Kitchen renovation in Tufnell Park

Plan the kitchen around movement, storage and services.

Start with the kitchen renovation brief

Map preparation, cooking, washing and storage before choosing cabinet fronts. Measure clearances with doors and drawers open, and decide which existing walls, floors and details belong in the finished room.

Coordinate the cabinetry with water, drainage, extraction, electrics and lighting. Confirm appliance dimensions and access for installation before the layout is signed off; structural alterations need their own design and approval checks.

The local building context

Islington’s Tufnell Park Conservation Area was designated on 23 June 1970 and last amended or extended on 20 May 1993. Its January 2002 design guidelines describe it as largely the residential estate Lord Tufnell laid out in the 1860s and 1870s, mainly spacious detached and semi-detached villas and terraces of three and four storeys, many designed by the estate’s surveyor, Truefitt, with a variety of styles and a flamboyant use of materials and decoration. They record the area as predominantly residential, with a few houses then providing hotel or bed and breakfast accommodation.

The conservation area’s character, the guidelines explain, rests on surviving 19th century buildings in brick, stone and render, with timber windows and natural slate and tile roofs; only a few 20th century buildings exist. Roofs take the form of gables, mansards, exposed pitches and parapets, and sloping chimney stacks mark the rear of many terraces. Original porticos, porches and canopies are to be kept, as are ornate tiled dadoes in entrance porches, and front boundaries vary from railings on brick walls to engineering-brick finishes, several still carrying original house names. Gaps between houses give views of trees and rear gardens.

Islington’s Hillmarton guidelines describe an area mostly first built in the 1850s and 1860s as pairs of three- and four-storey semi-detached villas or as terraces, and those for Mercers Road/Tavistock Terrace name 6 and 9–21 Tufnell Park Road among the 19th century buildings to retain. In Camden, the Dartmouth Park appraisal describes late Victorian villas and houses on Dartmouth Park Hill either side of a 1950 group of houses and maisonettes, and finds most of that conservation area built between 1840 and 1890, with late 18th century terraces, cottages, mansion blocks and Victorian villas side by side.

Local design and consent context

Islington’s list gives the Tufnell Park Conservation Area (CA11) a designation date of 23 June 1970, a last amendment or extension on 20 May 1993 and current design guidelines adopted in January 2002. The guidelines say the council will operate special policies there to preserve and enhance the area’s character, and that it wishes to retain all statutory and locally listed buildings and all other 18th and 19th century buildings and structures. Read them with the Local Plan Islington adopted on 28 September 2023.

For a refurbishment, the guidelines bear most on the outside. New or enlarged dormers or rooflights are not permitted on the front or side slopes of exposed pitched roofs, while rear slopes are considered on their merits; chimney stacks and pots visible from the street or other public areas must stay; plant rooms, air conditioning units, water tanks and satellite equipment are opposed at roof level where they can be seen from the street or public space; and original porticos, porches and canopies are kept, with porches left unenclosed.

Islington has removed permitted development rights by Article 4 direction in 40 of its 42 conservation areas to prevent some minor alterations, and explains that a direction may mean applying for planning permission for changes such as external doors and windows or painting outside brickwork. Its works-to-windows checklist lists Tufnell Park, Hillmarton, Mercers Road/Tavistock Terrace and St John’s Grove among the areas where an Article 4 direction removes the permitted development right to make material changes to house windows facing a public highway, so planning permission is needed. The Tufnell Park guidelines confirm a direction applies there; ask Islington for its full scope.

Access and site planning

Decide where deliveries will stop and where waste will wait. In Islington, scaffolding, hoardings and building materials on the highway need a licence; only a company holding a waste carriers licence can apply for a skip licence, which takes five days to process; and bay suspensions need at least 10 days’ notice for Pay By Phone bays and 14 days for others. Islington cannot suspend yellow lines, and an obstruction on a red route such as Holloway Road needs Transport for London’s permission. In Camden, the skip company itself must apply for the skip licence, at least 5 working days ahead, scaffolds and hoardings need a building licence, and bay suspensions should be booked at least 17 days ahead.

Continue planning

The Tufnell Park area guide · Kitchen renovation across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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