Basement conversion in Hendon

Investigate the structure and ground before design.

Start with the basement conversion brief

Distinguish an existing cellar conversion from excavation for a new basement. Record levels, drainage, access and the adjoining structures, and obtain project-specific ground and structural investigations before relying on a design or budget.

Plan temporary works, waterproofing, ventilation, escape and spoil removal as part of the same brief. Ask Hampstead Chartered Surveyors to assess party-wall matters and Hampstead Architecture & Planning to coordinate the design requirements. An area name alone does not establish ground conditions.

The local building context

Hendon The Burroughs Conservation Area follows the road from the Watford Way junction to Brampton Grove, just short of the civic centre, where the Town Hall, library and fire station are listed. Its 2012 appraisal puts Georgian terraces to the south and Victorian terraces to the north. The 18th-century brick group at Nos. 9–15 and Burroughs House at No. 42 survive, and the Victorian terrace at Nos. 63–77, locally listed in 1986, stands behind front gardens and low walls, in yellow brick under slate with dominant chimney stacks, most then still keeping single-glazed timber sashes.

Hendon Church End Conservation Area is a linear group with St Mary’s Parish Church at its heart, joining Church Road to Watford Way; its 2012 appraisal finds it village-like along Church End and more suburban around Church Terrace, with homes forming just over half its buildings. Its brick is London yellow, brown or red, with roughcast on the modest Victorian cottages fronting Church End; grey slate is a distinctive roofing material on Victorian cottages there, while handmade clay tiles cover Church Farm House, a gabled 17th-century brick farmhouse, and The Chequers.

The appraisals also trace how the surrounding streets developed. By 1876 Brent Street had become the area’s chief shopping district, and Church Road, linking it with Church End, was built up with houses after Hendon railway station opened in 1868; the Watford Way and North Circular roads, constructed in 1927, brought both houses and factories. The Church End appraisal describes the village keeping something of its rural character among estates of suburban housing, so record your own building’s age and construction rather than assuming one Hendon type.

Local design and consent context

Planning data lists 16 conservation areas for Barnet, two of them with Hendon names: Hendon Church End (CA08) and Hendon The Burroughs (CA17). Both were designated on 27 July 1983, the start date also printed on their Barnet boundary maps, dated November 2023. Barnet’s open data describes its conservation-area documents as authoritative, so let the boundary map, not the street name, show whether a property is inside.

Barnet’s appraisal and management proposals for each area are dated 16 November 2012 and describe it as it then was. Both say they should be reviewed every five years in the light of emerging government policy, Barnet’s Local Plan and supporting guidance, so ask Barnet whether anything has updated them before relying on their detail.

Barnet’s Article 4 direction for Hendon The Burroughs (A4D5) has a start date of 21 July 1987, the day the scanned history in Barnet’s file records the Department of the Environment approving it. The 2012 appraisal says it covered Nos. 1–8 Burroughs Gardens and Nos. 63–77 (odd) The Burroughs, and lists the restrictions then in force, which included replacing windows, doors and roofing materials, roof extensions, any extension to a house, outbuildings, oil tanks, new gates, fences, walls or other enclosures and painting external walls, with porches, hardstandings and new access to the highway controlled only at certain houses.

Access and site planning

Barnet’s hours for noisy building work are Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and Saturday, 8am to 1pm, with no such work at any time on a Sunday or bank holiday. Leases, managing agents and a business downstairs may each have stricter expectations about noise, deliveries and shared parts, so ask early. If you live at home during the work, choose which rooms stay usable, warn everyone before water or power goes off and let neighbours know the plan.

Continue planning

The Hendon area guide · Basement conversion across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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