Basement conversion in Palmers Green

Investigate the structure and ground before design.

Start with the basement conversion brief

Distinguish an existing cellar conversion from excavation for a new basement. Record levels, drainage, access and the adjoining structures, and obtain project-specific ground and structural investigations before relying on a design or budget.

Plan temporary works, waterproofing, ventilation, escape and spoil removal as part of the same brief. Ask Hampstead Chartered Surveyors to assess party-wall matters and Hampstead Architecture & Planning to coordinate the design requirements. An area name alone does not establish ground conditions.

The local building context

Enfield’s Local Heritage List records that large tracts of land in Palmers Green were sold for building in 1902, after which the area developed rapidly. The first large-scale developments were the Old Park Estate, between Fox Lane and Aldermans Hill, and the Hazelwood Park Estate, between Hazelwood Lane and Hedge Lane, which was laid out between 1905 and 1910. Enfield’s Lakes Estate appraisal says its land was previously known as Old Park and that the estate was developed between 1904 and 1914, mainly by small builders, with no architects associated with its houses.

The appraisal calls the Lakes Estate the quintessence of Edwardian suburbia: mostly closely spaced semi-detached pairs with some small terraces, set slightly back on a continuous building line. Fronts are usually red facing brick, with yellow London stocks to the sides and back; roofs were originally red clay tile, Welsh slate or a mix of the two; and the commonest gable treatment is decorative timber framing with rough-cast panels. Its outstanding feature is the woodwork, from carved and turned porches to sashes with margin glazing, and rear extensions are generally two storeys.

Many Palmers Green homes are flats. In the 2021 Census figures in Enfield’s ward profile, converted flats were the largest single type of home in Palmers Green ward, and flats together outnumbered houses. Aldermans Hill is lined with parades of shops with flats above, including two blocks built around 1908 by the developers Edmondsons; some Lakes Estate houses have been converted into flats; and the former Southgate County School on Fox Lane, listed Grade II, was converted into flats in 1984.

Local design and consent context

Enfield has 22 conservation areas, among them the Lakes Estate, which its appraisal places between Palmers Green and Southgate Green. It is bounded by Fox Lane to the north, Aldermans Hill to the south, the railway line from Wood Green to Enfield to the east and Cannon Hill, part of the Southgate Green Conservation Area, to the west. Planning Data records it as CA31, a London Borough of Enfield conservation area, and the appraisal gives 2010 as the year of designation.

Enfield made an Article 4(2) direction for the Lakes Estate on 24 February 2010 and confirmed it on 26 April 2010. It applies only to the land outlined on its plans, and its schedule lists properties on Derwent Road, Lakeside Road, Grovelands Road, Old Park Road, Fox Lane, Aldermans Hill and Broomfield Avenue in N13, and on Conway Road, Harlech Road and Ulleswater Road in N14. Enfield explains that such a direction withdraws permitted development rights for specified works, so check the schedule and the Article 4 map for the exact address.

For the houses it covers, the works for which the direction withdraws permitted development rights include enlarging, improving or altering a house where any part would front a highway, open space or waterway; altering a roof slope that fronts one; putting up a porch outside an external door that fronts one; providing a hard surface within the curtilage of a house where it would front one; putting up, altering or demolishing gates, fences and walls that front one; and painting the exterior where it fronts one. Its entry for installing, altering or replacing a chimney flue or soil and vent pipe has no fronting limit.

Access and site planning

Enfield says noisy building work that can be heard at the site boundary should only take place Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and Saturday, 8am to 1pm, and is not allowed outside these times or on bank holidays unless agreed with the council in advance. In a converted house or a flat above a shop, check the lease and any rules on noise, deliveries and shared halls. If you will live at home through the work, decide which rooms stay usable and when water or power will be off, and tell neighbours what is planned and when.

Continue planning

The Palmers Green area guide · Basement conversion across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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