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High Barnet and Monken Hadley EN5 · House refurbishment

House refurbishment in High Barnet and Monken Hadley

Sashes, roofs and listed houses in High Barnet and Monken Hadley

Barnet’s Wood Street appraisal of 2007 describes its buildings down to their porches, bargeboards and dormers, and the Monken Hadley appraisal of the same year set out what the council looked for in an extension. Barnet’s planning register then shows what it has recently decided at houses in its High Barnet ward, from double-glazed timber sashes to a refused extension at basement level. Read both for your street before a house refurbishment is drawn.

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House refurbishment in High Barnet and Monken Hadley at a glance

The Wood Street appraisal of 2007, in its Ravenscroft Park character area, lists timber sashes with various divisions, tile hanging, large chimneys, canted bays, recessed doors with leaded glass, timber canopy porches and modest dormers among the features of note. Two 2025 decisions for houses on Ravenscroft Park show what Barnet has approved on that street. It gave householder permission, with conditions, for one house to replace its timber sashes with double-glazed, painted timber sashes, among other repairs. For another house it approved a dual-pitched roof extension with two rooflights, following the demolition of chimney breasts, with replacement windows and external wall insulation among the other works.

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

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 house refurbishment cost in High Barnet and Monken Hadley?

Cost in High Barnet and Monken Hadley 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

Bays, porches and old frames: the house detail Barnet recorded

Barnet’s 2007 appraisals describe many houses in the Monken Hadley and Wood Street conservation areas feature by feature. The examples below come from them and one recent decision; none is a rule for your house, but each shows what to look for.

In the Wood Street Conservation Area, the 2007 appraisal says its principal buildings provide special features including canted bays of one or two storeys, square bays, recessed porches, decorative chimney pots, tile hanging, timber porches with turned spandrels, pargetting and small stone porches. Its list of listed buildings on Wood Street’s north side shows the range of fronts: No. 10 is early 18th-century red brick with a parapet and tiled roof, No. 12 is rendered with a tiled roof, No. 20 is red brick and tile, and No. 30, of the early 19th century, is stucco with a slate roof.

Barnet: Wood Street Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted July 2007 (PDF)

Listing does not mean a house has never changed. The Monken Hadley appraisal records Livingstone Cottage and Monken Cottage on Hadley Green Road, Grade II, with a later mansard roof and a larger dormer, and says The Grove, very altered in the 20th century, keeps enough of the original house to merit listing although a modern block hides its left-hand bays. Repairs can need consent too: in 2026 Barnet granted listed building consent, with conditions, at a listed house on Dury Road for removing and reinstating its roof tiles over a new membrane and repointing the chimney, among other works.

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

Unlisted houses matter too. On the south side of Wood Street, between Leecroft Road and Bells Hill, the 2007 appraisal recorded a group of locally listed dwellings between Nos. 63 and 81 and the locally listed cottages at Nos. 125 to 129, set behind substantial hedges and trees; ask Barnet whether a house is on today’s local list. For the buildings its map marks as positive, many of them 19th and early 20th-century homes, the appraisal says the council will encourage applications for extensions and alterations to be considered particularly carefully.

Barnet: Wood Street Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted July 2007 (PDF)

Permissions and local rules

What Barnet weighs for a house in Monken Hadley and Wood Street

How far a Monken Hadley house can be extended

The Monken Hadley appraisal of 2007 warns that there will always be a limit to the amount of extension a building can be considered to take. Before applying, it asks you to weigh, among other points, the size of a proposal against the plot, the footprint of existing buildings and the spaces between them, and to consider massing, scale, proportion and form. Expect the drawings to show how much of the original house still reads clearly once the addition is built.

Barnet: Monken Hadley Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted January 2007 (PDF)

Roof details and rooflights

The Wood Street appraisal names oversailing eaves, decorative bargeboards, exposed rafter feet, modest traditionally detailed pitched and flat dormers and prominent chimneys among the common roof details, and notes many machine-made clay tiles in the High Street. Barnet’s Local Plan expects alterations in conservation areas normally to use materials matching the original. Part 4 of its 2026 design guidance, though not intended for properties in conservation areas or locally or nationally listed buildings, says that on buildings in a conservation area and on listed buildings, rooflights on the front and rear slopes should be the flush ‘conservation type’.

Barnet: Wood Street Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted July 2007 (PDF) · 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 4, guidance on residential extensions and alterations (not intended for conservation areas or nationally or locally listed buildings)

Trees, gardens and hard surfaces

The Monken Hadley appraisal says removing important trees to make way for development, clear an area, formalise the landscaping or create a hard surface is, in almost all circumstances, not acceptable, though restrained reduction in vegetation is more often permissible. Barnet’s Local Plan adds that, in conservation areas, proposals that lose trees or garden space, such as turning a front garden into hardstanding, will be refused where they harm the area’s character and appearance. Plan parking, paths and site access around the trees rather than through them.

