Loft conversion in Greenwich

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

West Greenwich was designated in March 1968 and stretches from the town centre, the pier, the Thames foreshore and Cutty Sark to the station, the Georgian and Victorian housing and the open heath at the edge of Blackheath. Its appraisal, listed by the council as 2013 but written before summer 2010, divides it into five character areas, from the Thames waterfront to Blackheath and the houses on the hill. Crooms Hill opens with an early Georgian terrace of 1721, and Gloucester Circus, designed by Michael Searles, was completed in 1809.

Hyde Vale climbs the escarpment to Blackheath with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century villas and town houses, among them the 1840s linked pairs at Nos 11–35 (odd numbers only) on the council’s local list. Behind St Alfege and north of the railway cutting, the streets are mostly plain Victorian cottages, with Randall Place substantially intact, and Greenwich South Street has Regency villas at Nos 71–85. Yellow London stock brick predominates, with Welsh slate roofs, iron railings set with privet hedges and low stock-brick walls, and granite cobble gutters along the kerbs.

Westcombe Park was designated on 6 February 2002 and grew piecemeal through speculative building in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, not as a planned estate. Its 2010 appraisal describes two- and three-storey Victorian and Edwardian houses following the contours: late-Victorian detached or paired villas on substantial plots, and Edwardian pairs and terraces with double-height bays, in yellow stock and red brick with slate or clay-tile roofs and terracotta detail. The land falls from about 50 metres above sea level at Westcombe Park Road to 30 metres at the railway.

Local design and consent context

Two West Greenwich directions concern buildings directly. The first, dated 29 April 1993, covers 7–63 (odd) Randall Place and 2–18 (even) Churchfields, mid-nineteenth-century two-storey terraces in yellow stock brick with slate roofs. It brings windows, doors, roofing materials, wall coatings or cladding, chimney pots, satellite dishes, alarm boxes and meter boxes under control on fronts or flanks visible from a public highway. The second, in force from 2002, requires planning permission to apply colour to the front and flank elevations of the town-centre premises listed in the council’s 2016 colour guidance.

No Article 4 direction on householder alterations has been made for Westcombe Park. The 2010 strategy recommended one covering windows, doors, extensions and porches at the front or side, roofing materials, rooflights and dormers, and painting or cladding, but it does not appear on the council’s Article 4 pages. The borough-wide house-to-HMO direction, in force from 27 September 2018, reaches Westcombe Park and West Greenwich alike, and from 8 August 2023 another direction has withdrawn the right to turn commercial (Class E) premises into homes on the red-edged blocks of Greenwich District Centre; it does not concern houses.

The 2010 strategy sets a principle of repair rather than replacement, keeping as much original fabric as possible. The appraisal says old doors should be repaired rather than replaced, that re-covering roofs in natural slate or clay tiles is preferable, and that cast iron or extruded aluminium is preferable for rainwater goods. It also says roof extensions and extra floors should be resisted where they damage unaltered roofscapes and compromise views through the conservation area, that high-density redevelopment is inappropriate, and that front gardens were rapidly giving way to hardstandings.

Access and site planning

Royal Greenwich licenses the use of its streets. Skip hire companies, not householders, apply for the licence a skip on the road needs, which normally lasts 30 days; a skip on a driveway or front garden needs no licence. Scaffolding and hoardings on a public street or pavement need licences, usually for one calendar month at a time, and building materials on a street or footpath need a licence of their own. Apply for parking bay suspensions 10 working days ahead. On streets that climb the escarpment, such as Hyde Vale, settle skip and delivery positions early.

Continue planning

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

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