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Tufnell Park N19 and N7 · Flat refurbishment

Flat refurbishment in Tufnell Park

Ward estates, converted houses and flats over shops

Flats around Tufnell Park sit in three kinds of building that official papers name: estate blocks in Islington’s Tufnell Park ward, homes alongside the shops of Junction Road, and flats made within the conservation areas’ 19th century houses. The landlord, and the council for the address, set the consents before any layout is drawn.

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

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Flat refurbishment in Tufnell Park at a glance

Two questions decide a Tufnell Park flat refurbishment before any drawing: which council covers the address, and who your landlord is. Islington’s ward plan names estates such as Lower Hilldrop, Upper Hilldrop and Dalmeny Avenue, but the plan does not say who owns them, so take the answer from your lease. The council’s own leaseholder rules bind you only if the council is your landlord, in Islington or in Camden. In a converted house, the freeholder in your lease decides, and the St John’s Grove and Mercers Road/Tavistock Terrace guidelines refuse over-intensive conversion.

Islington Council: Tufnell Park ward community plan, June 2022 (PDF) · Islington Council: alterations to your property (council leaseholders) · Camden Council: property alterations or improvements (council leaseholders) · Islington: St John’s Grove (CA28) Conservation Area Design Guidelines, February 2008 (PDF) · Islington: Mercers Road/Tavistock Terrace (CA24) Conservation Area Design Guidelines, December 2007 (PDF) · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

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

Approved guide prices

What does a flat refurbishment cost in Tufnell Park?

A flat refurbishment in Tufnell Park runs £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, and a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically lands between £60,000 and £110,000. Most programmes take 16–32 weeks on site. A written scope and site assessment are needed before any project price can be fixed.

Scope of workGuide rateTypical total
Full flat refurbishment (2-bed)£900–£1,700/sqm£60,000–£110,000
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

Ward estates, Junction Road and the converted houses

Islington’s ward plan, its Local Plan and the St John’s Grove guidelines between them show where flats are found here, though they say little about who owns them, which is the first thing to establish.

Islington’s Tufnell Park ward community plan, written by the ward councillors in June 2022, lists projects on the Lower Hilldrop, Upper Hilldrop, Hilldrop Crescent, Dalmeny Avenue, Daren Court, Melyn Close and Brecknock Road estates, some completed and some awaiting funding. It mentions Coombe House on the Lower Hilldrop Estate and Margery Fry Court, whose communal areas have bin chutes. It also names a “Tufnell Park Estate” without locating it, which is not the 1860s estate of the conservation area. The plan covers the ward, not a defined district.

Islington Council: Tufnell Park ward community plan, June 2022 (PDF) · Islington: Tufnell Park (CA11) Conservation Area Design Guidelines, January 2002 (PDF)

Along Junction Road, the St John’s Grove guidelines record properties with commercial and office uses in addition to residential, forming a local shopping centre, and list existing shopfronts there that the council requires to be kept. Islington’s Local Plan names Hillmarton Terrace and Brecknock Road among its 40 Local Shopping Areas, and its Policy R4 puts new homes in such areas on upper floors where they do not replace shop or other town-centre floorspace. The plan names the areas only; their extents appear on its map.

Islington: St John’s Grove (CA28) Conservation Area Design Guidelines, February 2008 (PDF) · Islington Local Plan: Strategic and Development Management Policies

In the St John’s Grove Conservation Area, the guidelines describe many of the mid-19th century houses as locally listed, with fine detailing and special group value, and the area as predominantly residential; they say permission will not be granted for over-intensive residential conversion schemes. The Mercers Road/Tavistock Terrace guidelines print the same sentence. Where a flat sits within one of these houses, the original building, not only the flat, shapes what may change.

Islington: St John’s Grove (CA28) Conservation Area Design Guidelines, February 2008 (PDF) · Islington: Mercers Road/Tavistock Terrace (CA24) Conservation Area Design Guidelines, December 2007 (PDF)

Permissions and local rules

Landlord, conversion and frontage checks for a Tufnell Park flat

Which landlord, which council

Whose rules govern my flat?

