House refurbishment in Herne Hill

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

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’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.

The Sunray appraisal finds dormers and roof extensions unlikely to be acceptable on the estate’s repetitive roofscape, and two-storey rear extensions or ones not set back from side boundaries unlikely too. As a general guide it expects rear extensions to stay within the line of the flank walls and no deeper than 3.5 metres from the house, while noting that a particular site may justify exceeding some criteria. It prefers secondary glazing behind original windows to replacement double glazing, calls aluminium, uPVC and picture windows without glazing bars unsuitable, and finds front-garden hardstanding out of character.

Southwark’s Sunray Estate direction is dated 15 May 1987, and the appraisal says it was confirmed on 13 November 1987, affecting 252 properties. It brings under planning control alterations to a house, window changes included, that would alter its appearance from a public highway; rendering, stone or cladding on external walls; front porches; and vehicle hardstandings. Gates, fences and walls are controlled only for the properties in its Part 1, while Herne Hill Nos 1 to 31 (odd) fall in Part 2. The appraisal also lists painting external walls, which the direction’s text does not mention, so ask Southwark.

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.

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The Herne Hill area guide · House refurbishment across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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