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High Barnet and Monken Hadley EN5 · Flat refurbishment

Flat refurbishment in High Barnet and Monken Hadley

Council blocks, a listed conversion and High Street flat approvals

Flats in High Barnet and Monken Hadley include homes in streets and blocks named in Barnet Homes’ 2017 listing, the listed former maternity hospital on Wood Street, converted into private flats by 2007, and buildings on and near the High Street that Barnet has recently approved for new flats. Each brings its own approvals: the lease and freeholder, listed building consent where the building is listed, and Barnet Homes’ rules if Barnet Council is your landlord.

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Flat refurbishment in High Barnet and Monken Hadley at a glance

Barnet’s planning register shows buildings on and near the High Street being approved for flats. In 2025 Barnet granted permission, after a legal agreement, for a High Street building to change to residential use as four self-contained flats, with altered windows, three new front dormers and an enlarged rear dormer. In 2026 it approved, after a legal agreement, a prior approval application to turn the offices on the first floor of another High Street building into four flats, and gave prior approval for five flats in a commercial unit at Beauchamp Court, Victors Way. In 2025 it refused prior approval for seven flats at Highlands House in Bath Place.

Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing) · Barnet: Wood Street Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted July 2007 (PDF) · Barnet: Monken Hadley Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted January 2007 (PDF)

For the whole area, including conservation areas, permissions and working hours, read our High Barnet and Monken Hadley renovation guide.

Approved guide prices

What does a flat refurbishment cost in High Barnet and Monken Hadley?

A flat refurbishment in High Barnet and Monken Hadley runs £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, and a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically lands between £60,000 and £110,000. Most programmes take 16–32 weeks on site. A written scope and site assessment are needed before any project price can be fixed.

Scope of workGuide rateTypical total
Full flat refurbishment (2-bed)£900–£1,700/sqm£60,000–£110,000
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

Council blocks, a listed conversion and joining flats into one home

Barnet’s own records name some of the blocks and converted buildings that hold flats here. The examples below come from its 2017 housing listing, the national list, its 2007 appraisal and its planning register.

Barnet’s open data publishes the Barnet Homes stock listing of 24 May 2017. In what was then High Barnet Ward, it lists 135 homes managed by Barnet Homes and let to tenants, 98 of them flats, and the entries with the most flats are Grove Court, Vale Court, Hart Lodge, Hughendon, Hastings Close, Hadley Ridge and The Highlands. The listing covers tenanted homes only, so it does not show which flats are leasehold; it names streets as well as blocks and uses the ward boundaries of 2017, not the wards in force today. Your lease names your landlord.

Barnet open data: tenanted properties managed by Barnet Homes (Barnet Homes Stock Listing 2017)

On Wood Street, the former Victoria Maternity Hospital at No. 55 is listed Grade II, and Planning Data gives its listing a start date of 7 April 1983. The Wood Street appraisal of 2007 describes it as a three-bay 18th-century house with stucco re-fronting and records that it had been converted into private flats. Its flats therefore sit inside one listed building, which shapes decisions about walls, windows and services; the consents are set out below.

Planning Data: Former Victoria Maternity Hospital, Wood Street, Grade II, list entry 1192582 · Barnet: Wood Street Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted July 2007 (PDF)

Some owners look to join flats into one home. In 2023 Barnet issued a certificate of lawfulness, marked lawful, for a proposal to convert the ground-floor and first-floor flats at an address on Ravenscroft Park into a single family dwelling. A certificate of that kind confirms that what it describes would be lawful at one address; it does not show that the work was done or set a rule for the street. If you hope to join two flats, or to divide a house, ask Barnet early which route your building needs.

Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing)

Permissions and local rules

Consents for a flat in High Barnet and Monken Hadley

If Barnet Council is your landlord

Barnet Homes acts on behalf of the landlord, the London Borough of Barnet. Its leaseholder guidance sets two requirements before any alteration: the lease must allow the change, and Barnet Homes must have given written consent. Subject to the lease, it may agree to works such as reshaping the layout, taking out walls that carry no load, changing windows, electrical work and soundproofing. Changes to front entrance doors are usually not permitted, nor is laminate flooring except, usually, on the ground floor; Barnet Homes consents to either only where the lease already allows it.

Barnet Homes: guidance on making alterations to leasehold properties, October 2021 (for Barnet Council leaseholders)

Living above businesses in the town centre

Barnet’s adopted Local Plan notes that the London Plan classifies Chipping Barnet town centre as having a night-time economy of more than local significance. If your flat is above a pub, restaurant or late-opening shop, plan the refurbishment around evening and night-time noise: floor and wall insulation, window seals, quiet ventilation and bedroom positions. Ask the freeholder about any extract or plant serving the business below, and check whether your address lies inside the town centre.

Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025: the plan and its adoption documents

A flat in a listed building

Where the building itself is listed, as the former Victoria Maternity Hospital on Wood Street is, listed building consent sits alongside the lease. Barnet’s Local Plan states that consent is required for any alteration, some repairs included, that would affect a statutory listed building’s special interest. In a flat that can mean old doors, cornices, fireplaces or a chimney breast, so agree early with the freeholder who will apply for consent and what the drawings must show.

Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025: the plan and its adoption documents · Planning Data: Former Victoria Maternity Hospital, Wood Street, Grade II, list entry 1192582

Sound between flats in a converted house

Barnet’s 2026 design guidance says development should provide high levels of soundproofing within each home as well as between homes, and where a proposed conversion into flats would share a party wall with an existing single family house, it expects an enhanced sound insulation value at least 5dB above the Building Regulations value. In a house that was divided into flats long ago, the floors and walls between homes may fall short of what that guidance asks of new development, so test them before choosing finishes and treat any upgrade as part of the scope.

