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Totteridge N20 · Houses, flats & bathrooms

Renovations in Totteridge

Mansion houses, timber-framed farmhouses and cottages

Barnet’s 2008 appraisal describes the Totteridge Conservation Area as a ribbon of development along a gravel ridge, with mansion houses in large grounds, 17th-century timber-framed farmhouses, weatherboarded cottages and interwar and post-war houses in cul-de-sacs. Plan your house, flat or bathroom around the building you actually own, how it has been altered and the conservation, Article 4 and Green Belt questions its address raises.

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Hampstead Renovations design and build studio on Finchley Road
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Start with your project

Choose the work your Totteridge home needs

Choose a focused room renovation or a coordinated refurbishment. Each service page explains the scope in more detail and gives you a direct route to discuss the work.

01 Mansion houses, farmhouses and cottages

House refurbishment in Totteridge

Treat a Totteridge house as one project, whether it is a neoclassical house set back from Totteridge Lane, a weatherboarded cottage in Totteridge Village or a detached house on Pine Grove. A measured survey records the sashes, casements, roofs, render and boundaries that survive, and our architects then draw one scheme for heating, wiring, insulation, bathrooms and finishes. Each change to windows, roofs, paintwork or front boundaries is priced separately, after the Article 4 orders and any listing have been checked for the address.

  • Survey of sashes, roofs, render and boundaries
  • Article 4 orders and listing read for the address
  • Consent route for outside changes settled first
Explore house refurbishment across London

02 Flats in shared buildings

Flat renovation in Totteridge

Barnet’s 2008 appraisal names house types from mansion houses to cottages and bungalows. If your Totteridge home is a flat, whatever building it is in, start with the lease: it may require the landlord’s permission for any alteration, even once planning permission or Building Regulations approval is in hand. A flat shares structure, drains and usually an entrance with other homes, and Part 1 householder permitted development rights do not apply to flats, so check any outside change separately.

  • Alteration terms in the lease checked first
  • Landlord or managing agent approached early
  • Shared stack and isolation valves located
Explore flat refurbishment across London

03 Cottage, house and flat bathrooms

Bathroom renovation in Totteridge

A standalone bathroom renovation is welcome, whether it is an en-suite in a large house on Totteridge Common, the family bathroom of a village cottage or the only bathroom in a flat. Installing a bathroom that involves plumbing, or changing electrics near a bath or shower, can need Building Regulations approval, and in a listed building, work affecting its character needs listed building consent. Before choosing fittings, settle the floor build-up, the waste fall and the route for extract air.

  • Waste fall to the stack or drain proved
  • Extract route and any outside vent agreed
  • Another bathroom to use during the work
Explore bathroom renovation across London

Real projects, clearly located

Ideas for your Totteridge refurbishment

Photographs of our work elsewhere in London

Explore a whole house in Belsize Park, an apartment on Chesterfield Street in Mayfair and a bathroom in Pimlico. Use these examples to discuss the scale of work and finishes you have in mind for your own home.

Completed exterior at Belsize Park Gardens after refurbishment

Whole-house refurbishment · Belsize Park, NW3

Belsize Park Gardens, NW3

Full-house refurbishment in Belsize Park with basement, extension and loft works.

Conservation Area · 5 Storeys · Documented programme: 12 months

Documentary programme, not verified elapsed construction time or a timetable for another project.

View the project

More London project records: Carlton Lodge, Belgravia · King’s Road, Chelsea.

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Building Control
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£10M
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Surveying via Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

Local knowledge with a purpose

Understand the building before changing it

Barnet’s 2008 appraisal records buildings from 17th-century timber-framed farmhouses to Arts and Crafts and neoclassical houses, modest cottages and interwar and post-war suburban houses, in a setting it calls open and rural. Knowing which you own, and how later owners altered it, shows what a survey must record and which consents to check.