If Islington Council is your landlord, its page for leaseholders says you need its permission before alterations or refurbishment, that this landlord’s consent stands apart from planning and building control and can be refused even when they are granted, and that alterations within flats in a higher-risk residential building go to the Building Safety Regulator. If Camden Council is your landlord, its own leaseholder process applies instead. For any other landlord, the alterations clauses of your lease set the process.

Islington Council: alterations to your property (council leaseholders) · Camden Council: property alterations or improvements (council leaseholders) · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Dividing or reshaping a converted house

Can a house here become more flats?

In St John’s Grove and Mercers Road/Tavistock Terrace, the guidelines refuse over-intensive residential conversion. Islington’s Local Plan Policy H2 adds that splitting one home into several self-contained units is allowed only where the new mix has no studios or bedsits and at most one one-bedroom unit, and it treats homes with two or more bedrooms as family homes. Removing a self-contained home is permitted where at least equal floorspace takes its place, with a net loss of no more than one unit.

Islington: St John’s Grove (CA28) Conservation Area Design Guidelines, February 2008 (PDF) · Islington: Mercers Road/Tavistock Terrace (CA24) Conservation Area Design Guidelines, December 2007 (PDF) · Islington Local Plan: Strategic and Development Management Policies

Frontages, dishes and aerials

What can go on the front of the building?

On Junction Road, the St John’s Grove guidelines list existing shopfronts the council requires to be retained, so where a building’s shopfront is on that list, work that reaches the frontage must keep it. The same guidelines say satellite dishes or antennae will not normally be permitted on front elevations or front roof slopes, and that where a terrace’s rear elevation will not suit, places such as rear roof slopes or rear gardens will be needed instead. On a block of flats, Islington’s design guide asks for a communal aerial serving the whole building to be considered.

Islington: St John’s Grove (CA28) Conservation Area Design Guidelines, February 2008 (PDF) · Islington Urban Design Guide SPD, January 2017

Turning shop space into a home

Can shop space below or beside a flat become housing?

In a Local Shopping Area such as Hillmarton Terrace or Brecknock Road, Islington’s Policy R4 lets shop or other town-centre floorspace become housing only with proof that it has stood empty, without a break, for two years or more, backed by marketing evidence covering that time. Policy DH7 then requires a shop turned into housing, including one converted under permitted development, to retain its shopfront fenestration and the natural surveillance it gives the street. Raise this before buying or planning a flat that would take in ground-floor space.

Islington Local Plan: Strategic and Development Management Policies

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

What the work covers

Inside a Tufnell Park flat: the work in three parts

Layout over one floor or two

In a converted house the flat may take one floor or, as a maisonette, two, with a shared stair below. The scope draws the new layout against the rooms above and beneath, keeps the original cornices, joinery and fireplaces in the principal rooms where they survive, and treats any wall removal as structural until it is proven otherwise.

Stacks, mains and shared services

Before anything moves, the scope traces the soil stack, the rising water main and the gas and electricity supplies back to the points where they are shared, and records who maintains each under the lease. In an estate block those routes are usually fixed by the building, so the layout works around them rather than through them.

Sound and fire between homes

Floors between flats are upgraded for sound, with Approved Document E setting the standard for the work it covers, and walls to the stair or the neighbouring flat keep their fire separation. The entrance door is specified as a fire doorset from the outset, since a replacement flat entrance door needs Building Regulations approval and an inspection while it is fitted.

GOV.UK: Approved Document E, resistance to sound · Islington Council: building control FAQs

How we work

How we run a Tufnell Park flat refurbishment

  1. First visit

    We see the flat, then the entrance, stairs or lift that serve it.

  2. Lease and consents

    We go through the lease’s consent requirements with you and the managing agent at the start.

