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Hatch End HA5 · House refurbishment

House refurbishment in Hatch End

Tudorbethan estates, 1930s semis and a stream through the gardens

Harrow’s 2011 assessment describes Hatch End’s houses estate by estate, from the Tudor gables around Sherrington Avenue to the 1950s pairs of Woodridings Close (check the address), and the council’s flood documents record the Woodridings Stream and past floods here. This page sets out what those records say about the outside of a house, what officers weighed on particular plots, and what to settle before whole-house drawings begin.

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House refurbishment in Hatch End at a glance

Two things in Harrow’s records deserve the first look before a Hatch End house is redesigned: the form it was built with, and the water around it. The 2011 assessment notes features that mark particular estates, such as Tudor gables projecting over bays, ‘M’-shaped gable pairs and overhanging roofs, so plan any new roof, porch or extension around them. On water, Harrow’s 2011 account has the Woodridings Stream running through gardens and behind property before a piped section, the 2016 flood strategy lists past floods at Hatch End, and officers have described several plots as lying in a critical drainage area.

Harrow: Character Assessment of Harrow’s Residential Areas, 2011 (PDF) · Harrow Local Flood Risk Management Strategy, May 2016, as attached to the Cabinet decision of 15 September 2016 (PDF) · Harrow: Planning and Developments, with the link to search Harrow’s planning register

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

Approved guide prices

What does a house refurbishment cost in Hatch End?

Cost in Hatch End depends on depth of work. A cosmetic refurbishment that keeps the existing layout runs £650–£1,250/sqm (typically £90,000–£180,000), while a back-to-brick renovation runs £2,250–£3,250/sqm (typically £275,000–£475,000), excluding VAT. A written scope and site assessment are needed before any project price can be fixed.

Scope of workGuide rateTypical total
Cosmetic — existing layout retained£650–£1,250/sqm£90,000–£180,000
Back-to-brick renovation£2,250–£3,250/sqm£275,000–£475,000
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

Hatch End houses, estate by estate, as Harrow recorded them

Harrow’s Character Assessment of 2011 describes the inter-war and post-war estates of Hatch End one area at a time. Its descriptions date from that year, so check what survives on your own house.

The Sherrington Avenue estate takes in Milne Field, Sherrington Avenue, Furham Field, The Lawns and parts of Rowlands Avenue and Oxhey Lane. Harrow recorded two-storey detached and semi-detached houses of the 1920s and 1930s in a strong Tudorbethan style: first-floor Tudor gables projecting over bays, ‘M’-shaped gable pairs, brick semis with Elizabethan features over square bays and a few white suntrap houses with green roofs. The layout is formal, with verges, junction greens and street trees, and while some front gardens had gone to forecourt parking, many survived.

Harrow: Character Assessment of Harrow’s Residential Areas, 2011 (PDF)

Towers Road, Lytton Road and part of Altham Road have 1930s detached and some semi-detached houses in brick and render, some with good Tudorbethan detailing; forecourts were widely hard-surfaced, though most kept trees or planting, and a locally listed modernist house on Altham Road is noted as a landmark. On Woodridings Close, 1950s pairs with ‘M’-shaped front gables in brick, render and tile hanging stand on the former Woodridings Farm, beside 1930s semis with shallow square and angular bays. On each road, check the address: Altham Road lies partly in the Pinnerwood Park Estate conservation area (see our Pinner pages).

Harrow: Character Assessment of Harrow’s Residential Areas, 2011 (PDF) · Harrow: Pinnerwood Park Estate Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy, adopted December 2009 (PDF)

Around Cedar Drive, with Ashcroft, Oakmeade, Hazelcroft and part of Rowlands Avenue, the assessment found a 1930s to 1950s development of detached and some semi-detached houses: varied types in a similar style, brick with shallow bays and roofs that project forward or overhang, with gaps at the sides. Many front gardens there had been lost to parking, and the ground falls from north to south. On Nugents Park, Harrow’s local list names Tall Trees, Cavan Garden, The Ridge and Tanglewood alongside Four Oaks.

Harrow: Character Assessment of Harrow’s Residential Areas, 2011 (PDF) · Harrow: Locally Listed Buildings Supplementary Planning Document, adopted 12 December 2013 (PDF)

Permissions and local rules

Water, drainage and what officers weighed on Hatch End plots

The Woodridings Stream’s wider course

Where else does the stream run?

In 2011 Harrow traced the stream behind property in Sylvia Avenue and Hillview Road, then piped through Hatch End, out again east of Nugent’s Park, under St Thomas Drive and south-west to the River Pinn near Avenue Road, Pinner. Adopted policy CN5 requires an undeveloped strip along any main river or ordinary watercourse within, beside or along a development site: 8 metres each side of a main river and 5 metres each side of an ordinary watercourse, unless the Environment Agency or the council agrees another width. Check whether the stream is still a main river.