Barnet’s Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted in May 2008, places the area in the north of the borough on a west–east gravel ridge, whose road links Mill Hill with Whetstone and Barnet. It describes a ribbon of development along the highway, with green fields on three sides falling to Dollis Brook and Folly Brook, and five character areas: Totteridge Lane, Totteridge Green, Totteridge Village, the later suburban roads of Pine Grove, Northcliffe Drive, Grange Avenue and Priory Close, and Totteridge Common. It counts about 450 properties.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF)

The appraisal attributes several houses to named architects: Norman Shaw for Trevanion and Ellern Mede, Charles Nicholson for The Grange and The Vicarage, and T.E. Collcutt for The Croft, Fairspeir and The Lynch House. Totteridge Lane was built up between 1884 and 1914 with neoclassical houses set back in large secluded gardens, and Totteridge Green keeps two listed 17th-century timber-framed farmhouses, Laurel Farm and Home Farm. The warm red of clay brick and tile is the most prevalent colour, some older buildings carry soft lime render, and most buildings after the mid-19th century are roofed in Welsh slate.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Planning Data: Trevanion, listed Grade II (list entry 1359110) · Planning Data: Ellern Mede, listed Grade II (list entry 1359108) · Planning Data: The Croft, listed Grade II (list entry 1359109) · Planning Data: Fairspeir, listed Grade II (list entry 1064830) · Planning Data: Laurel Farm House, listed Grade II (list entry 1064831)

Around St Andrew’s Church, built about 1790 and of yellow brick with a slate roof, Totteridge Village has larger listed houses, including Totteridge House, a late 18th-century red brick villa, Southernhay, an early 19th-century stucco villa, and The Priory, a 17th-century Jacobean mansion, with a close-set group of modest, mainly 19th-century buildings to the west. Weatherboarded cottages such as No. 51 Totteridge Village have clay-tiled roofs, small timber porches and picket fences. Pine Grove and Northcliffe Drive hold large detached interwar and post-war houses in deep, narrow plots, and Lime Grove mainly chalet-type bungalows.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Historic England: Church of St Andrew, Totteridge Village, Grade II, list entry 1064837 · Planning Data: Totteridge House, Garth Cottage and Falmer, listed Grade II (list entry 1192409) · Planning Data: Southernhay, listed Grade II (list entry 1064836) · Planning Data: The Priory, Priory Cottage and Beam Ends, listed Grade II (list entry 1359111)

The first local check

Check the property, not the place name or postcode

Neither the name Totteridge nor an N20 postcode tells you which council decides, whether a home is inside the conservation area or the Green Belt, whether it is listed, which Article 4 direction applies or which consent route the work takes. Barnet’s conservation map marks the borough boundary as well as the conservation boundary, so confirm the council with the official lookup, then read that map, the list entry, the Article 4 orders and their mapped areas, the title or lease and the planning history of the property itself.

Find the council for the property · Barnet: Totteridge conservation area (CA12) boundary map, November 2023 (PDF) · Barnet open data: conservation area appraisals and boundary maps · Historic England: listed-building consent · Planning Data: Article 4 for Totteridge CA, from 5 July 1972 · Planning Data: Article 4(2) for Totteridge CA, from 6 May 2008 · Barnet open data: legal orders for Article 4 directions · Planning Data: Barnet Green Belt record · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Separate checks, one coordinated brief

Planning, listed buildings, building control and leases

One approval does not settle every requirement. Identify the applicable routes before ordering work, and record who will prepare submissions, arrange inspections and provide the relevant completion information.

Planning permission and householder rights

When does the work need planning permission?

Work affecting only the inside of a building is generally not development, though works begun after 5 December 1968 that add space underground are an exception. Part 1 householder permitted development rights do not apply to flats. For a Totteridge house, check those rights’ limits and the conditions on past permissions, then the Article 4 orders, which withdraw specified permitted development rights in their mapped areas. Where an application is needed in the Green Belt, national policy also weighs any extension or alteration against the size of the original building.

legislation.gov.uk: Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 55, meaning of development · When planning permission is required · Householder permitted development technical guidance · Planning Data: Article 4 for Totteridge CA, Area 1 · Planning Data: Article 4(2) for Totteridge CA, Area 1 · Barnet open data: legal orders for Article 4 directions · GOV.UK: National Planning Policy Framework, Chapter 13: Protecting Green Belt land (GB1–8)

Listing and the conservation area

Does listing reach inside a Totteridge building?

