House refurbishment in Bromley and Bickley

Bring the whole-house scope together.

Start with the house refurbishment brief

Survey the rooms, structure and building services before separating repairs from alterations. Identify the features to keep and the rooms that must remain usable, then coordinate heating, electrics, bathrooms, kitchens and finishes in one written scope.

Record allowances and exclusions against the drawings. Plan inspections before work is covered, agree how changes will be priced and keep a clear handover list for certificates, commissioning and snagging.

The local building context

Bromley Council’s Urban Design Guide of July 2023 describes Bickley as a predominantly residential suburban area of mainly detached houses, with no clearly defined centre; public open space is limited, but well-spaced houses have large gardens. It describes the conservation area there, listed by the council as Bickley Park and designated on 28 October 1986, as around 90 mainly residential properties, mostly large houses on spacious plots, together with St George’s Church of 1864, and notes good examples of Arts and Crafts buildings, a style mirrored in modern housing throughout Bickley.

Bromley Town Centre Conservation Area, designated in January 1985, has an appraisal and management plan adopted on 25 June 2025 replacing the 2011 version. Beyond its High Street, Market Square and lower London Road spine, it has homes: North Street, West Street and Queen’s Road contain residential properties, Queen’s Road with pairs of two-storey red brick Victorian houses with canted bay windows. From the Kentish Way junction east to 85 Widmore Road on the north side and 60 on the south, the council wants to keep the character of a residential road with elegant rows of houses on either side.

Take 35A Chislehurst Road: listed Grade II, it stands in Bickley, inside the Bickley Park Conservation Area. A BR1 postcode tells you no more. It does not show whether the Area of Special Residential Character, a conservation area or an Article 4 direction covers a house, or whether it is listed. A ward name such as Bickley & Sundridge, one of the 22 wards in use since 2022, does not show it either, and the ward order’s text sets out no boundaries. Look the house up on the council’s interactive map, the Article 4 list and any list entry, then read the title or lease and the planning history.

Local design and consent context

An Area of Special Residential Character is a Local Plan designation, not a conservation area. Policy 44 requires development in one to respect, enhance and strengthen its special and distinctive qualities, and the plan’s guidelines for these areas say backland development will not be permitted, new development must take account of existing front and rear building lines, mature trees and landscaping are to be kept wherever possible, and proposals that significantly increase hard surfacing in front of houses will be resisted unless they come with satisfactory landscaping.

The Bickley ASRC direction, made on 3 March 2021 and sealed on 15 March 2021, was confirmed to come into effect on 15 March 2022. Its schedule removes Part 1 Class AA, the right to add storeys to a house, and Part 20 Classes A and AA to AD, which allow new homes to be built on top of existing buildings; it does not deal with ordinary extensions, and it applies only inside the ASRC boundary. A separate 2023 direction for the Southborough Road, Bickley neighbourhood centre, later modified by the Secretary of State, concerns changing commercial premises into homes; it does not cover houses.

None of the documents on the council’s Article 4 list is named for the Bickley Park, Mavelstone Road, Sundridge Avenue or Bromley Town Centre conservation areas. That is an absence on a list, not proof that no direction touches a given house, so check the council’s map for the address.

Access and site planning

Bromley Council says noisy construction work should normally take place only from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, and 8am to 1pm on Saturday, with no noisy operations on Sundays or bank holidays. Where emergency works or special circumstances justify noise outside those hours, a contractor may apply for prior consent under Section 61 of the Control of Pollution Act 1974. Tell neighbours, and any managing agent, the start date and the loud stages in writing, and decide whether the household stays at home during them.

Bromley Council: construction and demolition noise

Continue planning

The Bromley and Bickley area guide · House refurbishment across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

Discuss your project

Tell us what you are planning in Bromley and Bickley

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.