Our home, your next project · Hampstead NW3
A better home, thoughtfully planned.
Renovating a house, flat, kitchen or bathroom in Hampstead can mean working in a conservation area designated on 29 January 1968, where an Article 4 direction now covers the fronts and street-facing sides of most properties. Replacing a front window or door, adding a rooflight at the front or altering a front wall can now need planning permission, so each brief starts at the street side of the building.
Unit 3 Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN 020 7101 3168 Updated 8 November 2026
Start with your project
01 Flats and conversions
Hampstead's Article 4 direction reaches the street fronts of houses converted to flats as well as single houses. Inside the flat, LEASE advises, the lease can make any alteration depend on the freeholder's permission, planning consent or not.
Sources: Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Design Guide (updated June 2026), LEASE: alterations and home improvements
Explore flat renovation02 The whole house
On the front of most Hampstead houses, roof and chimney changes including a rooflight, and new or altered gates, walls, fences and hard surfaces, now need planning permission.
Source: Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Design Guide (updated June 2026)
Explore house renovation03 Kitchens in period houses
A flue at the front now needs planning permission, and Camden's conservation area statement says a rear extension should in most cases be no more than one storey high and as unobtrusive as possible.
Sources: Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Design Guide (updated June 2026), Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Statement (2002)
Explore kitchen renovation04 Family bathrooms and shower rooms
Replacing a bath, toilet, basin or sink needs no building regulations approval, but a soil and vent pipe installed at the front of the property needs planning permission.
Sources: GOV.UK: when you don't need building regulations approval, Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Design Guide (updated June 2026)
Explore bathroom renovation05 Wardrobes and alcove cabinetry
Our joinery team designs and builds wardrobes, alcove cabinetry and library walls to fit Hampstead rooms.
Explore bespoke joineryRecent work in NW3
Three Hampstead flats we have renovated, each recorded with its street, its size and the scope of the work:
Each one has a short project record as well as its case study.
Space, light and considered storage
Considering more space or a better use of existing rooms in Hampstead? Compare loft conversion, house extension and bespoke joinery options with the building, ownership and local controls before fixing the brief.
Explore more useful space at the top of your Hampstead home, from a bedroom to a study, with the stair, daylight and roof shape considered together.
Within the Hampstead Neighbourhood Plan area, DH1 calls for dormers that remain subsidiary to the roof. Use the existing building and terrace to guide the proposal.
Check the applicable Hampstead or Frognal direction, listing and planning history before selecting rooflights or a roof enlargement. The two proposals do not share an identical planning route.
Rethink how your Hampstead home meets the garden with a kitchen, dining or living-space extension that supports the way you use the whole ground floor.
Where the neighbourhood plan applies, relate the extension to the original house and its surroundings rather than starting with a maximum footprint.
Include retained trees, planting, gaps and neighbour privacy in the brief; the plan connects development with garden habitat and local character.
Bring order to Hampstead bedrooms, living rooms and studies with fitted wardrobes, alcove joinery, bookshelves and cupboards shaped around existing openings and room details.
Record sash, door and other external details before deciding between repair and replacement. Check the actual direction and listing rather than relying on a Hampstead address alone.
Plan shelves, wardrobes and cupboards around the room’s openings and retained fabric. Where the building is listed, assess the effect on its special interest before alteration.
Tell us how you want to use the space, what needs to stay and which drawings or permissions you already have. A measured brief can connect the roof or extension layout with stairs, storage, lighting and joinery before specifications are priced.
The buildings
Camden's design guide describes an 18th-century village at the heart of the conservation area, with narrow passageways, steep lanes and small squares, and surrounding streets largely developed in the 19th century. Those 19th-century red and yellow brick houses, the guide adds, keep many Arts and Crafts features: original windows and doors, decorative details, front gardens, boundary walls and railings.
The conservation area statement adds detail street by street. West of Heath Street, between Church Row and Upper Terrace, lies the largest concentration of 18th-century houses. Keats Grove, Downshire Hill and the link along South End Road grew up in the early 1800s around St John's chapel, with houses from tiny cottages to substantial brick or stucco villas, most of them listed. Much of Frognal and its offshoots is late 19th and 20th-century houses in large, well-treed gardens, most of them red brick, the earlier ones generally Arts and Crafts with red tiled roofs and chimneys.
Hampstead was designated on 29 January 1968, with North End, the Elms, Vale of Health and Downshire Hill, and Camden's guide counts it among the first conservation areas created after the Town and Country Planning Act in 1968. The statement agreed on 31 October 2001 divides it into eight sub areas, from Heath Street/High Street and Church Row/Hampstead Grove to Whitestone Pond and the outlying North End, Vale of Health and The Elms.
Sources: Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Design Guide (updated June 2026), Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Statement (2002)
Rules that shape a project
Camden's Article 4 page lists a schedule and list of affected Hampstead properties, a separate Frognal Way direction and fact sheet, and the design guide, with an adoption date of 9 June 2026. The direction applies to most properties, but only to fronts and street-facing sides, for houses and houses converted to flats; like-for-like repair and replacement still needs no planning permission under the direction, and the guide says there is currently no fee for the applications it brings.
