Basement conversion in Queen’s Park

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

Brent’s character appraisal, adopted on 28 May 2024, places its Queen’s Park area between Salusbury Road to the east and Chamberlayne Road to the west, with Brondesbury Park Station to the north and Queen’s Park Station marking the southern edge. Rows of two- and three-storey Victorian and Edwardian terraces dominate the streets, with small groups of semi-detached villas. Hopefield Avenue, Montrose Avenue and Summerfield Road, built from 1897 to 1899, use yellow London stock brick with stone dressings, while Kempe Road’s houses have classically influenced window dressings, including floral capitals, and cast-iron balconies.

On Chevening Road, the appraisal describes relatively large two-storey red-brick semi-detached houses behind generous front gardens and, on part of the west side, large three-storey red-brick semis behind a generous forecourt; that side was under construction by 1899, with houses designed by G A Sexton and built by Bennet and Gimbrett. The shop terraces at 46–56 (even) and 53–101 (odd) Salusbury Road have two levels of accommodation above each shop and mostly keep timber sash windows, and Lonsdale Road is a wide cobbled road, unique in Brent, fringed with converted stables, workshops and mews buildings.

Westminster’s Queen’s Park Estate Conservation Area lies in the north-west corner of the City of Westminster, adjoining Brent, and covers a large swathe of housing between Harrow Road and Kilburn Lane. Its 2005 audit describes terraces of two-storey cottages with gardens, generally two bays wide and mostly in yellow stock brick in Flemish bond with red brick detailing, under shallow-pitched Welsh slate roofs and with double-hung, single-glazed timber sliding sashes; some were purpose-built as flats with a shared front door. Historic England lists 68 to 82 and 132 to 154 (even) Fifth Avenue, terraces of about 1880, at Grade II.

Local design and consent context

Brent lists the Queen’s Park Conservation Area, one of 22 in the borough, as designated in July 1986 and extended in July 1995. On 28 May 2024 Brent’s Cabinet approved a further extension of the boundary, as shown on maps in the report, and the current character appraisal records that the Cabinet adopted it that day as a Supplementary Planning Document, a material consideration in planning decisions.

The 1986 and 1995 boundary left out the area’s commercial edges, mainly Salusbury Road and Lonsdale Road, which the review appraised; on Salusbury Road, the appraisal records Kilburn Library, opened in 1894, as locally listed. The appraisal also proposed moving Honiton Road and Lynton Road in from the Kilburn Conservation Area, and did not recommend Wrentham Avenue, Crediton Road, Dundonald Road or Okehampton Road for inclusion, because most properties there had very large dormers extending onto the outriggers. These were the appraisal’s proposals, so confirm the current boundary for the address with Brent.

It also covers gates, fences and walls on street frontages, means of access to a highway, exterior painting other than entrance doors, window frames and sills or British Standard white or off-white on existing render, the demolition of gates, fences and walls, and solar equipment except on rear roof slopes, water source heat pumps and wind turbines. A second direction, in force from 1 September 2025, applies the same classes to the land hatched on its plan, so read that plan for the address.

Access and site planning

Brent’s noise page gives the conventional days and times for construction or demolition work as Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and Saturday, 8am to 1pm. For a Westminster address, building work is allowed from 8am to 6pm on weekdays and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays, with no noisy work on Sundays or bank holidays unless special permission has been granted. Your lease or building manager may impose stricter limits. If you will stay at home during the work, agree which rooms remain in use, warn the household before water or power is cut and let neighbours know what to expect.

Continue planning

The Queen’s Park area guide · Basement conversion across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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