It can. Barnet’s appraisal notes that listing covers the inside and outside of a building, and the law requires listed building consent for works that would affect a listed building’s character. Unless its entry says otherwise, a listing also covers objects fixed to the building and structures in its curtilage since before 1 July 1948. Grade II entries in the conservation area include St Andrew’s Church, Ellern Mede, Trevanion, Totteridge House and Laurel Farm House. Conservation-area status is a separate control, so check both.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · legislation.gov.uk: Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, section 7 · Historic England: listed-building consent · Historic England: Church of St Andrew, Totteridge Village, Grade II, list entry 1064837 · Planning Data: Ellern Mede, listed Grade II (list entry 1359108) · Planning Data: Trevanion, listed Grade II (list entry 1359110) · Planning Data: Totteridge House, Garth Cottage and Falmer, listed Grade II (list entry 1192409) · Planning Data: Laurel Farm House, listed Grade II (list entry 1064831)

Building Regulations

Which work needs building control?

Building Regulations approval is separate from planning permission, listed building consent and a landlord’s consent, and one project may need several. It can be required to install a bathroom involving plumbing, to change electrics near a bath or shower and to replace windows and doors. In Totteridge, replacement windows and doors may also be caught by an Article 4 direction, and in a listed building any of this work may need listed building consent. Choose either the council’s building control service or a private registered building control approver, and agree early who certifies each part.

When Building Regulations approval is needed · Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Historic England: listed-building consent

Lease, landowner and Party Wall questions

Whose agreement is needed besides the council’s?

Before anything is drawn for a flat, read the lease: it may require the landlord’s permission for any alteration, even after planning permission or Building Regulations approval. The Party Wall Act applies only to the work it lists, such as cutting into a party wall or removing chimneys from one, not to minor jobs like plastering, new sockets or drilling for shelves. If work or deliveries would cross one of the wide roadside verges, which the Totteridge Manor Association owned and maintained in 2008, confirm who owns it now.

LEASE: alterations and home improvements · Party-wall work requiring notice · Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF)

Local facts that affect the brief

Apply the controls to the work you actually need

Designated December 1968; appraisal May 2008

The Totteridge Conservation Area (CA12)

Planning data records the Totteridge Conservation Area, reference CA12, as a London Borough of Barnet designation of December 1968. Barnet’s boundary map, dated November 2023, gives its last amendment as 6 May 2008 and marks the borough boundary alongside the conservation boundary, so read it for the exact property.

Planning Data: Totteridge conservation area (CA12), London Borough of Barnet · Barnet: Totteridge conservation area (CA12) boundary map, November 2023 (PDF)

The Character Appraisal Statement, with its management proposals, was adopted in May 2008 and was to be reviewed every five years; Barnet’s open data lists only that appraisal and the boundary map for Totteridge. It was written under the 2006 Unitary Development Plan, so treat its descriptions of buildings and streets as character evidence and its policy references as historical. In 2008 Barnet consulted a Totteridge Conservation Area Advisory Committee on applications affecting the area.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Barnet open data: conservation area appraisals and boundary maps

Directions of 1970 and 2008

Two Article 4 directions, each for mapped land

The appraisal’s management proposals say a direction made shortly after designation, in 1970, covers parts of the conservation area: Totteridge Green, and Totteridge Village around its junction with Grange Avenue and around St Andrew’s Church. They list the works it brings under control, including replacement windows and doors, roof extensions and roof lights, new wall materials and painting, porches and outbuildings, replacing boundaries other than hedges, front-garden hard standings and vehicle crossovers, and most new gates, fences and walls.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF)

Barnet’s order, A4D11, was made on 7 September 1970 and approved on 5 July 1972; later schedules approved in 1974 and 1979 cover porches, vehicle hard standings, oil tanks for domestic heating and gates, fences and walls, and the 1979 schedule also covers painting external walls. Planning data maps the direction as three areas and lists the rights it withdraws: enlargement and alteration, roof alterations, porches, outbuildings, hard surfaces, chimneys and flues, antennas, boundaries, access to a highway and exterior painting.

