Kentish Town Renovations & Design-Build — NW5

The Kentish Town Neighbourhood Plan counts four conservation areas inside its boundary, and points out that a building outside them has no special protection unless it is listed or locally listed.

The largest locally, the Kentish Town Conservation Area, sits north and east of the shopping centre in three parts joined by Leighton Road. Camden designated it piece by piece: Torriano Cottages and the west end of Leighton Road in 1985, more of Leighton Road in 1991, and the streets from Falkland Road northwards in February 2011.

South of it, the Bartholomew Estate Conservation Area was designated on 4 February 1992; its statement of 2000 covers Patshull Road, Patshull Place and Islip Street among others.

West of Kentish Town Road, the Inkerman Conservation Area, designated in 2001, runs between Prince of Wales Road, Holmes Road, Raglan Street and the railway viaduct.

To the north, the stretch of Highgate Road from College Yard past Grove Terrace belongs to Camden's Dartmouth Park Conservation Area.

We confirm the designation from Camden's own map before giving any design advice, because neighbouring streets in NW5 can fall under different documents, or none.

Sources: Kentish Town Neighbourhood Plan (adopted by Camden, September 2016), Part 1, Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011), Camden: Bartholomew Estate Conservation Area Statement (adopted 2000), Camden Council: Bartholomew Estate conservation area, Camden: Inkerman Conservation Area Statement (March 2003), Camden: Dartmouth Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Statement (adopted 22 January 2009)

Close to Kentish Town Road, the western end of Leighton Road has two-storey houses of the early nineteenth century on both sides, where the original piecemeal plots show most clearly, and some very long back gardens survive on the north side.

Towards Torriano Avenue the houses grow taller and turn to brick, with pediments, artists' studios and deeper front gardens, several of them paved over for cars.

Two houses on the same road can therefore need very different work, a small-scale repair at one end and a tall brick house with a studio at the other, so we price each from its own survey.

Source: Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011)

Behind the larger houses on the south side of Leighton Road lies Torriano Cottages, a cluster of nineteenth century houses with later additions along a private unmade lane.

The cottages are mostly two storeys, modest and mid Victorian, and the lane is lit by old lamps, with public and private ground blurred together.

Large garden trees and shrubs give the group a leafy, secluded character quite unlike the street trees of the side streets nearby.

Getting materials up an unmade private lane is a different job from unloading on a public road, so we walk it with the client and agree with neighbours where vehicles can stand before the start date.

Source: Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011)

Inkerman's statement describes small mid-Victorian terraces of two and three storeys, mostly built in the 1850s in London stock brick with stucco round the windows and doors.

Inkerman Road, Raglan Street, Alma Street and the west side of Cathcart Street have the smallest houses, two storeys and narrow, while Willes Road's are larger and more ornate, with Corinthian pilasters at the doors.

Ryland Road, built between 1875 and 1894, is later and plainer, with bay windows and no full basements.

The area also remembers its industry: Kentish Town and Camden Town were the centre of piano making, and the largest factory, in Grafton Road, employed 300 people.

Source: Camden: Inkerman Conservation Area Statement (March 2003)

In the Kentish Town Conservation Area most roofs sit behind parapets, and Camden notes that added mansards break the parapet line of a group; the unbroken lines of Leighton Road and Leverton Street are called out as important.

The Bartholomew Estate and Inkerman statements both call mansards and other roof extensions that change the roof form uncharacteristic, and unlikely to be acceptable.

Islip Street and Gaisford Street keep unbroken runs of valley roofs that Camden wants preserved.

So a loft in Kentish Town usually begins with the rear slope: rooflights or a rear dormer, tested against the group before any larger idea is drawn.

Sources: Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011), Camden: Bartholomew Estate Conservation Area Statement (adopted 2000), Camden: Inkerman Conservation Area Statement (March 2003)

The northern terraces of the conservation area have small front gardens and longer back gardens, which is where most families look for space.

Camden's statements keep extensions modest: in the Bartholomew Estate usually one storey and half the width of the house, and in Inkerman as unobtrusive as possible and mostly single storey.

Mature trees in rear gardens are especially valued where people can see them from the road.

A side-return or half-width addition beside the back wing often gives the room a family needs while leaving the garden and the neighbours' light largely as they were.

Sources: Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011), Camden: Bartholomew Estate Conservation Area Statement (adopted 2000), Camden: Inkerman Conservation Area Statement (March 2003)

When the Midland Railway cut through, the houses on the south side of Leighton Road lost gardens and stables, Camden's appraisal records.

London County Council housing blocks later went up on both sides of Leighton Road, between the two parts of the conservation area.

Railey Mews mixes converted mews houses and small warehouses, its southern half more intact than its northern, and Fortess Grove has small white-painted stucco terraces.

Most properties in the area have been renovated, generally with good results, though with some loss of historic detail.

Source: Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011)

Until the twentieth century Kentish Town windows were timber sashes; the earliest, on Leighton Road, have small panes, and the later ones on Leverton Street bigger glass.

Original panelled doors survive in numbers, but Camden found poor replacements, sashes swapped for casements or pivot windows, and harsh cleaning and pointing eroding the area.

The 2011 appraisal recommended that Camden consider Article 4 Directions for front gardens and boundaries, window replacements and front doors in the Kentish Town Conservation Area.

Front gardens give the streets their green edge, often with hedges grown where the railings were lost in the war.

Source: Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011)

Grade II listings inside the conservation area take in whole terraces on Leverton Street and a run of houses of 1840 on Leighton Road, with their railings.

Camden's protection covers the whole of a listed building, inside as well as out, and later additions too.

Like-for-like maintenance does not normally call for listed building consent, but a repair that loses important historic fabric or alters the building's appearance does.

For a listed house we read the list entry and record the interior before any scope is written, so the application describes what is really there.

Sources: Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011), Camden Council: Listed buildings, Camden: Inkerman Conservation Area Statement (March 2003)

Camden's Kentish Town strategy recommends a word with the conservation officer and the duty planner before an application goes in.

It also makes clear that earlier unauthorised or poor alterations nearby will not be accepted as a precedent for new work.

Camden offers homeowners two levels of pre-application advice: a lighter one for a single extension or loft, and a fuller one for several extensions, basements or whole-house remodelling.

We prepare the drawings and photographs for that meeting and come back with a design that answers what the officer said.

Sources: Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011), Camden Council: Pre-planning application advice for homeowners

Noisy work needs no authorisation from Camden between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday, or between 8am and 1pm on a Saturday; Sundays and bank holidays are off limits without it.

North of Leighton Road, York stone paving and granite setts survive on Lady Margaret Road, Leverton Street, Leverton Place and Falkland Place.

Trees over 75mm in diameter in the conservation area are protected even without a preservation order, and six weeks' notice is needed before work to them.

We lay boards over old paving before the first delivery, keep skips off the York stone and photograph the pavement outside the house on day one.

Sources: Camden Council: noisy building works, Camden: Kentish Town Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 11 March 2011)