Basement conversion in Winchmore Hill

Start with the basement conversion brief

Distinguish an existing cellar conversion from excavation for a new basement. Record levels, drainage, access and the adjoining structures, and obtain project-specific ground and structural investigations before relying on a design or budget.

Plan temporary works, waterproofing, ventilation, escape and spoil removal as part of the same brief. Ask Hampstead Chartered Surveyors to assess party-wall matters and Hampstead Architecture & Planning to coordinate the design requirements. An area name alone does not establish ground conditions.

The local building context

Enfield’s conservation area appraisal records that the village centre took its present form between 1867 and 1896, when the terraces of shops and houses around The Green were built, and that the station opened in 1871. After the Taylor family sold land to developers in 1902, the change from village to suburb was largely complete by 1935. The earliest surviving buildings, the Old Bakery and the Rowan Tree and Woodside houses, date from the early 18th century, and many others from the 18th and early 19th centuries, mainly in the classical style.

Most buildings around The Green are flat-fronted Victorian terraces in red and yellow brick with tall sash windows. Down Wades Hill, shops give way to two-storey terraced houses from late-Georgian to Edwardian, given some unity by yellow stock brick, with early 19th-century cottages of stock brick and weatherboarding at 15–21 and 23–29. Wilson Street has two rows of late Victorian terraces and Harwoods Yard bay-fronted stock brick cottages, while the wider Church Hill has mostly large detached houses or blocks of flats in well-planted gardens and a group of 1930s semi-detached houses.

Enfield’s 2011 Characterisation Study describes gently curving streets of semi-detached houses around the two conservation areas, a set of large suburban houses of distinct character along Broad Walk and, a short distance east of the railway, a second, planned 20th-century centre on Green Lanes with curving terraces of shops. In the 2021 Census figures in Enfield’s ward profile, semi-detached houses were the commonest type of home in Winchmore Hill ward, and converted flats formed a much larger share of homes than across Enfield as a whole.

• Enfield: Winchmore Hill Green and Vicars Moor Lane Conservation Area Character Appraisal, approved February 2015 (PDF)
• Enfield Characterisation Study, Final Report, February 2011, Parts 5 to 6 (PDF)
• Enfield: Ward Profile, Winchmore Hill 2024 (PDF)

Local design and consent context

Enfield has 22 conservation areas, and its list includes Winchmore Hill and Vicars Moor Lane. Winchmore Hill Green (CA09), designated in 1968 and extended in 1974 and again in 2009 to take in part of Station Road, covers the historic village centre: it borders Grovelands Park to the west and includes the railway bridge, the station and the shopping parades on the south side of Station Road. Vicars Moor Lane (CA10), designated in 1970, is a group of 19th-century properties on the north side of the lane.

One character appraisal covers both areas. First adopted in 2006 and reviewed in February and March 2013, it is marked ‘Approved February 2015’, as are the management proposals, which confirmed the boundaries after a review in May 2013 and set out actions for five years. They say development affecting listed, locally listed and positive buildings should normally use traditional materials and detailing, that uPVC and concrete roof tiles will not normally be appropriate, and that an application affecting a property in a conservation area should include a Heritage Statement. Enfield’s pages for both areas link these documents and the Article 4 maps.

The appraisal also records the Winchmore Hill Archaeological Priority Area around a possible Saxon settlement, where there is a strong possibility of buried remains, and Planning Data holds the priority area record. Enfield says every planning application that might affect a heritage asset must consult the Greater London Historic Environment Record, and that its priority areas were to be updated in collaboration with the Greater London Archaeology Advisory Service in 2025, so check the current boundary before planning any digging.

• Enfield: conservation areas
• Enfield: Winchmore Hill Green and Vicars Moor Lane Conservation Area Character Appraisal, approved February 2015 (PDF)
• Planning Data: Winchmore Hill Green conservation area (CA09), London Borough of Enfield
• Planning Data: Vicars Moor Lane conservation area (CA10), London Borough of Enfield
• Enfield: Winchmore Hill Green and Vicars Moor Lane Conservation Area Management Proposals, approved February 2015 (PDF)
• Enfield: Winchmore Hill conservation area
• Enfield: Vicars Moor Lane conservation area
• Planning Data: Archaeological Priority Area surrounding a possible Saxon settlement
• Enfield: archaeology

Access and site planning

Enfield says noisy building work that can be heard at the site boundary should only take place Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and Saturday, 8am to 1pm, and not outside these times or on bank holidays unless agreed with the council beforehand. In a block of flats or a converted house, check the lease and any building rules on noise, deliveries and shared halls. If you will live at home through the work, decide which rooms stay usable and when water or power will be off, and tell neighbours what is planned and when.

• Enfield: noise nuisance and noisy building work hours
• LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Continue planning

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