Barnet: Article 4 (I) directions in the Totteridge Conservation Area (A4D11), made 7 September 1970 (scanned PDF) · Planning Data: Article 4 for Totteridge CA, from 5 July 1972 · Planning Data: Article 4 for Totteridge CA, Area 1 · GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 1: householder permitted development · legislation.gov.uk: GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 2: gates, fences and walls, access and exterior painting · Barnet open data: legal orders for Article 4 directions

A second direction under Article 4(2), approved on 6 May 2008, covers 17 to 27 (odd) Totteridge Village, and on its approval Red Lodge and Lyndeth in The Close were taken out of the 1970 direction’s area. Planning data maps it as two areas and lists the rights it withdraws: enlargement and alteration, roof alterations, porches, outbuildings, hard surfaces, chimneys and flues, antennas, boundaries, exterior painting and demolition of gates, fences and walls. Barnet says it has translated the old classes into modern ones, so read each order against today’s rules.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Article 4 (2) direction (A4D12), approved 6 May 2008 (scanned PDF) · Planning Data: Article 4(2) for Totteridge CA, from 6 May 2008 · Planning Data: Article 4(2) for Totteridge CA, Area 1 · GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 1: householder permitted development · legislation.gov.uk: GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 2: gates, fences and walls, access and exterior painting · legislation.gov.uk: GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 11, Class C: demolition of gates, fences and walls · Barnet open data: legal orders for Article 4 directions

Two further directions also overlap the conservation area: a 1959 direction on agricultural building and engineering works on farmland of more than one acre in Totteridge, Arkley and Rowley, and Barnet’s direction on small houses in multiple occupation, in planning data from 29 May 2016. The first concerns farmland, not houses, and the second a change of use, not building works.

Barnet: 1959 direction restricting agricultural building on farmland in Totteridge, Arkley and Rowley (scanned PDF) · Planning Data: Article 4 Agricultural Land Restriction, Area 1 · Planning Data: Article 4 small houses in multiple occupation, Area 1, from 29 May 2016

Local Plan adopted 4 March 2025

Read the 2008 appraisal against the current plan

Planning data records the Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036 as adopted from 4 March 2025. The Totteridge appraisal predates it and refers to the 2006 Unitary Development Plan, including designations of that time such as Heritage Land and Countryside Conservation Areas, so test a proposal against the current plan rather than the policies the appraisal cites.

Planning Data: Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025 · Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF)

In 2008 the appraisal counted 48 listed buildings, none at Grade I, and 24 locally listed buildings, among them the Orange Tree public house; local listing brings no statutory protection, although local policy then sought to preserve or enhance these buildings. It also identifies unlisted ‘positive’ buildings and says an application to demolish one needs a reasoned justification similar to that for a listed building. Ask Barnet whether a building is on its current local list.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF)

Green Belt; NPPF of 17 August 2026

Green Belt is a separate question

Barnet’s 2008 appraisal records most of the conservation area and the open land around it as Green Belt, where development is strictly controlled to prevent urban sprawl, and credits Green Belt controls with keeping the rural setting and stopping substantial new housing along Totteridge Common. Planning data holds a current Barnet Green Belt record, part of the London Green Belt, that overlaps the conservation area; check with Barnet whether the boundary takes in your house or garden.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Planning Data: Barnet Green Belt record

The National Planning Policy Framework, published on 17 August 2026, treats development in the Green Belt as inappropriate unless it falls within listed categories, and inappropriate development should not be approved except in very special circumstances. The categories include the reuse, extension, alteration or replacement of a lawful building of permanent and substantial construction, provided an extension or alteration does not result in a disproportionate increase in size over the original building, as it stood on 1 July 1948 or as first built if later, and a replacement is for the same use and not materially larger.

