Bathroom renovation in Herne Hill

Design the room around water, waste and ventilation.

Start with the bathroom renovation brief

Record the room dimensions, existing fittings, drainage route and floor construction before choosing a layout. Include the shower or bath, storage, lighting, ventilation and the details that affect everyday use in the same brief.

Agree the waterproofing details, access to valves, finishes and testing before installation. If it is the only bathroom, discuss how the household will manage while the work is carried out.

The local building context

Opposite, most of the adjoining properties on the Southwark side fall in the Stradella Road Conservation Area, designated on 26 September 2000, which covers Stradella and Winterbrook Roads and bordering properties on Burbage Road and Half Moon Lane. Its appraisal describes mostly single-family houses with a small number of flats: principally semi-detached, on two floors with attic rooms, in plain red brick laid in Flemish bond, originally roofed mainly in natural Welsh slate, with mostly double-hung timber sash windows. A pocket of post-war houses replaced war-damaged ones in Stradella Road.

Southwark’s Sunray Estate Conservation Area, designated on 20 January 2009, lies on Denmark Hill in North Dulwich and includes part of the road Herne Hill. Built between 1920 and 1922 as cottage housing, it is described by the council as a small garden suburb. Its appraisal sets rendered main streets against brick-faced enclaves of flats and attached houses, with larger detached and semi-detached houses on Red Post Hill, white-painted wooden casements with small panes, and privet hedges with wooden gates about one metre high.

SE24 appears on both sides of the line: Southwark’s 1987 direction refers to the Sunray Estate, Herne Hill, London SE24, and Lambeth gives the Peabody Estate on Rosendale Road an SE24 address. Lambeth’s statement splits the road by side, but it does not say every address follows that rule, so do not infer the council from which side of the road a house stands on. A ward name such as Lambeth’s Herne Hill & Loughborough Junction says nothing about conservation areas, and the Dulwich Estate’s Scheme, which reaches Stradella Road and the Sunray Estate, is defined across Southwark, Lambeth and Lewisham, so ask the Estate whether it covers your address. Even Lambeth’s skip licence page tells applicants to check, with GOV.UK’s Find your local council service, that a location really is in Lambeth. Once the council is known, its conservation area map, the statutory list and its Article 4 pages come next, and after them the deeds or lease and earlier consents for the property.

Local design and consent context

Lambeth consulted on a draft Herne Hill Conservation Area Statement from 26 October to 23 November 2009 and agreed the final version on 26 March 2012; it is a material consideration on planning proposals. For windows it suggests internal secondary glazing where more insulation is needed, says double glazing should be avoided because it rarely matches the original detail, and advises against metal, unpainted hardwood or uPVC units. Brickwork should not be cleaned, rendered, painted or clad, and natural slate is preferred on roofs.

Lambeth’s Brockwell Park Conservation Area, first designated on 10 December 1983 and extended on 24 March 1999, includes the park and the houses adjoining its south and east sides; its character appraisal exists only as a 2020 consultation draft, not an adopted document. Nearby Lambeth conservation areas include Poet’s Corner, designated on 12 October 1998, a mid-to-late 19th-century development of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton Roads, and the Peabody Estate on Rosendale Road, designated on 24 March 1999, social housing from 1901 onwards in blocks of flats and terraced houses.

There is no Article 4 direction for Stradella Road on Southwark’s list; the one at the corner of Croxted Road and Norwood Road in SE24 deals with telecommunications, not homes. On the Lambeth side, the 2020 draft for Brockwell Park says no building there is subject to a direction, and the 2012 Herne Hill statement explains that most external alterations already need permission because the buildings are commercial premises or flats. Confirm the current position with each council.

Access and site planning

Check the council before booking anything for the street, since Southwark and Lambeth follow different rules. In Southwark, the skip company applies for the licence at least 7 days before delivery, a scaffolding or hoarding licence is applied for at least 15 working days ahead, and a parking bay suspension needs seven days’ notice. In Lambeth, only the skip company can obtain a skip licence, a highways licence covers scaffolding, hoarding, fencing, gantries and stored materials, and a standard suspension, including one for a skip, needs 10 or more working days’ notice.

Continue planning

The Herne Hill area guide · Bathroom renovation across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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