Harrow: Character Assessment of Harrow’s Residential Areas, 2011 (PDF) · Harrow Local Plan 2021–2041, the adopted plan (PDF)

Floods Harrow has recorded here

What does the council’s flood history say?

Harrow’s 2016 flood strategy, approved as policy that September, records Hatch End among the worst-hit areas in the major flooding of the River Pinn area in October and November 1992, and names it with Pinner, Stanmore and Edgware for November 2000. It records a Hatch End Association campaign, from 1929, to raise flood protection levels from the Woodridings Brook, restarted after serious floods between 1980 and 1997 and concluded in 2009 with a new section of river in Hatch End Playing Fields and other defences. That is history: the GOV.UK long-term flood risk check gives the area’s risk now.

Harrow Local Flood Risk Management Strategy, May 2016, as attached to the Cabinet decision of 15 September 2016 (PDF) · Harrow Cabinet decision, 15 September 2016: Local Flood Risk Management Strategy approved as policy · Check long-term flood risk in England

Critical drainage areas on individual plots

Why can drainage come up in a planning application?

Committee reports have described several Hatch End plots as within a critical drainage area, a designation of the 2012 Surface Water Management Plan: a house on The Avenue in January 2017, a site on Royston Grove in July 2018 and a bungalow on Woodridings Avenue in September 2025. Each describes one site; together they are not a map. Harrow consults the Environment Agency on smaller applications in flood zone 1 with critical drainage issues, and will not validate an application that lacks a required Flood Risk Assessment. The adopted plan proposes replacing the mapped areas with hydrological catchment areas.

Harrow: Planning and Developments, with the link to search Harrow’s planning register · Harrow Surface Water Management Plan, Volume 1 (Drain London final report dated 13 October 2011; approved by Cabinet on 9 February 2012) (PDF) · Harrow: West London Strategic Flood Risk Assessment and flood risk assessments · Harrow Local Plan 2021–2041, the adopted plan (PDF)

Levels and protected trees on a plot

What have officers weighed on particular plots?

On Sequoia Park, part of Royston Park’s eastward extension in Harrow’s 2011 account, officers in May 2026 recommended refusing front, side and rear extensions: the two-storey side and rear parts would be overbearing and obtrusive, and the added roof height and massing, with the site levels, would harm the house’s appearance and the street scene. On The Avenue in January 2017, officers found an extension far enough from trees under preservation orders but recommended a condition protecting them. Neither case is a rule for its street.

Harrow: Planning and Developments, with the link to search Harrow’s planning register · Harrow: Character Assessment of Harrow’s Residential Areas, 2011 (PDF)

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

What the work covers

Three parts of a Hatch End house scheme to settle early

Roofs, gables and bays surveyed first

The survey records the roof form, gables, bays and wall finishes the house was built with, whether projecting Tudor gables, ‘M’-shaped pairs, tile hanging, render or an overhanging roof, and what later work has changed. Coverings, flashings, gutters and the timbers behind each bay are opened up where decay is suspected, so their repair is priced with the scheme rather than found once the scaffolding is up.

Harrow: Character Assessment of Harrow’s Residential Areas, 2011 (PDF)

Drains, levels and the garden

The adopted plan requires householder work to separate foul water from surface water, and asks it to use sustainable drainage wherever feasible. Before an extension or new bathroom is drawn, the existing drains are traced and checked, the fall of the garden is measured, and rainwater from new roofs and paving is routed at the same time, so levels are set before foundations are priced. If a stream runs along the garden, Harrow reminds owners that river banks on or next to their land are theirs to care for.

Harrow Local Plan 2021–2041, the adopted plan (PDF) · Harrow: flood reporting and advice (undated page, checked 16 October 2026)

Trees near the work

Any tree close to a new extension, path or service trench is checked for a preservation order before the layout is fixed. Harrow says it responds to applications for work to trees under a preservation order within six weeks, and to applications for tree works in conservation areas within eight, and that an insurance company’s letter does not replace its written permission. Drain and cable runs keep clear of the trees that stay.

Harrow: tree preservation orders and conservation-area trees

How we work

How we run a Hatch End house refurbishment

  1. Free feasibility visit

    We walk round the house with you and discuss what is feasible.

  2. Survey

    Rooms, levels and features to keep are measured, with opening-up or asbestos checks where needed.

  3. Design and consents

    Our own architects and structural engineers design the layout and structural openings, plan the service routes with them, and identify which consents and party wall notices apply.