  3. Survey and design

    Drainage and services are traced on site. Our own architects and structural engineers design the layout and any structural change around those routes, and any new external vent or window is checked for planning.

  4. Price and contract

    A fixed written price and a JCT contract follow the survey, scope and specification. The price names its allowances and exclusions, with consent fees and any common-parts work shown separately.

  5. Working in the building

    Common parts are protected and their condition recorded; deliveries keep to the building’s rules, and noisy work to those rules and the council’s permitted hours; key decisions go to a director.

  6. Handover

    Commissioning, drawings, certificates and any managing-agent close-out. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our flat refurbishment work elsewhere in London

None of these projects is in Tufnell Park. 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. Confirm the council and the landlord

    Tell us whether the address is in Islington or Camden, who the freeholder or landlord is, and whether you own a lease or rent. Send the lease, the lease plan and any rules from the managing agent, the residents’ association or the estate office, with any consent letters you already have.

  2. Describe the building around the flat

    Say whether the flat is in an estate block, a converted house or above a shop, which floor it is on, how it is reached and what lies above and below. Mention bin chutes, a shared lift or a narrow stair, because they decide how materials come in and waste goes out.

  3. Set out the changes room by room

    List each room with the changes you want, and flag anything that might touch the shared structure: a wall coming out, a kitchen or bathroom moving, new flooring over the joists, the entrance door or the windows. Those are the items the landlord and building control will want to see first.

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

Flat refurbishment in Tufnell Park: questions

Does Islington’s leaseholder guidance cover my estate flat?

Only if Islington Council is your landlord. The ward plan names estates such as Upper Hilldrop, Melyn Close and Daren Court but does not say who owns them, so take the landlord’s name from your lease or tenancy. Where the council is the landlord, its page asks for consent before structural or layout changes, aims to keep rooms of the same kind stacked above one another to limit noise, and expects floors to be substantially covered.

Islington Council: Tufnell Park ward community plan, June 2022 (PDF) · Islington Council: alterations to your property (council leaseholders)

My flat is on the Camden side. Whose rules apply?

Camden’s. Camden runs its own process for its leaseholders, including written consent before alterations, and for building control it asks a leaseholder to have the freeholder’s consent and to make a full plans application. Streets inside Camden’s Dartmouth Park and Kentish Town conservation areas are covered by our pages for those areas, so start there for the local checks, and confirm the council for the exact address first.

Camden Council: property alterations or improvements (council leaseholders) · Camden Council: apply for building control with a building notice · Find the council for the property

Are the shared areas on the ward’s estates being improved?

Some have been. Islington’s June 2022 ward plan lists estate lighting on Lower Hilldrop, secure cycle shelters on the Daren Court Estate, decluttering works at Melyn Close and new signage, with waste notices by the bin chutes, at Margery Fry Court; some projects were complete and others awaiting funding. Ask your residents’ association or estate office before planning anything that touches a stair, landing or bin store, because shared areas follow their own route.

Islington Council: Tufnell Park ward community plan, June 2022 (PDF)

Who looks after the soil stack in a converted house?

The lease and its plan should say. In a house divided into flats, the stack, drains and main water supply can serve every flat, so they are often the freeholder’s responsibility even where they pass through your rooms. Find out before you box in, move or connect to them, and agree with the freeholder how any shared pipe opened during the work will be inspected and made good.

How should neighbours be involved during the work?

Early and in writing. Tell the flats above, below and beside you which weeks will be noisiest, when water or power will be off and how the stair will be protected, and give them a contact for the site. In a converted house with one front door, agree where materials will wait so the hall stays clear, and photograph the common parts before work starts so their condition is on record.

How much does a flat refurbishment cost in Tufnell Park?

Guide rates in Tufnell Park are £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, with a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically between £60,000 and £110,000, over a 16–32 weeks programme. A written scope and site assessment come before any fixed price.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your Tufnell Park flat

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

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

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