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Brook Green W6 and W14 · Flat refurbishment

Flat refurbishment in Brook Green

Latymer Court, mansion blocks and flats over the parades

Brook Green’s flats are in named mansion blocks, in Latymer Court on Hammersmith Road, in houses along the terraces and over the shops of its parades. Drawing on the two conservation area profiles, the council’s 2018 Local Plan and guidance and recent decisions, this page explains what affects a flat’s windows, outside walls and shared parts, which consents a flat owner needs, and what to settle before a refit.

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Start here

Flat refurbishment in Brook Green at a glance

In a Brook Green flat, start with the parts that show outside. When the Brook Green Conservation Area was extended in 2006 to take in Latymer Court among other buildings, the profile, as updated to 2007, says one aim was to control the design of replacement windows and shopfronts, particularly in that 1934 Art Deco complex. The 2017 Lakeside / Sinclair / Blythe Road profile regrets that the brick front of Gordon Mansions, a locally listed block on Addison Gardens, has been painted. Before choosing windows, a flue or a colour that will be seen, find the block on the current conservation area map and read the lease.

LBHF: Brook Green Conservation Area character profile, approved 8 March 2004 · LBHF: Lakeside / Sinclair / Blythe Road Conservation Area character profile, adopted by Cabinet July 2017 · LBHF: conservation areas, character profiles and maps · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

For the whole area, including conservation areas, permissions and working hours, read our Brook Green renovation guide.

Approved guide prices

What does a flat refurbishment cost in Brook Green?

A flat refurbishment in Brook Green runs £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, and a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically lands between £60,000 and £110,000. Most programmes take 16–32 weeks on site. A written scope and site assessment are needed before any project price can be fixed.

Scope of workGuide rateTypical total
Full flat refurbishment (2-bed)£900–£1,700/sqm£60,000–£110,000
Typical programme16–32 weeks on site

Guide rates exclude VAT and are set by depth of work, not by postcode. Compare scopes in our London refurbishment cost-per-square-metre guide or try the cost calculator.

The buildings

Brook Green’s mansion blocks, as the profiles record them

Both profiles describe individual blocks. Their words date from 2004 to 2007 for the Brook Green Conservation Area and from 2017 for its neighbour, so check what survives on your building.

On the Green, the 2004 profile describes Phoenix Lodge Mansions as five blocks, the earlier three of one design, with full-width balconies on metal railings and stone brackets and a roofline of tall chimneys, gables and turrets. Queen’s Mansions, dated 1896, is four storeys and an attic in red brick with stone window dressings and stepped, scrolled gables. Aynhoe Mansions, at the Aynhoe Road corner, has attics in a slate mansard with a corner turret, and Lionel Mansions on Haarlem Road, an 1891 corner block of three storeys, has a fourth in the roof behind steep Dutch gables and dormers.

LBHF: Brook Green Conservation Area character profile, approved 8 March 2004

Latymer Court, on Hammersmith Road, is two parallel blocks joined by short link blocks, with five private gardens between them served by a private road. Shops fill the ground floor of the Hammersmith Road block, split into three groups by the two grand entrances to the flats above. In the north-west of the conservation area, on Shepherd’s Bush Road, the profile records the locally listed tower of the former Osram factory built into a then new Tesco store with four floors of flats above; some properties changed conservation area in 2017, so check the current map there.

LBHF: Brook Green Conservation Area character profile, approved 8 March 2004 · LBHF: Brook Green Conservation Area, with the 2017 transfer and 2018 extension

In the Lakeside / Sinclair / Blythe Road area, the 2017 profile counts three significant mansion blocks on Richmond Way, a street it values as a local shopping centre: two are locally listed (Addison Park Mansions), and the third has shops on its ground floor and its residential entrance on Lakeside Road. Richmond Way straddles W12 and W14, so check the address. Grosvenor Court on Irving Road is a brick block of three storeys and a semi-basement with full-height bays, and Porten Houses are red-brick mansion blocks of four storeys and a basement, with four-storey bays and stucco porticoes.

LBHF: Lakeside / Sinclair / Blythe Road Conservation Area character profile, adopted by Cabinet July 2017

Permissions and local rules

Windows, shopfronts and outside walls of a Brook Green flat

Replacement windows in a block

Who decides on a flat’s windows?

Council guidance says new windows in a flat outside a listed building need no planning permission where they match the old ones like for like in appearance and material; permission is likely where the material, frame and glazing bars, or openings change. The 2017 profile calls the piecemeal replacement of Cornwall Mansions’ windows in inappropriate materials and opening styles regrettable. At Latymer Court, the register records the council refused replacing all the steel windows with powder-coated aluminium in 2006, approved the same description in 2007 and renewed it in 2010, but not whether they were replaced: check the building.