GOV.UK: National Planning Policy Framework, published 17 August 2026 · GOV.UK: National Planning Policy Framework, Chapter 13: Protecting Green Belt land (GB1–8)

Before ordering windows, renewing a roof, changing a front boundary or booking any excavation at a Totteridge address, establish which consents the property and the proposal need. Planning permission, which in the Green Belt is weighed against Green Belt policy, listed building consent, Building Regulations approval, lease consent and Party Wall procedures are separate regimes, and approval under one settles none of the others. On their mapped land the two Article 4 directions withdraw specified permitted development rights, so those works need planning permission, and conservation-area status brings its own checks, such as six weeks’ notice before certain work on trees.

When planning permission is required · GOV.UK: National Planning Policy Framework, Chapter 13: Protecting Green Belt land (GB1–8) · Historic England: listed-building consent · legislation.gov.uk: Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, section 7 · When Building Regulations approval is needed · LEASE: alterations and home improvements · Party-wall work requiring notice · Planning Data: Article 4 for Totteridge CA, from 5 July 1972 · Planning Data: Article 4(2) for Totteridge CA, from 6 May 2008 · Householder permitted development technical guidance · Tree preservation orders and conservation-area trees

Local guidance checked . The linked sources help you prepare a brief; requirements depend on the address, building and complete proposal.

From retained details to shared services

Sashes, timber frames, boundaries, protected trees and lime render

Sashes, casements and front doors

Barnet’s 2008 appraisal names timber vertically sliding sashes as the main window type, commonly set in recessed openings, with timber casements found throughout and most 19th and 20th-century doors in painted softwood. It counts uPVC windows and doors among harmful alterations, and the 1970 direction brings replacement windows and doors under control in its areas. Record each frame’s condition first, since repair and draught-proofing may be enough; a replacement can also need Building Regulations approval and, in a listed building, listed building consent.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Historic England: listed-building consent · When Building Regulations approval is needed

Soil pipes, waste falls and extract air

Settle the waste route before choosing fittings: a new or moved bathroom needs a workable fall to the stack or drain, and in a flat that stack usually serves other homes too, so ask who maintains it and where supplies are isolated. In the suburban roads, the appraisal lists plastic pipework replacing cast iron among negative features, so consider where any new external pipe or vent would show. Building Regulations can apply to new bathroom plumbing and to electrics near a bath or shower.

LEASE: alterations and home improvements · Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · When Building Regulations approval is needed

Floors, timber frames and sound

Before removing a wall or laying a heavier finish, open up enough to see how the floors are framed and whether the wall carries load. In a listed building, including the listed timber-framed farmhouses, a change affecting its character needs listed building consent, and the appraisal notes that listing covers the interior. Where a flat sits above or below another home, agree the floor build-up and sound insulation with the lease in hand and check Approved Document E. Cutting into a party wall needs notice under the Party Wall Act.

When Building Regulations approval is needed · legislation.gov.uk: Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, section 7 · Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · GOV.UK: Approved Document E, resistance to sound · LEASE: alterations and home improvements · Party-wall work requiring notice

Walls, hedges, gates and hard standings

The appraisal describes high brick walls, hedges, trees and open gated entrances in front of larger properties, and low brick walls and picket fences in front of smaller ones, and says new or replacement boundaries will be carefully assessed. It says solid-panel gates that block views of houses and gardens should be resisted, and records that hard-surfacing green spaces for parking detracts from Totteridge Village. Both Article 4 directions, as mapped, withdraw rights for hard surfaces and for gates, fences and walls, and the 2008 one also for demolishing them.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Planning Data: Article 4 for Totteridge CA, Area 1 · Planning Data: Article 4(2) for Totteridge CA, Area 1 · GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 1: householder permitted development · legislation.gov.uk: GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 2: gates, fences and walls, access and exterior painting · legislation.gov.uk: GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 11, Class C: demolition of gates, fences and walls

