Loft conversion in Winchmore Hill

Test the roof space before settling on a layout.

Start with the loft conversion brief

A measured roof survey should establish headroom, structural spans and where a staircase could meet the floor below. Plan the stair, escape route, insulation and building services together before treating the loft as another room.

Compare the proposed roof shape with the address-specific design guidance below. Record chimneys, shared walls and neighbouring rooflines, then ask the appointed designers to identify the structural work and consents the proposal needs.

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.

Neither the name Winchmore Hill nor an N21 postcode tells you which council decides, whether a home is inside a conservation area, whether the 2006 Article 4 direction covers it, whether a building is listed or locally listed, or which consent route the work takes. Enfield’s Winchmore Hill ward is served by N13 and N21, its local list gives N21 postcodes to entries in Grange Park, Bush Hill Park, Southgate and Highfield wards, and the appraisal treats Broad Walk as outside the conservation area while the Article 4 schedule names 86 and 88 Broad Walk. Confirm the council with the official lookup, then read the appraisal, the Article 4 schedule, any list entry, the title or lease and the planning history.

Local design and consent context

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.

Enfield’s Article 4 page says Article 4(2) directions were made on 26 January 2006 covering parts of the Winchmore Hill and Vicars Moor Lane conservation areas, and the direction, confirmed as permanent, was sealed by the council on 27 June 2006. The properties affected are those in its schedules; the plans, dated December 2005, are for guidance only. The Winchmore Hill Green schedule names, among others, 86 and 88 Broad Walk, 212 Hoppers Road, 35 The Green and specified numbers in Harwoods Yard, Compton Terrace, Wades Grove, Wades Hill, Wilson Street and Church Hill; the Vicars Moor Lane schedule covers 70 to 112 (even) Vicars Moor Lane.

For elevations facing or visible from a highway or open space, the direction withdraws permitted development rights for alterations that include replacing windows and doors, re-covering a roof in a different material, fitting roof lights, guttering of a new design or material, rendering or cladding, and additions to the roof. On those elevations its schedules also cover porches, hard surfaces, satellite antennas, gates, fences and walls, and painting exposed brick or unpainted render; for every elevation, they cover demolishing or replacing chimneys.

Access and site planning

Plan skips, scaffolding and deliveries around the street outside. A skip on an Enfield road needs a licence for that site, which the hire company applies for and which lasts 14 days unless extended; a skip on a drive or in a front garden needs permission, and a skip on the road or pavement must be lit at night. Scaffolding or hoarding on or over a road or pavement needs a licence, valid for 30 days and extendable, and if Enfield decides a road should be closed, a temporary traffic order needs at least six weeks’ notice. The appraisal notes controlled parking signs and ticket machines around The Green; for building works, ask Enfield about a temporary parking dispensation, which does not promise a space.

Continue planning

The Winchmore Hill area guide · Loft conversion across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

Discuss your project

Tell us what you are planning in Winchmore Hill

Share the property location, the work you have in mind and any drawings or permissions you already have.

£5M public liability, £10M employers’ liability and contractors’ all risks cover.

Design support: Hampstead Architecture & Planning.
Surveying support: Hampstead Chartered Surveyors.