Kitchen
renovation
in St John's Wood, NW8

Start a mansion-flat kitchen with the lease. According to LEASE, its terms may mean the landlord has to give permission before you alter anything, and that remains true when planning permission or building regulations approval has been granted. Even where alterations are allowed, another clause can restrict the work: a requirement that floors are carpeted might prevent a wooden or laminate floor running through a kitchen-diner.

Listing brings in City Plan Policy 44, under which work to a listed building should keep its special interest, protecting its original or significant detail and historic fabric and restoring them where that is appropriate. So we check the listing before placing a new extract duct, a soil run or a wider opening between kitchen and dining room; Westminster's mini guide counts some 470 listed buildings in the St John's Wood conservation area.

Sources: LEASE: alterations and home improvements, Westminster City Plan 2019-2040 (2026, adopted January 2026), Westminster City Council: St John's Wood conservation area mini guide

In a St John's Wood villa the kitchen may sit on the lower ground floor, on the raised ground floor at the back, or in a later rear extension. Each has trade-offs: the lower floor reaches the garden but needs daylight and a safe stair; the ground floor is close to the dining room but may be smaller.

We draw each option with its drainage route, its extract route and its link to the garden, so the choice is made on what the house allows rather than on a preference for one floor.

LEASE counts moving radiators and changing gas pipes or electrical wiring among alterations, alongside structural work.

A cooker hood needs a route to the outside: through an external wall, up an existing flue, or by recirculation where neither is possible. In a block, the route and any grille on the front need the landlord's agreement, and in a listed villa they may need consent.

Sinks and dishwashers are placed where their waste can fall to an existing stack. If an island needs a sink, we check the floor build-up for a pumped or gravity waste before the island is fixed.

Source: LEASE: alterations and home improvements (last updated 22 December 2025)

Worktop slabs, tall units and a skip all need room at the kerb. Westminster lets you apply to suspend a parking bay outside for a skip delivery or building works, with 10 working days' notice, and separate licences are required before a skip, scaffold or hoarding goes on the public highway.

If a skip or heavy plant would stand over a vault beneath the pavement, the construction code calls for careful consideration of that structure first. Level 4 jobs, the ones outside the code's other levels, have no formal requirement to agree working practices and a communication strategy with the council, yet they are still meant to follow its principles, and Westminster wants every contractor to respect its spirit on working hours, limiting disruption and keeping neighbours informed.

For made-to-measure cabinetry, panelling and fitted storage, see our St John's Wood bespoke joinery service: the same joinery team draws and builds it.

Sources: Westminster City Council: parking bay suspensions, Westminster City Council: Code of Construction Practice (May 2026)

I would like to thank Ross and his team for their consistent commitment to quality and their unerring reliability.

We have worked with Ross and his company many times. They are extremely professional and hardworking individuals who can work under any circumstances. There was no variation to the works.