Loft conversion in Pinner

Test the roof space before settling on a layout.

Start with the loft conversion brief

A measured roof survey should establish headroom, structural spans and where a staircase could meet the floor below. Plan the stair, escape route, insulation and building services together before treating the loft as another room.

Compare the proposed roof shape with the address-specific design guidance below. Record chimneys, shared walls and neighbouring rooflines, then ask the appointed designers to identify the structural work and consents the proposal needs.

The local building context

The Pinner High Street conservation area, designated in 1968, is in its appraisal’s words a remarkable survival of a medieval village, with timber-framed buildings, some listed, from as early as the 15th century. Many have brick facades and tiled roofs, often relatively steeply pitched; timber-framed walls were historically rendered or weatherboarded, and the appraisal records timber sashes, lattices and casements from every century since the 15th. The grade II* Church of St John the Baptist, with 14th- and 15th-century work, is the area’s oldest building, and 25–27 High Street was originally a Wealden hall house, rare in Middlesex.

The Pinner Hill Estate conservation area, designated in 1990, is characterised by detached houses on large plots with spacious rear gardens. After 1919, F. W. Griggs’s Country Garden Estates Ltd sold plots of at least half an acre, many houses were architect designed, and since the 1970s plots have been subdivided and houses extended or redeveloped. The appraisal records houses of up to three storeys in Art Deco, Tudor Revival, Arts and Crafts and Neo Classical inspired designs, mainly in hand-made brick, clay tile, timber and render, on roads that are private except Potter Street Hill and Potter Street.

The name Pinner and an HA5 postcode do not settle the council, a conservation area boundary, a listing, Article 4 coverage or the consent route. Hillingdon Council gives its Eastcote Library an HA5 address, the Pinner SPD places Eastcote station outside Harrow, and at the southern end of Potter Street Hill the Pinner Hill Estate conservation area boundary runs into Hillingdon. Confirm the council for the address, then check that council’s conservation area maps and Article 4 schedules, the list entry and local list, the title or lease and the planning history.

Local design and consent context

The Local Plan says these SPDs and appraisals can provide further material considerations, so read the guidance for your area. For Pinner Hill, the 2009 management strategy encourages extensions at the rear and subservient to the house, protects front and side roofs from dormers and rooflights, asks for original features such as timber windows and doors to be kept and usually avoids change of use to flats. It records pressure for large extensions and hard-surfaced front gardens, and overuse of rooflights on South View Road.

On Pinner Hill, a direction confirmed on 19 July 1990 covers hard surfaces, satellite antennas, gates, fences and walls and new accesses to a highway across the conservation area, except the listed golf club and farm, and one confirmed on 17 December 2002 covers the enlargement or alteration of a house, other roof alterations and porches, where fronting a highway, waterway or open space, at six named houses; Harrow notes these add to the standard conservation-area controls. At West Towers, a direction of 10 June 1991 covers enlargement or alteration, porches, antennas and the painting of exterior brickwork on front and exposed side elevations, and one of 23 October 2003 covers other roof alterations, such as rooflights or altered roof tiles.

In Pinnerwood Park, a direction in force from 10 June 1991 controls satellite dishes throughout and, in a defined core area, additions and alterations including replacing windows and doors other than at the rear; an Article 4(2) direction of 25 January 1996 extended similar controls to the outer areas. At East End Farm, named houses have controls on hard surfaces, and Dormer Cottage and 96 Moss Lane on enclosures as well, where development would front a highway, waterway or open space.

Access and site planning

Plan deliveries, waste and protection for any shared hall or drive before work starts. In Harrow, a skip on the public highway needs a licence, which the skip company obtains, while one on private land does not; scaffolding on the highway needs a licence issued to the company erecting it; building materials on the highway need a licence even if placed there only temporarily, and so does a hoarding. Bay suspensions are granted only in marked bays and can take up to 10 working days. Most Pinner Hill Estate roads are private, so confirm with Harrow which licences apply there before booking.

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The Pinner area guide · Loft conversion across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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