Kitchen
renovation
in Hampstead, NW3

Camden's guide calls Hampstead one of the first conservation areas created after the Town and Country Planning Act in 1968, and describes its heart as an 18th-century village of narrow passageways, steep lanes and small squares, with the streets around it mostly developed in the 19th century. The conservation area statement places the largest concentration of 18th-century houses west of Heath Street, between Church Row and Upper Terrace.

On Keats Grove and Downshire Hill, most houses date from the early 1800s and are listed; in Frognal, the earlier red-brick houses are generally Arts and Crafts, with red tiled roofs and chimneys. Elsewhere, the 19th-century red and yellow brick houses keep many original windows, doors and decorative details.

So the survey answers a few practical questions before any cabinetry is drawn: whether an old timber floor can carry a stone island, whether the extract can leave through the back rather than the front, whether the kitchen works better moved towards the garden, and where the new sink and dishwasher waste can join the existing soil stack.

Sources: Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Design Guide (updated June 2026), Camden Council: Hampstead Conservation Area Statement (2002)

The Planning Portal treats removing an internal chimney breast as outside planning control, because the exterior is untouched, though it flags that the stack, or a conservation area, can change that.

Approval under the building regulations is always required for it, and the Portal recommends an engineer's drawings and calculations.

A wider opening in a load-bearing wall needs the masonry above carried, usually on a pair of new beams with proper bearings, and a steel beam is normally fire-protected with layers of plasterboard.

Our structural engineers check what each wall carries, from the floor joists to the chimney above, before a kitchen plan removes it. In a terrace, a breast on the party wall may also serve the flue next door, so we trace it before anything is cut.

Sources: Planning Portal Interactive House: Do I need permission to remove chimney breasts?, Planning Portal: Extensions, Building Regulations: Structural Opening

Begin with the existing kitchen and a written list of what needs to work differently. Bring appliance specifications if choices have already been made, and explain which items are provisional. Review storage, circulation and the position of preparation space together rather than deciding each cabinet separately.

Before the fitting information is settled, ask for the layout to be checked against the room and the relevant service connections. Keep a record of outstanding dimensions and product choices. Changes to an appliance, sink or worktop should be communicated to the people preparing the connected details. At handover, retain the product information and identify access to the components that may need inspection or maintenance. The aim is a kitchen whose visible arrangement and underlying technical decisions are understood together.

Build the kitchen brief around ordinary use: preparing food, unloading shopping, clearing dishes and finding frequently used equipment. Mark the awkward points in the existing room before choosing a new arrangement. Appliance information, the preferred worktop and storage requirements should be available when the cabinet layout is reviewed.

Consider the connections between fitted elements. An appliance door needs clearance; a worktop junction affects the cabinet below it; a new lighting position should suit the activity underneath. Ask the team to record unresolved dimensions and check them before manufacture or fitting. For a kitchen in a divided building, include the information held about shared services and the arrangements for bringing materials into the property. This gives the design discussion a practical basis without treating an early visual as a completed technical specification.

£5M public liability, £10M employers' liability and contractors' all risks cover