Protected trees, archaeology and lower floors

Barnet records tree preservation orders across the conservation area, including a 1992 order covering Totteridge House, Garth Cottage and the rear of 5–19 Priory Close and a 1989 order on a Totteridge Lane verge. Work on a tree under a preservation order needs consent, and certain work on other conservation-area trees needs a section 211 notice six weeks ahead. Refitting an existing lower-ground room differs from digging new space: works begun after 5 December 1968 that add space underground count as development, and Historic England maps a Totteridge Archaeological Priority Area.

Planning Data: tree preservation order, Totteridge House, Garth Cottage and rear of 5–19 Priory Close (1992) · Planning Data: tree preservation order, roadside verge, Totteridge Lane (1989) · Tree preservation orders and conservation-area trees · legislation.gov.uk: Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 55, meaning of development · Planning Data (Historic England): Archaeological Priority Area 76165, including Totteridge

Insulation, heating and lime

Plan insulation, heating and ventilation as one package, because insulation can trap moisture in older walls and roofs; Historic England sets out a whole-building approach for historic buildings. The appraisal notes that the soft lime renders on older buildings stay pliable where cement-based renders tend to crack, so repair render in kind. Before adding a flue, an antenna or other outside equipment, check the Article 4 directions, which as mapped withdraw rights for chimneys, flues and antennas, and whether listed building consent applies.

Historic England: a whole-building approach · Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Planning Data: Article 4 for Totteridge CA, Area 1 · Planning Data: Article 4(2) for Totteridge CA, Area 1 · GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 1: householder permitted development · Historic England: listed-building consent

A practical plan for the street and building

Working hours, deliveries and shared access

Busy lanes, private roads and street licences

Barnet’s 2008 appraisal describes Totteridge Lane, Totteridge Village and Totteridge Common as busy with fast traffic, particularly at rush hours; private shared roads such as Links Drive and Hadar Close, and lanes such as Lime Grove and Horseshoe Lane, without pedestrian paths; and Barnet Lane as narrow, winding and steep. Plan where deliveries stop and waste waits, and keep vehicles off Totteridge Green, which the appraisal found rutted in places. A skip on a public road needs a council licence, usually obtained by the skip company, while one wholly on private land needs none; scaffolding or hoarding on the highway needs a licence too. TfL licenses such items only on its red routes, so check whether the road outside is one.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · GOV.UK: skip licence (England and Wales) · GOV.UK: scaffolding and hoarding licence (England and Wales) · TfL: highway licences on red routes

Working hours, neighbours and living in

For a Barnet address, the council’s published construction working hours say noisy work should only be carried out Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and Saturday, 8am to 1pm, and at no time on a Sunday or bank holiday. A lease or building manager may set tighter limits on noise, deliveries and shared parts. If you will live at home through the work, decide which rooms stay usable and when water or power will be off, and tell neighbours, including anyone who shares a private road or drive, what is planned and when.

Barnet construction working hours · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

A clear scope before a price

Plan your renovation budget and quotation

Totteridge quotations can only be compared when each prices the same written scope. Keep room work apart from repairs to sashes, roofs, render and boundaries, from structural items and from anything that waits on a planning decision, a landlord or a neighbour.

Existing condition

Record the building as it stands so that nothing is priced on assumption.

  • Measured drawings and dated photographs
  • Sashes, clay tiles, lime render and chimneys to keep
  • Opening-up for damp, rot and hidden pipework

Rooms, finishes and services

Describe each room fully so that every contractor prices identical work.

  • Layouts, fittings and finish quantities
  • Heating, drainage, extract and wiring routes
  • Items you will supply and their delivery dates

Approvals and site arrangements

List every consent, notice and licence the proposal needs, and who obtains it.

  • Article 4, listing, Green Belt and lease questions
  • Party Wall notices only for qualifying work
  • Skip and scaffold licences and private-road access

Written allowances and sequence

Put assumptions, exclusions and open choices in writing before signing.