LBHF climate change and planning: replacement double and triple glazing windows · LBHF: Lakeside / Sinclair / Blythe Road Conservation Area character profile, adopted by Cabinet July 2017 · LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search

Flats over the parades

What applies above a shop?

The 2018 Local Plan names Blythe Road as a neighbourhood parade (the north side at 108 to 118, the Coleridge Court shop units, and the south side at 59 to 73), and the west side of Shepherd’s Bush Road (48 to 104) and Latymer Court (102 to 172 Hammersmith Road) as satellite parades. There, policy TLC3 refuses any new ground-floor residential frontage, though homes may be appropriate at the rear of premises, given satisfactory evidence that neither shopping policy nor the shop’s long-term viability is prejudiced. Policy DC5 expects a surviving traditional shopfront retained and restored, among other cases.

LBHF Local Plan 2018: policy document

The back wall of a flat

What did officers weigh on a rear window and flue?

In 2023 the council granted permission for a flat on Bolingbroke Road to replace a rear casement with a larger double-glazed timber sash and to move the boiler flue from the side of the back addition to the rear wall. Officers found the new flue modest in scale and in keeping with other flues on the backs of the terrace, and saw no harm to the building or the Lakeside / Sinclair / Blythe Road Conservation Area; a condition required the flue to be painted black. That is one decision at its date, not a rule for other flats.

LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search

Post-war courts and your landlord’s consent

Who gives consent in the post-war blocks?

The 2017 profile describes post-war blocks fronting much of the western end of Blythe Road, among them Thackery, Calcott, Coleridge and Walpole Courts and Boswell, and calls their architecture largely unsympathetic to the conservation area. Who owns or manages them is not stated there, so ask your landlord or managing agent. If Hammersmith and Fulham Council is your landlord, its own rules apply: small internal jobs like replacing kitchen units or laying a new floor still need its consent as landlord, a different thing from planning permission or building regulations approval.

LBHF: Lakeside / Sinclair / Blythe Road Conservation Area character profile, adopted by Cabinet July 2017 · LBHF: alterations to council properties, for council leaseholders and secure tenants, with the consent form (Rev. 5.1, 15 October 2026)

Working hours, skips, parking and the conservation area maps for the whole area are in our Brook Green guide. Local guidance checked ; requirements depend on the address, the building and the complete proposal.

What the work covers

What a Brook Green flat refurbishment takes in

Floors and the flat below

The council’s 2018 SPD regards good impact sound insulation in the floors of apartment blocks as essential now that hard surfaces such as hardwood are in fashion. Before a timber or stone floor is chosen, the existing build-up is opened and recorded, the lease is checked for any floor-covering clause, and the new layers are designed so footsteps do not carry into the ceiling below.

LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018 · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Entrance doors and the shared parts

Where a block of flats has storeys above 11 metres, rules in force since 23 January 2023 require the responsible person to check common-part fire doors quarterly and to try to check each flat entrance door opening onto those parts once a year. Lower blocks still carry a general duty to make sure fire doors, flat entrance doors included, give adequate protection. A new entrance door is chosen to suit the block’s fire arrangements, and protection for the stairs and lifts is agreed with the managing agent first.

GOV.UK: Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, fact sheet on fire doors (regulation 10)

Kitchens, bathrooms and stacking

Where a kitchen or bathroom moves, the layout aims to keep similar rooms above, below and beside the same rooms in neighbouring flats, the arrangement the 2018 SPD calls essential in conversions and new dwellings, with halls acting as buffers. Gas, water and electrical routes are traced to the shared risers, and any change touching a structural or fire-separating wall is raised with the freeholder before the drawings are finished.

LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018

How we work

How we run a Brook Green flat refurbishment

  1. First visit

    We see the flat, then the entrance, stairs or lift that serve it.

  2. Lease and consents

    We go through the lease’s consent requirements with you and the managing agent at the start.

  3. Survey and design

    Drainage and services are traced on site. Our own architects and structural engineers design the layout and any structural change around those routes, and any new external vent or window is checked for planning.

  4. Price and contract

    A fixed written price and a JCT contract follow the survey, scope and specification. The price names its allowances and exclusions, with consent fees and any common-parts work shown separately.

  5. Working in the building

    Common parts are protected and their condition recorded; deliveries keep to the building’s rules, and noisy work to those rules and the council’s permitted hours; key decisions go to a director.

  6. Handover

    Commissioning, drawings, certificates and any managing-agent close-out. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our flat refurbishment work elsewhere in London

None of these projects is in Brook Green. Each card names where the work was done, so you can judge the finish and the approach before you brief your own.

