Loft conversion in Hendon

Test the roof space before settling on a layout.

Start with the loft conversion brief

A measured roof survey should establish headroom, structural spans and where a staircase could meet the floor below. Plan the stair, escape route, insulation and building services together before treating the loft as another room.

Compare the proposed roof shape with the address-specific design guidance below. Record chimneys, shared walls and neighbouring rooflines, then ask the appointed designers to identify the structural work and consents the proposal needs.

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.

Neither the name Hendon, which Barnet’s ward maps also use for the Hendon and West Hendon wards, nor an NW4 postcode tells you which rules apply to a particular home. Confirm the council by entering the property’s own postcode in GOV.UK’s finder, then check that council’s records for the address: in Barnet, the boundary maps for The Burroughs and Church End, the listed-building data and whether the Article 4 direction names the property. Add the lease or title and the planning history.

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

Decide early where deliveries will stop and where waste will wait. The Burroughs appraisal describes a busy through road, particularly at peak times, and the Church End appraisal notes very few parking bays, some set at an angle outside the Greyhound, so parking there can be difficult. A skip on a public road needs a council licence, which in most areas the skip hire company obtains, though none is needed for a skip entirely on private land; scaffolding or hoarding on a public highway needs a licence from the local authority.

Continue planning

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

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