a parade of modern shops effectively divide it in two.

The appraisal sets out three house types by building phase. Crescent West, built first, has tiled roofs, tile-hung upper floors, paired canted bays, large dormers and timber casement windows; Crescent East has mostly linked pairs with slate roofs, red brick facades, offset gables and timber sashes; and Lancaster Avenue, built last, has rendered upper storeys, paired façades and slate roofs. It singles out the joinery, decorative brick aprons and stained glass, and a terrace of white-rendered cottages at 34–40 Crescent West. Extensions are typically side wings or garages, subservient to the houses.

Neither the name Hadley Wood nor an EN4 postcode tells you which council decides, whether a home is inside the conservation area, whether it is listed, whether the Article 4 direction covers it or which consent route the work takes. EN4 is also used in Barnet, Enfield’s own Local Heritage List gives Camlet Way addresses the postal town ‘Barnet’, and the western boundary of the neighbourhood plan area runs along Barnet’s Monken Hadley Conservation Area. Confirm the council with the official lookup, then read the appraisal’s maps, the Article 4 schedule and map, any list entry, the title or lease and the planning history of the property itself.

Local design and consent context

Planning Data records the Hadley Wood Conservation Area, reference CA11, as a London Borough of Enfield conservation area, and the appraisal gives 1989 as the year of designation. Enfield, which has 22 conservation areas, lists four documents for this one: the character appraisal, the management proposals, the 2006 Article 4 Directions and the Article 4 map.

The character appraisal was first adopted in 2006, reviewed in February and March 2013, approved in February 2015 and amended in September 2016 to take account of Douglas Close, the development behind 29–33 Lancaster Avenue. The management proposals, approved in February 2015, confirmed the boundaries after a review in October 2013 and aimed at five-yearly reviews. Neighbourhood Plan policy HW-5 says applications in the conservation area, or affecting its setting, must have regard to both documents, and that development should take opportunities to protect and, where appropriate, restore original features such as walls, windows and doors.

On 26 January 2006 Article 4(2) directions were made covering parts of several Enfield conservation areas, including Hadley Wood, and the direction, confirmed as permanent, was sealed on 27 June 2006. For Hadley Wood its schedule lists 67 Camlet Way; 6–34 (even) and 9, 11 and 13 Crescent East; 34–48 (even) and 33–79 (odd) Crescent West; and 1–31 (odd) Lancaster Avenue. Enfield publishes an Article 4 map for the area, and Planning Data records the direction area as AD27, so check the schedule and map for the exact address.

Access and site planning

The made Neighbourhood Plan describes wide streets traditionally without on-street parking, now under pressure from the size and number of construction vehicles, and its policy HW-15 requires constructors to minimise the impact of contractors’ on-street parking and provide adequate parking for workers and deliveries. Enfield requires a skip company to register before placing a skip on any road, and a skip licence lasts 14 days unless extended. 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 is needed, with at least six weeks’ notice. For building works you can apply to Enfield for a temporary parking dispensation, which does not assure you of a space.

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

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