Loft conversion in Stanmore

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 Stanmore Hill appraisal describes houses and some commercial units from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century on sloping land, among greenery and historic walls. Linear development reflects properties built mainly to serve travellers heading to London along Stanmore Hill, many of whom would have stopped at the Abercorn Arms, an eighteenth-century hotel. Stanmore Hill and upper Green Lane are relatively dense, with small terraced cottages on Green Lane, many fronting the pavement; further down Green Lane, medium-sized detached houses in spacious grounds dominate. Buildings usually do not exceed two storeys, and most are listed or locally listed.

Kerry Avenue is different again. Its appraisal records an unusual concentration of inter-war and post-war houses in the Modern or International Style, laid out symmetrically on the axis of Stanmore Station, which opened on 10 December 1932 and became the terminus of the Metropolitan Line, and the 2013 SPD describes its well-preserved Modernist buildings as forming the earliest domestic group in west London. The houses are two or three storeys, with flat roofs often carrying sundecks and curved bays often holding the stair; all are brick, some designed with render to look like concrete against large Crittall windows.

The name Stanmore and an HA7 postcode do not settle the council, a conservation area boundary, a listing, Article 4 coverage or the consent route. ONS lists Stanmore as an electoral ward in Harrow, while the 2013 SPD notes that the Brockley Hill scheduled monument extends partly into the London Borough of Barnet. Confirm the council for the address first. For a Harrow address, check Harrow’s current conservation area map and Article 4 schedule; for any address, check the listing records, the title or lease and the planning history.

Local design and consent context

Harrow explains that an Article 4 direction removes permitted development rights, and its table marks directions as applying in all four Stanmore conservation areas. Each direction applies to the properties or land its schedule names, and most, including all those of June 2023, apply only where the works would front a highway, a waterway or open space. In the Stanmore Hill conservation area, the first schedule of the January 2003 direction, which carries that limit, names properties on Green Lane and on Stanmore Hill, including Nos 75–81 (odd), and controls extensions and alterations, roof changes, porches, hard surfaces, satellite antennas, gates, fences and walls, and exterior painting.

Directions confirmed on 9 June 2023 and in force from 20 June 2023 added controls on chimneys, flues and soil and vent pipes on houses named on Green Lane, Stanmore Hill, Wood Lane, Aylmer Close and Little Common; on works including replacement windows and doors, roofs, porches and painting at Applegarth, The Glade and The Orchard on Green Lane and at 147 Stanmore Hill; on boundaries at named properties on Green Lane, among them Greystones and Willow Lodge, and at 1–4 Rectory Close; on hard surfacing at 1 and 2 Gate House; and on new accesses to a highway at named buildings in the Kerry Avenue conservation area, including Stanmore Station.

On Kerry Avenue, an Article 4(2) direction in force since 1 February 1999 covers 1 Glanleam Road, 1–6 and 14–16 Kerry Avenue and 2–10 (even) Valencia Road, controlling alterations, porches, hard surfaces, boundaries and exterior painting, and a further Article 4(2) direction, confirmed on 20 May 2021, covers the demolition of gates, fences, walls and other means of enclosure.

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 skip licence, which the skip company obtains; scaffolding on the highway needs a licence, issued only to the scaffolding company; and building materials on the highway need a licence even briefly, placed on the carriageway rather than the footway. Allow up to 10 working days for a skip licence or a parking-bay suspension, and never reserve a space with cones or bins. TfL licenses these only on its red routes.

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

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