Sources: Camden Council: Article 4 directions (heritage and conservation), Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Design Guide (updated June 2026)
The conservation area statement says planning permission is required for roof alterations at the front, rear and side, and that some roof-level changes have harmed the area. Where replacement is the only option it expects materials that closely match the original, generally natural ones, and says concrete roof tiles, artificial slate and PVCu windows would not be acceptable.
Source: Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Statement (2002)
The statement says the Council will resist any further loss of front boundary walls and the conversion of front gardens into hardstanding parking, and under the Article 4 direction a new or altered front gate, wall, fence or hard surface now needs planning permission.
Sources: Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Statement (2002), Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Design Guide (updated June 2026)
Camden's Local Plan 2017 Policy A5 restricts the scale of basements and their impact. A Basement Impact Assessment goes in with the planning application and is generally independently audited, and in Hampstead the statement says new front basement areas will generally be resisted.
Sources: Camden Council: basement developments, Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Statement (2002)
The Local Plan adopted on 3 July 2017 replaced the Core Strategy and Camden Development Policies as the basis for planning decisions. Its examination continues: on 12 October 2026 Camden reported that, after hearings in May and June, the Inspector had identified Main Modifications, now out for consultation until Monday 23 November 2026.
Sources: Camden Council: Camden Local Plan, Camden Council: Local Plan examination news
For a flat, LEASE points out that the lease itself can call for the freeholder's permission before any alteration, whatever the council has approved, and that a clause such as 'floors must be carpeted' might rule out a wooden or laminate floor.
Source: LEASE: alterations and home improvements
On site
No authorisation is needed for noisy building work in Camden from Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, or on Saturday, 8am to 1pm. Noisy work at any other time, or on a Sunday or bank holiday, needs it.
Source: Camden Council: noisy building works
Residents, individuals and agents cannot apply for a skip licence in Camden; the skip company does, at least 5 working days before the licence and its parking suspension start.
Source: Camden Council: skip licence
Bay suspensions are booked through an online Camden account, at least 17 days before the suspension begins.
Source: Camden Council: parking bay suspensions
For work covered by the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, gov.uk guidance says the building owner must give adjoining owners notice in the way the Act sets down, and the Act provides a way to resolve disagreements.
Source: GOV.UK: Party Wall etc. Act 1996 guidance
Whatever the scale of a basement, Camden says it must be planned with engineering input that is evident in the Basement Impact Assessment.
Source: Camden Council: basement developments
Questions before you begin
Most properties in the Hampstead Conservation Area are, on their fronts and street-facing sides, and that includes houses converted to flats. Camden's Article 4 page lists the properties affected, with a separate direction for Frognal Way.
Sources: Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Design Guide (updated June 2026), Camden Council: Article 4 directions (heritage and conservation)
Camden's design guide says there is currently no fee for applications made as a result of the direction, and like-for-like repair or replacement needs no planning permission under the direction.
Source: Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Design Guide (updated June 2026)
On the front or a street-facing side, replacing part or all of a window or door now needs planning permission, and the conservation area statement says PVCu windows would not be acceptable. Secondary glazing needs no planning permission; the guide asks for its meeting rails to line up with the existing glazing bars.
Sources: Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Design Guide (updated June 2026), Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Statement (2002)
A planning application with a Basement Impact Assessment, which Camden generally has independently audited, and a design within Local Plan Policy A5, which restricts the scale of basements. In the conservation area, new front basement areas will generally be resisted.
Sources: Camden Council: basement developments, Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Statement (2002)
Start your Hampstead enquiry with the decisions that affect the whole home. Describe the spaces you want to retain, the rooms that no longer work well and any alterations already made. Bring available drawings and explain which information is uncertain. A useful brief distinguishes an essential change from an option that can be explored during design.
Keep the architectural layout, structural questions and building services in the same discussion. If an opening moves, consider the consequences for circulation, lighting and retained finishes as well as the opening itself. Record decisions against the current drawings so each part of the team can identify the proposal being developed. Where a separate survey is needed, surveying support can be discussed on its own terms.
£5M public liability, £10M employers' liability and contractors' all risks cover
Use the first discussion to explain the decisions you are finding difficult. You may be weighing a room connection against retained joinery, or considering how a changed kitchen would affect the rest of the ground floor. Bring those alternatives with the existing plans.
When looking at previous work, choose a detail that answers a question about your own home. Ask what the photograph shows and what further information would be needed to assess a comparable proposal. A completed example can inform a design conversation without establishing what is appropriate for another building.
Based here in Hampstead
We are based in Hampstead and carry out renovation work here. Bring us the practical questions about your house, flat or bathroom and the result you want to achieve.
Office hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and Saturday, 9am to 1pm. Call or email the studio, or use the short form below to book a feasibility visit.
Book a feasibility visitDescribe the property and the work in our project planner. A quotation follows a review of the property and the specification.
Discuss your project
Share the property location, the work you have in mind and any drawings or permissions you already have.
£5M public liability, £10M employers' liability and contractors' all risks cover.
Design support: Hampstead Architecture & Planning. Surveying support: Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy.
