Loft
conversions
in Kentish Town, NW5

Where Kentish Town roofs survive as built they are natural slate, tucked behind parapets, and Camden's appraisal observes that each mansard added since has broken the parapet line of its group.

We begin a Kentish Town loft from the street and the gardens behind it, checking how much of the roof can be seen before suggesting any shape for the new room.

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

Camden's Home Improvements guidance explains that the traditional mansard belongs to Georgian and Victorian houses, where a front parapet or valley roof lets a new level be slotted in.

Where a whole terrace is valued for its roofline, the same guidance expects a new roof level to be refused whatever its design.

Nearer to hand, Camden's statements for the Bartholomew Estate and for Inkerman each describe a mansard, or any roof addition that alters the shape of the roof, as out of character there and unlikely to win approval.

So on most Kentish Town streets we compare a rear dormer, rooflights and a modest mansard side by side, and say plainly which one Camden is likely to accept.

Sources: Camden Planning Guidance: Home Improvements (January 2021), Camden: Bartholomew Estate Conservation Area Statement (adopted 2000), Camden: Inkerman Conservation Area Statement (March 2003)

On the Bartholomew Estate a carefully designed dormer or rooflight at the back is usually acceptable, unless the rear is an untouched composition visible from public space; at the front and side, dormers are generally refused where the roofs are largely unaltered.

The Inkerman statement takes the same line, and adds that its shallow roofs mean a dormer must respect the ridge, the hips and the proportions of the house.

In a conservation area Camden's guidance wants each rooflight laid flush, not standing proud of the slates.

It also treats a dormer as worth proposing only with over 2 metres of headroom, measured from the stair, and smaller than the slope it sits in.

Sources: Camden: Bartholomew Estate Conservation Area Statement (adopted 2000), Camden: Inkerman Conservation Area Statement (March 2003), Camden Planning Guidance: Home Improvements (January 2021)

On Highgate Road, Fitzroy Terrace at Nos 98 to 108 already carries a mansard, while Nos 110 to 118 continue it with a strong parapet and chimneys seen from the road.

For a whole terrace or group whose roofs remain largely as built, Camden's Dartmouth Park appraisal expects roof additions to be refused.

For an address on this edge, our first drawing is the row's roofline, because that is what the Dartmouth Park test looks at.

Source: Camden: Dartmouth Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Statement (adopted 22 January 2009)

Building regulations approval is needed before a loft becomes a habitable room, the Planning Portal confirms.

The joists in an old loft were sized to tie the rafters and carry a ceiling, not the load of a bedroom.

A loft room needs a real stair rather than a ladder, fire-resisting doors on the way down, and smoke alarms wired to the mains and linked on every level.

If bats use the roof, a survey and possibly a licence come first.

Sources: Planning Portal: Is building regulations approval needed for a loft conversion?, Planning Portal: Loft conversion, building regulations: stairs, Planning Portal: Loft conversion, building regulations: fire safety, Planning Portal: Loft conversion, protected species

A Kentish Town loft usually becomes one bedroom with a shower room, placed so the shower sits under the highest part of the slope and close to the stack at the back.

Eaves cupboards take the low edges; we line the rooflights up with the windows below so the back of the house keeps its order.

The new stair usually climbs over the existing flight. Where the landing is tight, we turn the top steps and keep the front bedroom on the floor below at its present size.