  • VAT, provisional sums and exclusions shown
  • Lead times for windows and sanitaryware
  • Certificates and records collected for handover

Building in Totteridge does not add a fixed surcharge or dictate how long the work takes. Each quotation should state its VAT position, any professional fees and how problems found during the work will be handled. For a standalone bathroom, you receive a separate quotation covering that room only.

From an idea to a workable scope

Prepare your brief and renovation budget

  1. Start with the address and the building

    Send the full address and say whether the home is a house, a cottage or a flat, and for a flat, which floor it is on and what kind of building it sits in. Add photographs of the rooms to change, the front elevation, the gate and boundary, the access from the road and any damp, cracks or leaks.

  2. Gather the papers you hold

    Look out the title or lease, earlier drawings, planning and listed building decisions, building control certificates and any letters from the council. If you already know the home is listed or locally listed, inside the conservation area or Green Belt, or covered by an Article 4 direction, say so, and mark any protected trees near the work.

  3. Note what still depends on others

    List the work you have decided on, such as known repairs and finishes you like, apart from items that wait on opening up, a structural check, a drainage survey, the landlord’s reply or the council’s view. Open items can then be carried as written allowances that every quotation shows in the same way.

  4. Share out the tasks and timing

    Decide who applies for consents, serves any Party Wall notices, arranges skip and scaffold licences and books inspections. Fit deliveries and noisy stages around the council’s published hours and any lease rules, say whether you will live at home during the work, and agree how changes are priced and recorded.

Ready to take the next step? Send the property address and a short outline of what you want to change.

Discuss your Totteridge project

Our Hampstead base, serving Totteridge

Talk to our Finchley Road studio

Our studio is in Hampstead on Finchley Road, at NW3 6DN. We serve Totteridge from this office. Bring us the practical questions about your house, flat or bathroom and the result you want to achieve.

Contact the studio to discuss your brief and arrange the next step. If you already have drawings, a lease or planning correspondence, tell us what is available.

Book a free feasibility visit
Hampstead Renovations
Unit 3, Palace Court
250 Finchley Road
London NW3 6DN

020 7101 3168
contact@hampsteadrenovations.co.uk

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Questions before you begin

Renovating in Totteridge: practical answers

Can you renovate just one bathroom in Totteridge as a standalone job?

Yes. A standalone bathroom, en-suite or shower room renovation in a Totteridge house, cottage or flat is a project we take on by itself, with no other work required. Send the room’s measurements, a few photographs and a note of problems such as leaks, slow drainage or poor extraction, and tell us whether another bathroom will be usable while the work goes on.

How can I tell whether my Totteridge home is in the conservation area?

Check the property against Barnet’s map of the Totteridge Conservation Area (CA12), dated November 2023, which marks the conservation boundary and the borough boundary. The 2008 appraisal describes the area along Totteridge Lane, Totteridge Green, Totteridge Village and Totteridge Common, with Pine Grove, Northcliffe Drive, Grange Avenue and Priory Close. Confirm the council first, then read the map for the exact address rather than relying on the place name or an N20 postcode.

Find the council for the property · Barnet: Totteridge conservation area (CA12) boundary map, November 2023 (PDF) · Planning Data: Totteridge conservation area (CA12), London Borough of Barnet · Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF)

Do Article 4 directions or listings cover my Totteridge property?

Each applies only to particular land or buildings. The 1970 direction covers mapped parts of the conservation area, including Totteridge Green and Totteridge Village around its junction with Grange Avenue and around St Andrew’s Church, and the 2008 direction covers 17 to 27 (odd) Totteridge Village. Listing is recorded entry by entry; Grade II entries include St Andrew’s Church, Ellern Mede, Trevanion, The Croft, Totteridge Park and Laurel Farm House, and listing covers the inside as well as the outside.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Planning Data: Article 4 for Totteridge CA, Area 1 · Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Article 4 (2) direction (A4D12), approved 6 May 2008 (scanned PDF) · Historic England: listed-building consent · Historic England: Church of St Andrew, Totteridge Village, Grade II, list entry 1064837 · Planning Data: Ellern Mede, listed Grade II (list entry 1359108) · Planning Data: Trevanion, listed Grade II (list entry 1359110) · Planning Data: The Croft, listed Grade II (list entry 1359109) · Planning Data: Totteridge Park, listed Grade II (list entry 1064825) · Planning Data: Laurel Farm House, listed Grade II (list entry 1064831)

Can I replace old sash windows in Totteridge?