Barnet: Monken Hadley Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted January 2007 (PDF) · Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025: the plan and its adoption documents

Space below ground

In 2026 Barnet refused a householder application for an extension at basement level at a house on Hadley Common; the register summary gives no reasons. Barnet’s adopted basement policy, CDH06, says among other things that a basement should not damage valued trees and roots on the site or next door, should suit the ground conditions, should be subordinate in size to the building being extended, and should keep lightwell railings and grilles from creating visual clutter or obscuring front windows. Test a lower-floor idea against those points first.

Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing) · Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025: the plan and its adoption documents

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 the work can cover in a High Barnet or Monken Hadley house

Replacement windows and roof repairs

Where windows are replaced, our drawings show the glazing bars, the sash or casement pattern, the frame sections and the paint finish, because those details decide whether a new window reads as part of the house. Roof work is specified as a whole, with tiles or slates, leadwork, flashings, rainwater goods and pointing in one package, so that nothing is patched later.

Roof spaces and rear rooms

A loft room or rear addition is designed around the roof the house already has, whether a steep clay-tiled roof or a shallower slate one, with dormers kept modest where the appraisal records them that way. We settle the structure, insulation and stair position early, because a new stair takes space from the floor below and may meet old timbers.

Barnet: Wood Street Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted July 2007 (PDF)

Warmth and services in older fabric

Heating, wiring, insulation and ventilation are planned together, so that new pipe and cable routes avoid panelling, cornices and old floors. For a listed house, Barnet’s Local Plan says proposals to improve energy efficiency must clearly show that they will not harm its special architectural and historic interest, so we choose methods that can be explained in an application and, where possible, reversed.

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

How we work

How we run a High Barnet and Monken Hadley 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 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. Read the part of the appraisal for your street

    Barnet’s 2007 appraisals describe Monken Hadley sub-area by sub-area and Wood Street character area by character area. Find the part that covers your street, note the features it names and the harm it records, and send us those pages with the address.

  2. Look up the house’s planning history

    Search Barnet’s planning register for the address and save earlier decisions, their conditions and any listed building consents. Past approvals show what the council has already accepted at the house, and a condition can limit what may now be done without a fresh application.

  3. Decide what stays and what goes

    List the features you want kept, the rooms you want changed and anything you would like removed, such as later shutters, plastic pipework or a poor extension. A clear list lets the design start from what the house already has.

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 High Barnet and Monken Hadley: questions

Does Barnet’s 2026 extension guidance apply to my house?

Part 4 of Barnet’s Sustainable Design and Development Guidance, adopted in June 2026, is a material consideration where planning permission is needed to alter or extend a home, and Barnet also applies it where prior approval is required. It says it is not intended for properties in conservation areas or locally or nationally listed buildings, though it may be pertinent to them in certain instances. In the Monken Hadley and Wood Street conservation areas, start from the appraisal, which Barnet’s Local Plan says is used in assessing applications.

Barnet Sustainable Design and Development Guidance SPD, adopted 15 June 2026: Part 4, guidance on residential extensions and alterations (not intended for conservation areas or nationally or locally listed buildings) · Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025: the plan and its adoption documents

Can a listed house here be made warmer?

Barnet’s adopted Local Plan says historic buildings can be adapted for energy efficiency, but proposals for statutory listed buildings must clearly show that they will not harm their special architectural and historic interest. In practice that means choosing measures that suit the fabric, testing them where we open up, and asking Barnet whether listed building consent is needed before secondary glazing, insulation or new heating is fixed.

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

Will a contemporary design be considered in Monken Hadley?

The Monken Hadley appraisal of 2007 says the use of innovative forms of design is not discouraged. It still says the scale and proportion of existing and adjacent properties must inform new proposals, and that their form should create visual interest and variety. A contemporary rear addition therefore needs a clear design reason, drawings that show how it relates to the old house, and early advice from Barnet.

Barnet: Monken Hadley Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted January 2007 (PDF)

Are steel shutters on front windows a problem here?

The Wood Street appraisal of 2007 lists steel shutters on windows among the inappropriate minor works it found in its Ravenscroft Park character area, saying they look oppressive. If security is the worry, talk to us about internal shutters, better locks or laminated glass before anything is fixed to a front elevation, and ask Barnet whether the change needs consent at your address.

Barnet: Wood Street Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted July 2007 (PDF)

What if a tree stands where I want to build?

The Monken Hadley appraisal says that where development affects trees, the applicant must ask whether a separate application is needed. Barnet’s protected trees page asks you to check its tree preservation order and conservation area map first, note the order number and keep a screenshot, then apply through the Planning Portal or Barnet’s Plan X form. Raise any tree early, because it can shape the footprint of an extension or a lower floor.

Barnet: Monken Hadley Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted January 2007 (PDF) · Barnet protected trees and tree works

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

It depends on scope. In High Barnet and Monken Hadley, 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 High Barnet and Monken Hadley house

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your High Barnet and Monken Hadley house. 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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