Kitchen renovation in Hatch End

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

Harrow’s 2021 character study counts the Victorian semi-detached villas at Woodridings among Hatch End’s oldest development, and the 2011 assessment says initial suburban development there was dominated by Woodridings, an estate of Italianate villas along Uxbridge Road, Devonshire Road and Wellington Road. Around Wellington, Devonshire and Cornwall Roads it records a mix: one three-storey Italianate pair surviving on Wellington Road, Edwardian and inter-war detached houses, a 1930s mansion block, 1960s and 1970s flats and 1950s maisonettes in two-storey pairs, with some front gardens lost to hard surfacing and forecourt parking.

Inter-war growth brought the garden suburb of Pinnerwood Park, the Tudorbethan estate at Sherrington Avenue and Royston Park. Around The Avenue, Royston Park Road and Royston Grove, the 2011 assessment records mainly Edwardian, 1930s and post-war houses, usually two storeys plus rooms in the roof, many Arts and Crafts in style with tall chimneys and complex hipped and gabled roofs in brick, tile and render, set well back on wide streets with very large mature trees. Along Uxbridge Road it records mainly 1930s detached and some semi-detached houses, some with Tudorbethan bays and gables.

The Pinnerwood Park Estate, now a conservation area that Harrow lists with Pinner and its 2021 study names among Hatch End’s garden suburb estates, was laid out for the Artizans, Labourers and General Dwellings Company, and its layout was granted planning permission on 6 October 1932; only about 435 houses were built. Its 2009 appraisal describes two-storey cottage-style houses of dark red multicoloured brick with lighter red quoins, hipped roofs of handcut red plain tiles and tall chimneys, separated by hedges rather than walls, on streets with grass verges, granite kerbs and mature trees.

Local design and consent context

Harrow designated Pinnerwood Park Estate as a conservation area on 31 August 1989. Its current appraisal and management strategy, adopted in December 2009 as Appendix 8 to the Pinner Conservation Areas SPD, replaced a February 1990 appraisal and carries weight as a material planning consideration. Harrow lists the area on its Pinner page, its 2021 character study names it among Hatch End’s garden suburb estates, and the Pinner SPD says the Hatch End local centre lies outside the conservation area but forms part of its setting.

The conservation area is in two parts, and the appraisal lists its roads, several only in part, among them Uxbridge Road, Grimsdyke Road, Altham Road, Woodhall Drive and Pinner Hill Road, so check the house number as well as the street. It records hipped roofs turned into gables, large dormers and third front gables as eroding the area’s appearance, says new front dormers would be out of character and hip-to-gable conversion is unlikely to be permitted, finds conservation rooflights only likely to be acceptable at the rear, and asks extensions not to overpower the house or offset the symmetry of paired houses.

Harrow’s local list, in the Locally Listed Buildings SPD adopted on 12 December 2013 with later additions, names buildings on The Avenue, Altham Road, Nugents Park, Royston Grove, Wellington Road, Westfield Park and Uxbridge Road in Hatch End; local listing adds no extra planning controls over alteration or demolition, but the buildings’ value is weighed through the normal planning process. Harrow’s 2021 study records Green Belt along Hatch End’s northern edge; there, national policy treats development as inappropriate unless it falls within a listed category, which includes an extension that does not add disproportionately to the original building, so ask Harrow whether a garden lies within it.

Access and site planning

Harrow permits noisy construction work from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, and 8am to 1pm on Saturday, with none on Sundays or bank holidays. It can limit working hours under the Control of Pollution Act 1974 and suggests warning neighbours in advance about the work and how long it will last. In a flat or maisonette, ask the managing agent about building rules on hours, deliveries and common parts; if you stay at home, agree which rooms stay in use and when water or power will be off.

Continue planning

The Hatch End area guide · Kitchen renovation across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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