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Totteridge N20 · House refurbishment

House refurbishment in Totteridge

Roofs, chimneys, sashes and gates on Totteridge’s older houses

This page is for houses inside the Totteridge Conservation Area, from the mansion houses of Totteridge Common to the cottages of Totteridge Village and the later houses off the main road. A whole-house project here usually reaches the roof, the chimneys, the windows, the front door and the gate, and Barnet’s 2008 appraisal describes each of them in detail. Use it to decide what to repair before you decide what to change.

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Serving Totteridge from our Hampstead studio · NW3 6DN
020 7101 3168

Start here

House refurbishment in Totteridge at a glance

Look up before you plan the rooms. Barnet’s 2008 appraisal explains that Welsh slate allowed a pitch of about 22 degrees, much shallower than clay tiles need, and that from the mid-19th century hips were finished with lead rolls and chimneys became more delicate, with corbelled brickwork and decorative clay pots. Later in that century the Vernacular Revival brought back machine-made clay tiles, which the appraisal finds on small cottages and mansion houses alike. Lead is occasionally used on flat or curved dormers and porches. A survey of the roofs and stacks is the place to start.

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

For the whole area, including conservation areas, permissions and working hours, read our Totteridge renovation guide.

Approved guide prices

What does a house refurbishment cost in Totteridge?

Cost in Totteridge depends on depth of work. A cosmetic refurbishment that keeps the existing layout runs £650–£1,250/sqm (typically £90,000–£180,000), while a back-to-brick renovation runs £2,250–£3,250/sqm (typically £275,000–£475,000), excluding VAT. A written scope and site assessment are needed before any project price can be fixed.

Scope of workGuide rateTypical total
Cosmetic — existing layout retained£650–£1,250/sqm£90,000–£180,000
Back-to-brick renovation£2,250–£3,250/sqm£275,000–£475,000
Typical programme16–32 weeks on site

Guide rates exclude VAT and are set by depth of work, not by postcode. Compare scopes in our London refurbishment cost-per-square-metre guide or try the cost calculator.

The buildings

Mansion houses, refronted farmhouses and the later roads

The appraisal describes the large mansion houses, the few timber-framed buildings that survive, and the brick, render and doors found across the area. Each helps you decide what a refurbishment keeps.

The mansion houses follow a simple, regular plan, and their features include regular window patterns, entrance porches and unbroken clay-tiled roofs, sometimes with over-sailing eaves and moulded soffits, and decorative detailing such as brick arches, window surrounds and stone or brick quoins. On Totteridge Common the appraisal counts among the important characteristics the detached service buildings that usually front the road, such as Loxwood, once the gatehouse to Totteridge Park, and the extensive grounds that keep one house apart from its neighbour. Include those outbuildings in the survey.

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

Only a handful of the original timber-framed buildings survive. Refronting in the 18th and 19th centuries often added weatherboarding or brick parapets, behind which the earlier tiled roof and thick chimneystacks can still be glimpsed; the appraisal’s example is Willow House, formerly Denham Farmhouse, on Totteridge Common. Windows changed too: the earliest were simple iron casements holding small panes of handmade glass in lead cames, and most have since been replaced. Sashes often mix pane sizes, for example with more divisions in the upper sash than the lower.

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

Walls and doors change with age. The earlier buildings show smooth red clay bricks of the 18th and 19th centuries; from the mid-19th century smoother machine-made red bricks appear alongside white, yellow or brown London stocks, and render in white, cream or pastel shades against red or brown tiled roofs is also common. The earliest doors were simple planks of hardwood, usually oak, left to weather, while in Totteridge Village early 19th-century doors had four or six panels, sometimes raised and fielded, generally painted in muted tones.

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

Permissions and local rules

Checks on a Totteridge house before anything is drawn

Work to a listed house

What does Barnet look for when a listed house is altered?

The appraisal’s management proposals say works to listed buildings should normally, among other things, complement the original building, stay secondary to it in bulk, height and form, and pay particular attention to roof lines, roof shape, eaves, verges and chimneys. Barnet’s register has a related decision: in 2022 Barnet refused listed building consent for a terrace with a glass balustrade on a garage’s flat roof at a listed house on Totteridge Village, and the register records the appeal against that refusal as allowed.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing)

Dormers and extensions in the conservation area

Among the minor works the appraisal criticises in Pine Grove, Northcliffe Drive, Grange Avenue and Priory Close are inappropriately designed dormer windows and tall railings and gates. Barnet’s register has related decisions elsewhere in the conservation area. In 2025 Barnet approved, subject to conditions, works including a single-storey front extension, a lean-to side extension, a part single, part two-storey rear extension and a garage conversion at a house on Harmsworth Way, and in 2024 it refused a scheme at a house on Barnet Lane that included two front dormers and a rear extension with a glazed gable.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing)

Unlisted houses the appraisal marks as positive

The appraisal’s Townscape Appraisal map marks unlisted buildings that make a positive contribution, mainly 19th and early 20th-century houses, and it says the council will encourage applications to extend or alter them to be considered particularly carefully. Barnet’s Local Plan adds that alterations in a conservation area should normally use materials matching the original. On such a house, keep the existing brick, tile, slate and joinery as the starting point for every change.

Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF) · Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025: the plan and its adoption documents

Gates, walls and fences

On Totteridge Lane the appraisal records simple high walls and open gates altered to more complex alignments and designs, and some boundaries formed of unsightly high timber fencing. On Totteridge Common it finds some boundaries and gates to the larger houses too grand in design. If a refurbishment includes a new gate, wall or fence, draw it with the house, keep it as plain as the boundaries the appraisal describes, and check the Article 4 directions for the address before ordering.