Barnet Sustainable Design and Development Guidance SPD, adopted 15 June 2026: Part 2, design and technical guidance

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

What the work covers

What a flat refurbishment here can include

Layout and services within the flat

Kitchens and bathrooms are placed where waste can reach the existing stack, and walls are moved only once we know which carry load or support the floor above. In converted villas and older town-centre buildings, we check for altered floors and earlier service runs before the final layout is fixed, so that the design follows the building rather than fighting it.

Sound, heat and fire separation

Floors are rebuilt with resilient layers where sound is a problem, and insulation is added where the walls can take it. An entrance door onto a shared stair is specified to the fire performance the building needs, and any opening made in a wall or ceiling between flats is sealed again so that the separation between homes is restored.

How we work

How we run a High Barnet and Monken Hadley flat refurbishment

  1. First visit

    We see the flat, then the entrance, stairs or lift that serve it.

  2. Lease and consents

    We go through the lease’s consent requirements with you and the managing agent at the start.

  3. Survey and design

    Drainage and services are traced on site. Our own architects and structural engineers design the layout and any structural change around those routes, and any new external vent or window is checked for planning.

  4. Price and contract

    A fixed written price and a JCT contract follow the survey, scope and specification. The price names its allowances and exclusions, with consent fees and any common-parts work shown separately.

  5. Working in the building

    Common parts are protected and their condition recorded; deliveries keep to the building’s rules, and noisy work to those rules and the council’s permitted hours; key decisions go to a director.

  6. Handover

    Commissioning, drawings, certificates and any managing-agent close-out. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our flat refurbishment work elsewhere in London

None of these projects is in High Barnet and Monken Hadley. 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. Tell us who the landlord is

    Send the lease or title, and tell us who the freeholder is and who manages the building. If Barnet Council is your landlord, say so at the start, because Barnet Homes’ written consent will be needed before any alteration.

  2. Check the building’s status and history

    Find out whether the building is listed or in the Monken Hadley or Wood Street Conservation Area, and whether it was recently changed from commercial use. A recent permission or prior approval may carry conditions that still apply to your flat.

  3. Note what is shared

    Mark where the soil stack, meters, water tank and heating plant are, and whether each serves only your flat. Photographs of these, of the ceiling of any room below a wet room and of your entrance door help us price accurately.

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

Flat refurbishment in High Barnet and Monken Hadley: questions

Can a house here be divided into flats?

Barnet’s adopted Policy HOU03 sets criteria; among them, the site should have a public transport access level of 3 to 6 or be within an 800m walk of a station or of a town centre’s boundary, it should include at least one three-bedroom family home with access to a dedicated private garden, and with two flats the house should have at least 135m² of floor space. Its guidance adds that a conversion is likely to be resisted on a road largely of single family houses where losing one would unacceptably alter its character.

Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025: the plan and its adoption documents · Barnet Sustainable Design and Development Guidance SPD, adopted 15 June 2026: Part 3, flat conversions and HMOs

Will Barnet accept outside changes for a conversion?

Barnet’s 2026 guidance on flat conversions asks for the least possible change to the outside. It says a second front door should be avoided and meter boxes placed away from the front, and that large extensions or alterations made to fit a conversion in are unlikely to be acceptable. In the Monken Hadley and Wood Street conservation areas, the appraisals’ attention to doors, porches and boundaries is a further reason to keep the front as it is.

Barnet Sustainable Design and Development Guidance SPD, adopted 15 June 2026: Part 3, flat conversions and HMOs

Does Barnet want homes above town-centre businesses?

Barnet’s adopted Local Plan says homes within mixed-use development in town centres can help their vitality and viability, and that residents living above ground floor level enable more efficient use of what town centres offer. Policy TOW02 then seeks upper floors, where they are suitable, for alternative uses, homes among them. It does not say that every upper floor is suitable.

Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025: the plan and its adoption documents

Who owns the windows of a council leasehold flat?

If Barnet Council is your landlord, Barnet Homes’ lease page says the freeholder owns the main structural parts of the building, such as the walls and roof, and its joints and beams; it also owns the front door, the door frame and the window frames, except where you hold a Deed of Variation. Barnet Homes’ alterations guidance lists changes to windows among the works it may consent to where the lease allows, so ask before ordering anything.

Barnet Homes: your lease (for Barnet Council leaseholders) · Barnet Homes: guidance on making alterations to leasehold properties, October 2021 (for Barnet Council leaseholders)

Can I add a room in the loft above my flat?

Not through Barnet Homes, if Barnet Council is your landlord: its guidance rules out consent for works including extensions, conservatories and loft conversions, and its home improvements page says it neither sells loft space nor gives landlord’s consent for loft works, since the loft sits outside the lease demise and in many instances contains services which may be shared between the flats. With a private freeholder, start by checking whether your lease includes the loft at all.

Barnet Homes: guidance on making alterations to leasehold properties, October 2021 (for Barnet Council leaseholders) · Barnet Homes: leaseholder home improvements (for Barnet Council leaseholders)

How much does a flat refurbishment cost in High Barnet and Monken Hadley?

Guide rates in High Barnet and Monken Hadley are £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, with a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically between £60,000 and £110,000, over a 16–32 weeks programme. A written scope and site assessment come before any fixed price.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your High Barnet and Monken Hadley flat

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your High Barnet and Monken Hadley flat. We reply within one working day, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Or call 020 7101 3168. We serve High Barnet and Monken Hadley from our studio at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN.

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