Check before ordering anything. Barnet’s 2008 appraisal treats timber sliding sashes as the main window type and counts uPVC windows among harmful alterations, and the 1970 direction brings replacement windows and doors under control in its areas. A listed building needs listed building consent for changes affecting its character, flats lack householder permitted development rights, a lease may control windows and replacements can need Building Regulations approval. Repair and draught-proofing may make replacement unnecessary.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · legislation.gov.uk: Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, section 7 · Householder permitted development technical guidance · LEASE: alterations and home improvements · When Building Regulations approval is needed

What consents does internal work to a Totteridge flat need?

Seldom planning permission, because work affecting only the inside of a building is generally not development, though any outside change needs its own check since flats have no Part 1 householder rights. The lease is the key document and may require the landlord’s permission even after planning permission or Building Regulations approval. Building Regulations can apply to new bathroom plumbing and to electrics near a bath or shower, and in a listed building, listed building consent can apply to internal work.

legislation.gov.uk: Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 55, meaning of development · Householder permitted development technical guidance · LEASE: alterations and home improvements · When Building Regulations approval is needed · legislation.gov.uk: Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, section 7

Can a wall come out or the bathroom move?

It may be possible once the structure and drainage are understood. Our structural engineers check whether a wall carries load and how the floor is framed, which matters as much in a timber-framed farmhouse or older cottage as in a later house. A moved bathroom still needs a workable fall to the stack or drain and a route for extract air to leave the building. Listed building consent, Building Regulations, the lease and the Party Wall Act all need checking first.

When Building Regulations approval is needed · legislation.gov.uk: Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, section 7 · LEASE: alterations and home improvements · Party-wall work requiring notice

Could I add space below ground, or only refit a lower-ground room?

Refitting an existing lower-ground room keeps to space you already have, while digging new space raises separate questions. Planning law treats works begun after 5 December 1968 that add space underground as development, and where an application is needed in the Green Belt, national policy weighs any extension against the size of the original building. Historic England maps a Totteridge Archaeological Priority Area, and the 2008 appraisal records an Area of Special Archaeological significance around the road, so raise any excavation with the council early, along with Party Wall questions.

legislation.gov.uk: Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 55, meaning of development · GOV.UK: National Planning Policy Framework, Chapter 13: Protecting Green Belt land (GB1–8) · Planning Data (Historic England): Archaeological Priority Area 76165, including Totteridge · Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Party-wall work requiring notice

When is noisy building work allowed in Totteridge?

For a Barnet address, the council’s published construction working hours say noisy work should only be carried out from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and from 8am to 1pm on Saturday, and at no time on a Sunday or bank holiday. A lease or building manager may set tighter limits on noise and deliveries, so check those before the programme is agreed, and tell neighbours, including anyone sharing a private road, what to expect.

Barnet construction working hours · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

How can I compare quotations for a Totteridge project?

Give every contractor the same written scope, with each room, its quantities and finishes, the original features to keep and the repairs already known, then compare line by line. Check how each treats VAT, professional fees, consents, licences, protection and items found once work starts, and investigate the biggest unknowns before comparing totals. A Totteridge address is no reason in itself for a surcharge or a fixed finish date.

Where is your studio, and how do I begin?

Our studio is at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN, in Hampstead, and we serve Totteridge from this office. To begin, send the address, the rooms you want to change and a few photographs; the lease or title, any drawings and planning letters can follow once we have spoken.

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