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

Working hours, skips, parking and the conservation area maps for the whole area are in our Totteridge guide. Local guidance checked ; requirements depend on the address, the building and the complete proposal.

What the work covers

What a Totteridge house refurbishment covers

Roofs, chimneys and leadwork

Repairs to Welsh slate or clay tile in kind, the lead rolls on hips, leadwork on flat or curved dormers and porches, and the chimney stacks and their pots, all surveyed and specified before any loft or insulation work begins. On a listed house or one the appraisal marks as positive, the roof details are checked with Barnet first wherever consent could be needed, so the roofer works from an agreed specification rather than a guess.

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

Rooms, services and outbuildings

Rewiring, heating, kitchens, bathrooms and insulation planned as one scheme, with service routes chosen to avoid cutting into historic fabric. Garages, stables and other detached buildings that you want to reuse are brought into the same survey and drawings, because on the larger plots they are part of how the house is seen from the road.

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

How we work

How we run a Totteridge house refurbishment

  1. Free feasibility visit

    We walk round the house with you and discuss what is feasible.

  2. Survey

    Rooms, levels and features to keep are measured, with opening-up or asbestos checks where needed.

  3. Design and consents

    Our own architects and structural engineers design the layout and structural openings, plan the service routes with them, and identify which consents and party wall notices apply.

  4. Price and contract

    A fixed written price and a JCT contract follow the survey, scope and specification. It records allowances, exclusions and how changes are priced.

  5. On site

    Work is inspected before it is covered, and a director reviews key decisions.

  6. Handover

    Testing, commissioning and snagging. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our house refurbishment work elsewhere in London

None of these projects is in Totteridge. Each card names where the work was done, so you can judge the finish and the approach before you brief your own.

Your brief

Before you ask for a quotation

  1. Place the house in the appraisal

    Tell us which of the appraisal’s five character areas the house is in, and whether it is listed, locally listed or marked as positive. Planning Data shows the list entries and the tree preservation orders.

  2. Photograph the roof and the front

    Send photographs of the roof slopes, chimneys and pots, any dormers and the porch, the windows and front door, and the gate and boundary. Point out anything you believe is original, such as lead rolls on the hips, leaded lights or a panelled door, so the survey can check it.

  3. Collect the house’s own decisions

    Look out earlier planning and listed building decisions, their conditions and approved drawings, and any tree order letters. Barnet’s planning register can be searched by address. Tell us about work an earlier owner carried out that you are unsure was approved.

Ready to take the next step? Send the address and a short outline of the work.

Book a free feasibility visit

Questions before you begin

House refurbishment in Totteridge: questions

Does Barnet’s house extension guidance apply in Totteridge?

Only with care. Part 4 of Barnet’s Sustainable Design and Development Guidance, adopted in June 2026, says its extension guidance is not intended for properties in conservation areas or for locally or nationally listed buildings, though it may be pertinent in certain instances. Barnet’s Local Plan says conservation area character appraisals are used in assessing applications, so for a house in the Totteridge Conservation Area the 2008 appraisal is the document to read first.

Barnet Sustainable Design and Development Guidance SPD, adopted 15 June 2026: Part 4, guidance on residential extensions and alterations (not intended for conservation areas or nationally or locally listed buildings) · Barnet Local Plan 2021–2036, adopted 4 March 2025: the plan and its adoption documents · Barnet: Totteridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal Statement, adopted May 2008 (PDF)

Could I replace my house with a new one?

It has happened here. The appraisal names Redings on Totteridge Common as 19th-century housing successfully replaced in the late 20th century, and it records pressure in the later roads to replace houses with much larger ones of a grander design. On Totteridge Common it finds some recent neo-Georgian and neoclassical designs unsympathetic to the simplicity of the earlier houses. A listed or positive building, or Green Belt land, raises further questions, so start from a survey of what you have.

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

Which tree orders could affect my house?

Check before any work near a tree. Planning Data records Barnet tree preservation orders across the conservation area, among them a 1992 order for land fronting part of Badgers Croft, a 2004 order at a property in Pine Grove and two 1989 orders for the north and south of Totteridge Green. Barnet’s protected trees page says work to a protected tree needs permission, and asks you to check its map, note the order number and keep a screenshot before you apply.

Planning Data: tree preservation order, land fronting Badgers Croft (1992) · Planning Data: tree preservation order, Pine Grove (2004) · Planning Data: tree preservation order, Totteridge Green, south (1989) · Planning Data: tree preservation order, Totteridge Green, north (1989) · Barnet protected trees and tree works

How should security be handled on a Totteridge house?

As part of the design, not as an afterthought. The appraisal suggests Barnet should consider producing design guidance on appropriate ways to improve security in Totteridge, and it says enforcement action will be taken where breaches of planning control have taken place and harm the building or the area. Cameras, lights and electric gates that need consent belong in the same application as the rest of the work.

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

Is anything known to lie beneath Totteridge houses?

In places, yes. Among areas of known archaeological importance, the 2008 appraisal names the remains of a medieval manor house believed to lie under Southernhay in Totteridge Village and the remains of a 13th-century chapel beneath the site of St Andrew’s Church. If your plans include new foundations, a basement or deep drainage near these sites, ask about archaeology before the structural design is fixed.

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

How much does a house refurbishment cost in Totteridge?

It depends on scope. In Totteridge, a cosmetic refurbishment keeping the existing layout runs £650–£1,250/sqm (typically £90,000–£180,000); a back-to-brick renovation runs £2,250–£3,250/sqm (typically £275,000–£475,000), excluding VAT. A written scope and site assessment come before any fixed price.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your Totteridge house

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your Totteridge house. We reply within one working day, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Or call 020 7101 3168. We serve Totteridge from our studio at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN.

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