Kitchen renovation in Harrow on the Hill

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

The Village conservation area, designated in 1968, lies on the western slope of Harrow Hill, within walking distance of Harrow town centre and Harrow on the Hill Station. Its appraisal says the Victorian era saw a significant proportion of its dwellings and streets built to house artisans and school employees. On Nelson Road, Crown Street and West Street, mostly two-storey terraced cottage rows follow the contours of the hill in yellow stock brick, some rendered, with slate roofs and sliding timber sashes. Across the Village, many buildings sit directly on the pavement, and few have off-street parking.

On the lower slopes, the Mount Park Estate appraisal describes late Victorian and Edwardian houses, mostly detached, typically two storeys with rooms in the roof and set well back in extensive mature gardens along Mount Park Road, a narrow private road with gated entrances at either end. Red brick, red plain tiles, steep roofs and timber casements and sashes are characteristic. In Roxborough Park and The Grove, Arnold Mitchell’s Arts and Crafts houses stand on Grove Hill and Peterborough Road, and Whitehall Road, Lowlands Road and Lansdowne Road have late Victorian and Edwardian red-brick semi-detached houses.

Elsewhere the mix changes. The Harrow Park appraisal records the road Harrow Park as mostly characterised by substantial buildings divided into flats, and Julian Hill as mostly single houses; Sudbury Hill is predominantly yellow stock brick under grey slate, with stucco especially on Regency and early Victorian properties; South Hill Avenue is essentially detached housing, with properties built between 1910 and 1930 on Orley Farm Road and Hill Close inspired by the Garden Suburb ideal; and Roxeth Hill mixes Edwardian villas, Arts and Crafts inspired terraces and 1930s semi-detached houses.

Local design and consent context

The 2008 SPD’s Policy 18 prefers keeping large single houses and presumes against their change of use to flats, and the Mount Park strategy says the same of the estate’s large single detached houses.

The 2008 SPD counted about 80 listed building entries within the Hill’s conservation areas and about 400 locally listed buildings on the Hill; Harrow now counts 909 locally listed buildings across the borough, protected locally by planning policy rather than by listing. Harrow’s April 2016 list gives ages for its entries, approximate in most cases, such as the fifteenth century for 3–7 West Street, about 1817 for Julian Hill and 1895 for St Margaret’s on Mount Park Road. Harrow Park, formerly Flambards, is a grade II registered park and garden, and St Mary’s Churchyard and Churchyard Extension and Grovefields on Grove Hill are locally listed parks and gardens.

The 2008 SPD says much of the green open space around the Hill is Metropolitan Open Land, and the adopted Local Plan records a substantial tract of it in the Harrow School and John Lyon School estates; Policy GI1 protects Metropolitan Open Land from inappropriate development, and the Mount Park appraisal notes that the designation reaches into some rear gardens. The 2008 SPD says a large part of the Hill is the “Historic Harrow” Archaeological Priority Area, and Historic England’s current record covers the core area of Harrow on the Hill; new basements in a priority area should be informed by consultation with the Greater London Archaeological Advisory Service.

Access and site planning

Harrow permits noisy construction work from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, and 8am to 1pm on Saturday, with no noisy work on Sundays or bank holidays. It notes that the Control of Pollution Act 1974 gives it powers to limit working hours and suggests giving neighbours advance warning of the work and its duration. In a flat, ask the managing agent about any building rules on working hours, deliveries and common parts, and if you stay at home, agree which rooms remain in use and when water or power will be off.

Continue planning

The Harrow on the Hill area guide · Kitchen renovation across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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