Kitchen renovation in Southgate

Plan the kitchen around movement, storage and services.

Start with the kitchen renovation brief

Map preparation, cooking, washing and storage before choosing cabinet fronts. Measure clearances with doors and drawers open, and decide which existing walls, floors and details belong in the finished room.

Coordinate the cabinetry with water, drainage, extraction, electrics and lighting. Confirm appliance dimensions and access for installation before the layout is signed off; structural alterations need their own design and approval checks.

The local building context

Enfield’s appraisal places the Southgate Green Conservation Area in the south-western corner of the borough, as the historic core of the suburb called Southgate. It covers 31.7 hectares and about 160 buildings, centred on The Green and the three roads radiating from it, the High Street, Cannon Hill and Waterfall Road, with Balaams Lane and Cannon Road also included. A restored group of Georgian houses at 23–32 and 38–41 The Green, generally flat-fronted and of yellow stock brick, mixes tripartite and twelve-pane sash windows with a variety of doorcase designs.

The appraisal shows the character changing from street to street. The High Street has tightly packed two- or three-storey terraces set close to the road, interspersed with groups of modern flats, while Cannon Hill has widely spaced, large detached properties in substantial gardens along a wide, tree-lined road. On the south side of The Green, individually designed houses of about 1930, with mock Tudor dominating, share casement picture windows and large, steeply pitched tiled roofs, with widespread use of brown brick. Flats also sit above the Edwardian and interwar shops at 22–56 Cannon Hill.

Neither the name Southgate nor an N14 postcode tells you which council decides, whether a home is in a conservation area, whether it is listed or locally listed, whether an Article 4 direction covers it or which consent route the work takes. Enfield’s Southgate ward is served by N13, N14 and N21, the Southgate Green Conservation Area takes in addresses in more than one ward, and some addresses using the Southgate N14 name are in Barnet, which made tree preservation orders at Osidge, 151 Chase Side, and at Ashmole School, Burleigh Gardens. Confirm the council with the official lookup, then check the conservation area boundary, the Article 4 schedules, any list entry, the title or lease and the planning history of the property itself.

Local design and consent context

Enfield has 22 conservation areas, each with a character appraisal and management proposals, and its list includes four around Southgate. Southgate Green (CA17) was designated in 1968 and extended in 1994 to take in the Walker Cricket Ground and Southgate Cemetery, and in 2008 to include 1–21 Cannon Road. Its appraisal, first adopted in 2006 and reviewed in February and March 2013, was approved in February 2015, as were its management proposals.

Continue planning

The Southgate area guide · Kitchen renovation across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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