Your brief

Before you ask for a quotation

  1. Send the lease and the block’s rules

    Send the lease, or at least its alterations clause, and the managing agent’s rules, and note what they say about windows, flues, floor coverings and working hours. The council’s window guidance reminds flat owners that, separately from planning, the freeholder’s permission may be needed for changes to the outside, depending on the lease.

  2. Name the block and what lies below

    Tell us the block’s name or the kind of building, which floor the flat is on and what sits beneath it: another flat, a shop or the ground. If the address is in W14, check with the council that the block is in Hammersmith and Fulham rather than Kensington and Chelsea.

  3. Gather the block’s past decisions

    List any planning decisions you know of for the block, such as window or flue applications, and any building control certificates for earlier work in the flat. The council’s register search covers most applications since 1974, and past decisions show what officers have weighed on the same walls.

Ready to take the next step? Send the address and a short outline of the work.

Book a free feasibility visit

Questions before you begin

Flat refurbishment in Brook Green: questions

Could two Brook Green flats be joined back into one house?

The council’s 2018 Local Plan is open to it. It observes that many of the borough’s houses have been split into smaller flats that are generally unsuited to families, and says the council may support taking such flats back to a single family dwelling; policy HO2 backs residential conversions that add good family-size homes, especially by reinstating a family house. Before design starts, you would need control of every flat involved, and each title and lease checked for what it allows.

LBHF Local Plan 2018: policy document

What if a flat would take in a basement or a shop’s ground floor?

The council’s 2016 flood risk assessment, an evidence document, says a flood risk assessment will be required where the ground floor or basement of a building in Flood Zone 2 or 3 changes from a less vulnerable use, as most commercial uses are, to a more vulnerable one such as housing. The council’s 2018 SPD adds that, in the flood areas its policy names, a basement flat whose only exit is where flood water would enter at dangerous speed and depth will not be permitted; another route out must be shown on the plans.

LBHF: Strategic Flood Risk Assessment, final, December 2016 (evidence document) · LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018

May I add a balcony or roof terrace to my flat?

The 2018 SPD says permission will not be granted for a roof terrace or balcony whose use is likely to harm neighbours through noise and disturbance, or that would add overlooking; where that standard cannot be met, sensitively designed screening may be acceptable. The council may also seek to keep balconies and terraces to 15 square metres. On a mansion block, a new balcony changes an elevation the profiles describe in detail, so the conservation area guidance applies as well.

LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018 · LBHF: Brook Green Conservation Area character profile, approved 8 March 2004

Does living over a shop change a refit?

Homes above shops are part of the Lakeside / Sinclair / Blythe Road Conservation Area: the 2017 profile records a group of shops with homes above on Masbro Road, and on Maclise Road some original mullions survive between the residential door and the shopfront. The 2018 SPD expects a home next to commercial premises to have substantially better sound insulation, and where a floor, ceiling or wall is all that separates a home from a shop, an application should include an assessment of its sound insulation with construction details.

LBHF: Lakeside / Sinclair / Blythe Road Conservation Area character profile, adopted by Cabinet July 2017 · LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018

Can a satellite dish or heat pump go on the outside of my block?

In the Brook Green Conservation Area, the 2004 profile, which cites the replaced Unitary Development Plan, says dishes should sit at roof level behind the chimney stack, and the 2018 SPD says a dish in a conservation area will be refused if it would be visually obtrusive and another location is possible. Under the council’s retrofit guidance, a heat pump for a flat needs permission in cases that include a unit over 0.6 cubic metres with its housing, or more than one unit. Either way, check the lease before fixing anything outside.

LBHF: Brook Green Conservation Area character profile, approved 8 March 2004 · LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018 · LBHF climate change and planning: air source heat pumps · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

What if Hammersmith and Fulham Council is my landlord?

Then the council’s rules for its own leaseholders apply. Its leases do not include loft spaces: a leaseholder would have to apply to buy one, and the council decides whether to sell or grant a licence, while nobody may build on communal ground. Work done without consent needs retrospective consent, which may be granted as a licence if it meets the council’s criteria and workmanship standards, possibly after extra work or removal. Where an adjoining council property has leaseholders, party wall notices must be served on them too.

LBHF: alterations to council properties, for council leaseholders and secure tenants, with the consent form (Rev. 5.1, 15 October 2026)

How much does a flat refurbishment cost in Brook Green?

Guide rates in Brook Green are £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, with a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically between £60,000 and £110,000, over a 16–32 weeks programme. A written scope and site assessment come before any fixed price.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your Brook Green flat

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your Brook Green flat. We reply within one working day, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Or call 020 7101 3168. We serve Brook Green from our studio at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN.

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