Basement conversion in Brook Green

Investigate the structure and ground before design.

Start with the basement conversion brief

Distinguish an existing cellar conversion from excavation for a new basement. Record levels, drainage, access and the adjoining structures, and obtain project-specific ground and structural investigations before relying on a design or budget.

Plan temporary works, waterproofing, ventilation, escape and spoil removal as part of the same brief. Ask Hampstead Chartered Surveyors to assess party-wall matters and Hampstead Architecture & Planning to coordinate the design requirements. An area name alone does not establish ground conditions.

The local building context

Hammersmith and Fulham’s character profile, approved on 8 March 2004 and updated in 2006 and 2007, centres the Brook Green Conservation Area on the Green, once the core of a separate hamlet and now a 1.80-hectare open space that the Local Plan marks as common land. Most buildings facing it went up between 1860 and 1916; Holy Trinity, Grade II*, dates from 1851. South of the Green, the original 1971 area holds Grade II villas at 3 to 11 (odd) Bute Gardens and 8 to 46 (even) Rowan Road and locally listed cottages at 1 to 6 Rowan Terrace.

Dunsany, Haarlem, Augustine, Souldern, Caithness, Applegarth, Aynhoe and Girdlers Roads, north of the Green, were added in 1981; along them the 2004 profile found cottages, large town houses and a few mansion blocks. It describes uniform red-brick terraces on Dunsany, Haarlem, Augustine and Souldern Roads and part of Caithness Road, painted stucco villas at 1 to 12 Caithness Road and four-storey mansion blocks on Haarlem Road, with roof slopes generally unaltered except for front roof extensions on one Caithness Road terrace. The 2017 Lakeside / Sinclair / Blythe Road profile also describes parts of Dunsany and Augustine Roads.

Addison Gardens, Lakeside Road and Bolingbroke Road are described in the Lakeside / Sinclair / Blythe Road profile of July 2017. Lakeside Road is mostly imposing three-storey terraces with semi-basements, with modern four-storey blocks of flats towards its northern end, and 67 to 97 (odd) and 70 to 148 (even) Addison Gardens are matching three-storey red-brick terraces with Dutch gables. On Bolingbroke Road, 1 to 21 (odd) and 2 to 24 (even) are stock-brick houses of three storeys plus basement, with canted bays, heavy stucco and a few added mansards; the rest of the road is red brick.

Local design and consent context

The profile records a first designation in March 1971, additions in April 1974, August 1981 and February 1988, and an extension on 7 March 2006 taking in King’s House, Latymer Court, EMI House and Vineyard House on the north side of Hammersmith Road. The council has since moved some properties to the Lakeside / Sinclair / Blythe Road Conservation Area, from 18 July 2017, and added 50F Brook Green, from 13 November 2018. It notes that boundaries have moved on since its 2018 Policies Map, and keeps the up-to-date maps on its conservation area pages.

For Sub Area 3, Addison Gardens – Bolingbroke Road, the last part to be developed, the profile describes red-brick terraced houses generally of two to three storeys, more suburban in character, generally without the purpose-built basements of their older neighbours and many with Dutch gables. The houses it describes there include 67 to 97 and 70 to 148 Addison Gardens and 32 to 70, 51 to 67 and 69 to 83 Bolingbroke Road, along with parts of Blythe Road and Richmond Way. No. 27, Nos. 29 to 59 (odd) and 40 to 62 (even) Addison Gardens and 1 to 21 (odd) and 2 to 30 (even) Bolingbroke Road are described under Sub Area 2, Sinclair Road, so read the section that covers your number.

The one direction that the 2017 Lakeside / Sinclair / Blythe Road profile records as in force, served on 11 October 2004, applies at 67 to 97 (odd) and 70 to 148 (even) Addison Gardens, covering front elevations, the roof and roof coverings, porches, boundaries and all outside painting except doors and window frames; the profile names none for Lakeside Road or Bolingbroke Road. The council confirmed a borough-wide basement direction on 16 April 2018; it has been in force since 26 April 2018 throughout the borough, save for the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation area, removing householder rights for the enlargement, improvement or other alteration of a house by way of a basement, lightwells or other development beneath it or its curtilage.

Access and site planning

Work out the delivery route and a holding place for waste before work starts. On a Hammersmith and Fulham road, only the skip company can apply for a skip licence, for 14 days at least; no part of a skip may sit on the footpath or a pedestrianised area, and a parking bay must be suspended before a skip goes in it. The scaffolding company applies for a scaffold licence, and the building contractor, never the resident, for a hoarding licence, each for a month or more. Bay suspensions need notice: eight days at least where up to six bays are suspended for no more than three days, and longer for bigger suspensions. Brook Green, Shepherd’s Bush Road and Hammersmith Road are not among the roads whose pavements Transport for London looks after.

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The Brook Green area guide · Basement conversion across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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