Kitchen
renovation
in West Hampstead, NW6

The neighbourhood plan names the area's red brick Victorian and Edwardian terraces and mansion blocks as its main architectural feature.

Whether the kitchen is in a house or a flat, we design the cabinets, the structure and the services as one drawing set before anything is ordered.

Source: Fortune Green and West Hampstead Neighbourhood Plan (adopted by Camden, September 2015)

Making a new or wider opening in an outside wall means supporting the masonry above, usually with one or two beams, and steel normally needs fire protection.

Removing an internal chimney breast is not a planning matter, but building regulations approval is always required for it.

We get the engineer's calculations before quoting, so the steel, padstones and any temporary propping are priced, not guessed.

Sources: Planning Portal: Extensions, Building Regulations: Structural Opening, Planning Portal Interactive House: Do I need permission to remove chimney breasts?

A leaseholder may need the landlord's permission for alterations, LEASE says, whatever other approvals are in place.

Some leases also restrict floor finishes; a clause requiring carpet could prevent a timber floor.

Moving a sink across a flat means new waste falls, so we check the floor void and the route to the stack before the layout is agreed.

Source: LEASE: alterations and home improvements

In a two-storey terrace west of the Lane, the kitchen usually runs along the back addition with a dining space where the yard was. Opening the back addition's side wall can turn a corridor kitchen into one room.

In the larger semis of Lymington Road and Fawley Road, there is often space for an island and a separate utility or larder, so we plan the working triangle around the garden doors.

Those houses are large red brick semis with stone garden walls, and the street is virtually intact, Camden notes, so most change happens at the back and inside.

Source: Camden: West End Green Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy (adopted 28 February 2011)

A north-facing kitchen at the back of a terrace benefits from a rooflight over the dining end and pale worktops that throw the light back.

We plan lighting in layers: task lights under the wall units, a pendant over the table, and dimmable spots kept clear of the joists.

Floor tiles are laid before the units on a stiff, level base; wall tiles and splashbacks go up after the worktops are fixed.