House
refurbishment
in West Hampstead, NW6
Architects, Engineers & Builders Under One Roof.
One Studio. One Contract. One Team.
Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building ConsultancyWest Hampstead's houses went up in one forty-year wave of red brick, and refurbishing one well means keeping what that wave left behind.
Most of the area was built between about 1870 and 1914, after the Midland line opened a station on West End Lane in 1871.
We refurbish West Hampstead houses floor by floor, with the front, the roof and the rooms inside priced as separate parts of one plan.
Source: Camden: West End Green Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 28 February 2011)
Which kind of West Hampstead house
East and west of West End Lane, the side streets are lined mostly with red brick houses and mansion blocks, almost all built inside fifty years.
Lymington Road and Fawley Road have large semi-detached houses behind random-stone garden walls with brick piers, and Crediton Hill has large detached ones.
West of the Lane the houses step down to three-storey terraces, then to two-storey late Victorian terraces on a regular grid beyond the conservation area.
A detached Crediton Hill house and a two-storey terrace need very different scopes, so the survey decides the brief, not the postcode.
Source: Camden: West End Green Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 28 February 2011)
Brick, slate and timber windows
Camden describes warm red brick walls with cream details, roofs mostly of natural slate, and windows generally in timber, as sashes and casements, many set in stone mullions.
The appraisal found timber windows being swapped for uPVC, which it puts down partly to low awareness of the conservation area.
Its management strategy asks owners to restore doors and windows to their original glazing and pattern, and keep slate rather than artificial slate on the roof.
We record each window's pattern before work starts, so repaired or remade sashes keep the glazing bars that the rest of the street still has.
Source: Camden: West End Green Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 28 February 2011)
Houses in the South Hampstead streets
In the South Hampstead Conservation Area, designated in 1988, houses are large late-Victorian semis and terraces in red or gault brick with turrets, gables and tall chimneys.
Terracotta panels, brick ornament, tiled paths, ironwork and elaborate timber doors and windows, some with stained and leaded glass, are what make them distinctive.
Since 2010 an Article 4 Direction there has controlled the loss of historic features, original details and front gardens.
Source: Camden: South Hampstead Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Strategy (February 2011)
Front gardens and walls
Camden's appraisal says losing a front garden to forecourt parking or hard standing badly erodes a street's character, and pressure to remove walls for parking will be resisted.
In South Hampstead its survey found 23% of boundary walls gone and 43% of front gardens paved for cars.
Where a project includes the front garden, we price the wall, path and planting with the house, so the street front is put back rather than left until later.
Sources: Camden: West End Green Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 28 February 2011), Camden: South Hampstead Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Strategy (February 2011)
How we run a West Hampstead house renovation
- Feasibility visit. We walk through the house with you, floor by floor, and discuss which changes are feasible and a first budget framework.
- Measured survey. Each storey is measured, with opening-up where the structure is uncertain, and the cornices, doors and fireplaces to keep are listed.
- Design. Layout and openings come from our own architects and structural engineers; kitchen, bathrooms and fitted storage are drawn as one, and party wall notices identified.
- Price and contract. A fixed written price and a JCT contract follow the survey, scope and specification.
- On site. Deliveries and any skip are planned for your street, hidden work is checked before it is closed in, and a director reviews the key decisions.
- Handover. Testing, certificates and drawings are handed over. Completed work carries a 12-month aftercare/defects period under the JCT contract terms.
On this page: what the work covers · permissions to check · running the work on your street · preparing your brief · local guidance and sources
A West Hampstead house refurbishment: what it covers
A whole-house refurbishment can renew heating, wiring and ventilation on every floor at once, so decide where each will run before rooms are rearranged. Fix the positions of the boiler or cylinder, the consumer unit and the extract outlets early, because those points and the routes between floors shape the layout as much as room sizes do.
Before a wall is removed or a new opening formed, ask how the change relates to the load paths through the house. Neither the appearance nor the age of a wall shows whether it is structural, so arrange the appropriate investigation, and record the doors, cornices, fireplaces and joinery to be kept before opening up.
Treat any insulation or ventilation improvements as one package with the heating and wiring. Historic England advises a whole-building approach for older homes: understand how the existing walls, floors and roof handle heat and moisture before choosing measures, so that one improvement does not create moisture problems somewhere else.
Source: Historic England: whole-building approach for historic buildings
Permissions to check for a West Hampstead house
Renewing a house internally is generally not development in planning terms, and altering an internal structural wall does not by itself require a planning application. Changes to the outside, excavation and any change of use need their own assessment, and householder permitted-development rights should be checked against Camden's current heritage Article 4 directions before anyone relies on them.
