Muswell Hill Renovations & Design-Build — N10

Haringey designated the Muswell Hill Conservation Area on 1 March 1974, the same day as the Fortis Green Conservation Area, which has no adopted appraisal of its own.

The Rookfield Conservation Area followed on 26 March 1976, and Alexandra Palace and Park on 22 September 1978; neither has a current adopted appraisal.

Haringey's 2008 appraisal places Fortis Green to the west of the Muswell Hill area, Rookfield to its south east, and Alexandra Palace and Park along part of its south-east edge.

The Muswell Hill boundary itself has grown twice: in 1991 to roads that reinforce its Edwardian core, and in 2008 by five small areas including Midhurst Avenue, Eastwood Road and part of Alexandra Park Road.

We read Haringey's map for the exact address at the first visit, because a few doors along the same road can sit in a different conservation area, or in none.

Sources: Haringey Council: List of conservation areas in Haringey, Haringey Council: Muswell Hill Conservation Area Character Appraisal (Conservation Area No. 3, adopted 11 February 2008)

South of Muswell Road, Edmondson built Wellfield Avenue, Elms Avenue and Dukes Avenue; Woodberry Crescent came between 1906 and 1910.

Other names appear further out: Charles Rook built architect-designed houses on Coniston, Curzon and Cecil Roads, and Josiah Brondson developed Muswell Avenue, Donovan Avenue, Methuen Park and Rosebery Road.

Billy Collins, William's son, kept building flats on Fortis Green and Fortis Green Road into the 1920s and 1930s, among them Fortis Court, Woodside and Twyford Court.

Knowing which builder put up a house tells us a good deal about its joinery, its roof and its plan before we have lifted a floorboard, so we note it on the survey.

Source: Haringey Council: Muswell Hill Conservation Area Character Appraisal (Conservation Area No. 3, adopted 11 February 2008)

Between Colney Hatch Lane and The Avenue the houses are mostly terraces and linked semis, built for London's growing workforce on long plots with narrow fronts.

Dukes Avenue winds down from the town centre to Alexandra Park, its roofs, chimneys and gables prominent from the brows of the hills.

Windermere, Grasmere and Thirlmere Roads are small two storey terraces on wide tree-lined streets, divided at roof level by brick upstands.

Corner houses here generally turn the junction with a circular bay, a turret or a tower.

Source: Haringey Council: Muswell Hill Conservation Area Character Appraisal (Conservation Area No. 3, adopted 11 February 2008)

The centre and the ridge along Fortis Green stand above 100 metres, and the ground falls away to the north, east and south, most steeply below the Broadway towards St James Lane.

From the north-eastern streets, Alexandra Palace appears again and again, glimpsed down Rosebery Road and seen at length from the west ends of Alexandra Park Road and Muswell Road.

Haringey's schedule of locally significant views includes Twyford Avenue across the Fortismere playing fields, the line of Cranley Gardens, and Alexandra Park Road at Curzon Road looking out to Enfield and the Lea Valley.

On a sloping street the back of a house can be as visible as its front, so roof and rear designs are drawn from the viewpoints that matter as well as from the garden.

Sources: Haringey Council: Muswell Hill Conservation Area Character Appraisal (Conservation Area No. 3, adopted 11 February 2008), Haringey Council: Development Management DPD (Haringey Local Plan, adopted July 2017)

Haringey made its Rookfield Estate direction in 1978 for the area known locally as the Rookfield Estate.

The direction names Rookfield Avenue, Rookfield Close, The Chine, The Court, Cascade Avenue, Cranmore Way and set stretches of Etheldene Avenue, Muswell Hill, Park Road and St James's Lane.

At those addresses, planning permission is needed for enlargements and alterations to houses, porches, parking hardstandings, front gates and walls, and for painting brick or render.

Haringey considered replacing the direction but chose not to confirm the new one, so the existing direction still applies; it is one of four conservation areas in the borough with Article 4 controls.

Sources: Haringey Council: Rookfield Estate Article 4 Direction 1978 (scan of signed document), Haringey Council: Development Management DPD (Haringey Local Plan, adopted July 2017), Haringey Council: Development in conservation areas (Article 4 Directions)

Some houses were built with wide front dormers, as seen on Grand Avenue, but the appraisal finds added front dormers prominent and disruptive where they were never part of the terrace.

Haringey's policy keeps dormers to the rear and subordinate, allowing a front dormer only where it already belongs to the local character.

Because so many Muswell Hill streets slope, roofs are prominent in views along them.

We start any roof scheme with a photograph of the terrace from the pavement, so that the drawing answers the street before it answers the room.

Sources: Haringey Council: Muswell Hill Conservation Area Character Appraisal (Conservation Area No. 3, adopted 11 February 2008), Haringey Council: Development Management DPD (Haringey Local Plan, adopted July 2017)

Alexandra Palace opened in 1873, burnt down sixteen days later and reopened in 1875, its railway carried across St James's Lane on a seventeen-arch viaduct.

The line closed to passengers in 1954, and Muswell Hill Primary School now stands where the station was.

The palace and its park became a conservation area of their own in 1978.

Sources: Haringey Council: Muswell Hill Conservation Area Character Appraisal (Conservation Area No. 3, adopted 11 February 2008), Haringey Council: List of conservation areas in Haringey

Haringey allows loud building work from 8am to 6pm on weekdays and from 8am to 1pm on Saturdays.

Haringey wants skip licence applications in five working days before the skip arrives; where it will stand in a parking bay, the bay must also be suspended, booked a fortnight or more in advance.

Scaffolding over a public pavement needs a Haringey licence, and trees in a conservation area need six weeks' notice before any work to them.

We draw up a site plan with the neighbours' access, the skip position and the scaffold line before work begins.

Sources: Haringey Council: Noise complaints, Haringey Council: Skip/building materials licence, Haringey Council: Apply for a parking bay suspension, Haringey Council: Scaffolding, hoarding, container and crane licences, Haringey Council: Tree work in a conservation area