  4. Price and contract

    A fixed written price and a JCT contract follow the survey, scope and specification. It records allowances, exclusions and how changes are priced.

  5. On site

    Work is inspected before it is covered, and a director reviews key decisions.

  6. Handover

    Testing, commissioning and snagging. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our house refurbishment work elsewhere in London

None of these projects is in Hatch End. 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. Name the estate and the house type

    Start with the address and the type of house, if you know it: a Tudorbethan semi, a 1930s detached house with bays, a 1950s gabled pair, a bungalow or a later infill house. Photographs of each elevation and of the roof help, with a note of every later addition and its date where known.

  2. Mark water, slopes and trees

    On a rough plan of the plot, mark any stream, ditch or culvert near the back, the way the garden falls, any gully that overflows in heavy rain and the trees near where you want to build. Say whether water has ever come into the house or the drains have backed up, and roughly when.

  3. Find the plot’s planning history

    Search Harrow’s planning register for the address and send any decisions, conditions and drawings, including any about trees or drainage. Add Building Control completion certificates for earlier extensions or lofts, and any drainage survey or insurer’s report, so that the scope starts from the paperwork that already exists.

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

House refurbishment in Hatch End: questions

How does Harrow judge an extension beside the house next door?

Picture a 45-degree splay on plan, starting from the closest front or back corner of the neighbouring home at first-floor or two-storey level, or from its single-storey rear corner where that wall has a protected window. Harrow’s adopted plan says no part of a new extension should break that splay, though the code is not meant to be applied rigidly. The 2010 guide does not count windows to halls, bathrooms and utility rooms as protected, and on a mid-terrace house it sees an upper-floor rear extension as generally not possible.

Harrow Local Plan 2021–2041, the adopted plan (PDF) · Harrow: Residential Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document, adopted 15 December 2010 (PDF, file 23276)

Can a Hatch End basement be ruled out on flood grounds?

Yes. Under policy CN3, a site in Flood Zone 3b can have no basement development at all. On other sites, a new basement, or a new use for an existing one, must have regard to flood risk in its Flood Risk Assessment, resilience measures are required, and the policy refuses new homes or extra habitable rooms in basements. Where an assessment is needed, CN3 also asks for a dry means of escape for occupiers and requires flood resilience measures to half a metre above the finished floor. Basement policy GR4A adds its own tests.

Harrow Local Plan 2021–2041, the adopted plan (PDF)

Do Harrow’s flood records name Hatch End streets?

A few. A 2004 report to a Harrow scrutiny sub-committee listed a Hatch End flood alleviation project, being developed with the Environment Agency, to relieve flooding primarily in Hatch End Broadway, Hillview Road, Hillview Close and The Avenue; it did not say how often, from what source or what was built. The 2011 Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment lists Wealdstone, Stanmore, Pinner, Kenton and Hatch End for general records of surface water flooding, with no street. Harrow’s flood page counts about 120 properties at risk on the Woodridings Stream, labelled Pinner Green, naming no street.

Harrow: Flooding in Harrow, report to the Environment and Economy Scrutiny Sub-Committee, 27 September 2004 (PDF) · Harrow Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (Drain London, final version for submission to the Environment Agency by 22 June 2011) (PDF) · Harrow: flood reporting and advice (undated page, checked 16 October 2026)

Can a whole-house scheme be charged as one Building Control job?

Ask, because the standard figures assume one job. Scheme No.15, which applies to applications received from 6 April 2026, lets Harrow reduce its standard charges on individual assessment when several extensions or alterations to a home happen at the same time. It also prices individually any extension over 100 square metres and any alteration, other than an extension, whose estimated cost passes a threshold it sets. Listing every item of the scheme in one application gives Building Control what it needs to judge it.

Harrow Building Control: domestic charges, Scheme No.15, Tables B and C, for applications from 6 April 2026 (PDF)

Can a Hatch End bungalow gain an upper floor?

One recent case shows what officers weighed. In September 2025 Harrow’s officers recommended approving a scheme for a bungalow on Woodridings Avenue to raise the ridge by about 1.2 m and form a habitable upper floor with front and rear dormers. They found it not out of keeping because similar bungalows nearby already had similar heights and dormers. Elsewhere the neighbours may be different.

Harrow: Planning and Developments, with the link to search Harrow’s planning register

How much does a house refurbishment cost in Hatch End?

It depends on scope. In Hatch End, a cosmetic refurbishment keeping the existing layout runs £650–£1,250/sqm (typically £90,000–£180,000); a back-to-brick renovation runs £2,250–£3,250/sqm (typically £275,000–£475,000), excluding VAT. A written scope and site assessment come before any fixed price.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your Hatch End house

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

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

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