Source: GOV.UK: when planning permission is required · GOV.UK: permitted development rights for householders · Camden: current heritage Article 4 directions
West End Green and South Hampstead are separate Camden conservation areas, and the NW6 postcode alone does not place a house in either, so check the exact address on the council's maps. Camden also lists the adopted Fortune Green and West Hampstead Neighbourhood Plan, whose policies apply within its designated area; its recommendations for future designations or Article 4 controls are not controls in force.
Source: Camden: West End Green Conservation Area · Camden: South Hampstead Conservation Area · Camden: West End Green boundary map (PDF) · Camden: Fortune Green and West Hampstead Neighbourhood Plan · Read the adopted neighbourhood plan and map (PDF)
For a listed house, the list entry is not an exhaustive inventory, so judge the whole proposal, including plan form and interior fabric. Agree the Building Regulations route for structural and services work before it starts. Cutting into a wall shared with next door to seat a beam, or removing a chimney breast from it, requires notice to the neighbour under the party wall procedure.
Source: Historic England: listed building consent · Historic England: understanding list entries · GOV.UK: building regulations approval · Camden: building control step by step · GOV.UK: party wall work you must tell your neighbour about
Running a house refurbishment on a West Hampstead street
In Camden, noisy building work is normally limited to 8am–6pm Monday to Friday and 8am–1pm on Saturday, and noise outside those windows, including on Sundays and bank holidays, needs authorisation. Schedule stripping out and structural opening-up within those hours, and check whether any property conditions set tighter limits.
Source: Camden noisy building work hours
If waste leaves by skip, the skip company applies for Camden's licence to place it on a public road, and it may not stand on the pavement. Occupying a parking bay needs a separate suspension, so arrange both before the strip-out and delivery dates are fixed.
Source: Camden skip licences · Camden parking bay suspensions
Scaffolding or a hoarding on the highway needs a Camden building licence, plus a bay suspension if a parking space is taken. Where scaffold, storage or access would mean pruning or removing a garden tree, check Camden's Tree Preservation Order and conservation-area tree-notice requirements first.
Source: Camden: building licences for scaffolds and hoardings · Camden parking bay suspensions · Camden: protected trees
Preparing a West Hampstead house brief for quotation
Begin with the address, confirmation that the property is a house, and what you know about listing, any lease and earlier alterations. Floor plans, photographs of each storey and previous approvals help a contractor judge how much investigation the first visit should allow for.
List the rooms to change, the problems each should solve and the original features to keep, then mark which items are essential and which are preferences. Say whether the household will stay during the work, because occupation affects the order in which floors are tackled and when services can be switched off.
Ask for a quotation that allows for investigation, design and any approvals, construction, services, fittings, finishes and VAT, showing provisional allowances and exclusions rather than a postcode-wide rate. Agree in writing the scope, responsibilities, payment stages and how changes are approved, plus the inspections, certificates and handover documents for the finished house.
Local guidance for West Hampstead houses
The West Hampstead hub covers house types and addresses, approvals, conservation areas and the neighbourhood plan and access, skips and below-ground work. See Camden’s West End Green page and appraisal. Then check the address on Camden’s Article 4 page, and read the borough basement direction before digging. For a shared wall, see GOV.UK on party walls. Our Victorian terrace guide and Camden planning guide go further.
Our in-house engineers manage Building Control from initial notice through to the completion certificate.
A West Hampstead house we have opened up
Questions about refurbishing a West Hampstead house
Can I replace my timber windows with uPVC?
Camden's appraisal counts that swap among the poor alterations it wants to stop, and asks for windows to be restored to their original glazing.
Is my house in a conservation area?
Check the address: West End Green was designated in 1993 and South Hampstead in 1988, and many nearby streets are outside both.
What does the South Hampstead Article 4 Direction cover?
It controls the loss of historic features, original details and front gardens, and has applied since 2010.
Can I re-roof in artificial slate?
Camden's strategy says roofs are typically natural slate and artificial slate should be avoided.
Can I pave my front garden for parking?
Camden says it will resist pressure to remove boundary walls and gardens for parking.
What does a house refurbishment in West Hampstead cost?
Your West Hampstead figure is confirmed after a feasibility visit.
Sources: Camden: West End Green Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 28 February 2011), Camden: South Hampstead Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Strategy (February 2011)
Guides & Local Reading
More Services in West Hampstead
Book a feasibility visit
At the visit we go round the house, look at how the kitchen, bathrooms and storage could work, and discuss feasibility, consents and a first budget.
About your family house
List the rooms that need work, and say if the kitchen or storage is part of it.
Completed renovation project examples
