Bespoke joinery in Barnes

Fitted storage, cabinetry and the room around it.

Start with the bespoke joinery brief

Start with what the furniture needs to hold and how you use the room. Record alcoves, ceiling heights, skirtings, sockets and radiator positions before setting cabinet depths or door swings. Keep the details worth retaining in the measured brief.

Agree internal layouts, lighting, ventilation, hardware and finish samples before manufacture. Drawings should show how new joinery meets uneven walls and existing cornices, and how access for installation will work.

The local building context

Richmond’s Local Plan describes the setting of Barnes as strongly influenced by the River Thames, which borders it on three sides, and the Barnes Green appraisal places the village within a meander of the river on flat, low-lying floodplain. Barnes High Street and Church Road form the local centre. North of the old police station, Lonsdale Road is mostly late 19th-century purpose-built ‘London Flats’, flats built as two-storey terraces.

The Barnes Green appraisal covers the historic core of the village and its late 19th- and early 20th-century housing, with buildings from the 17th to the 21st centuries and the Grade II* St Mary’s Church, which has 12th-century origins. On The Terrace, Historic England lists number 10, an early 19th-century three-storey brick house with a bowed front, at Grade II; the Village Planning Guidance notes that Gustav Holst lived there from 1908 to 1913.

Several official areas carry the Barnes name: the place-based strategy for Barnes in Richmond’s Local Plan, the Barnes Green and Barnes Common conservation areas, the Barnes Village Planning Guidance and a Barnes archaeological priority area. Neither the name nor an SW13 postcode settles whether a home falls within any of them or another conservation area, is listed or is covered by an Article 4 direction, who holds the freehold or which consents apply. Confirm the council, then check the map, list entry, Article 4 register, lease or title and planning history for the full address.

Local design and consent context

Barnes Green was designated on 14 January 1969 and extended over the years to take in Cleveland Road, Malthouse Passage, Grange Road and Elm Bank Gardens; its boundary was adjusted again when the current appraisal was adopted on 8 February 2024. The appraisal finds that large dormers and roof extensions have a negative impact on the roofscape. Castelnau, designated on 15 March 1977 and extended in 1982, 1983, 1991 and 1996, has its own conservation area statement.

Mill Hill, designated on 14 January 1969, is described in its statement as a small group of houses of architectural and historic interest, completely enclosed by the Barnes Common conservation area, which was designated in 1982 and last extended on 24 April 2018. Thorne Passage, whose Article 4 streets Richmond’s register labels Mortlake, was designated in 1969 and extended in 2002 and 2008. The Barnes Village Planning Guidance was adopted on 8 January 2016 and, like other older Richmond guidance, refers to the plan since replaced.

Policy PBS9 is the place-based strategy for Barnes, and it allows temporary pedestrianisation of The Terrace only where proposals accord with Policy 8 on tidal flood defences. Policy 28 covers local character and design quality, Policy 29 designated heritage assets and Policy 33 archaeology. The House Extensions and External Alterations SPD of 1 June 2015 is still listed among the council’s adopted SPDs, although it cites the superseded plan.

Access and site planning

Work out how materials will get from the kerb to the room, past any shared front door. At the points checked on TfL’s data, Castelnau, Lonsdale Road, Church Road, Barnes High Street, The Terrace, Station Road and Rocks Lane were not TfL roads, while Upper Richmond Road West east of Sheen was, so check TfL’s map for your frontage, since TfL issues the highway licences on its own roads. Only a registered skip company with public liability insurance can apply for a Richmond skip licence, which lasts up to three weeks; in a controlled parking zone the skip also needs a bay suspension, and the council needs two working days plus five full calendar days to put up the signs. A scaffolding or hoarding licence follows a site meeting with a council officer, and tacit consent does not apply.

Continue planning

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