Loft conversion in Brook Green

Test the roof space before settling on a layout.

Start with the loft conversion brief

A measured roof survey should establish headroom, structural spans and where a staircase could meet the floor below. Plan the stair, escape route, insulation and building services together before treating the loft as another room.

Compare the proposed roof shape with the address-specific design guidance below. Record chimneys, shared walls and neighbouring rooflines, then ask the appointed designers to identify the structural work and consents the proposal needs.

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’s design guidelines speak directly to refurbishment. It generally rejects front roof extensions, accepting one only where such extensions have already significantly impaired the terrace, and treats raising a ridge to gain internal ceiling height as unacceptable. Rear extensions, it says, should not cover more than half the width of the main building or rise above one storey below the original eaves or parapet. It also states that rear roof terraces cut into the slates of rear extensions, and the removal of an original chimney stack visible from the street or a public space, need planning permission and should be resisted.

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 council’s Article 4 property list (last amended 1 October 2011) records the three Brook Green directions as served on 25 October 1977, 24 November 1982 and 19 December 1984. No. 1 requires permission for any change to the front roof or gable at 44 to 54 (even) Bute Gardens, 21 to 31 (odd) Rowan Road and 32 Wolverton Gardens. No. 2 covers front elevations and vehicle hardstandings at 8 to 46 (even) Rowan Road and 18 and 19 Brook Green, with boundaries at those Rowan Road houses and exterior painting at 18 and 19. No. 3 reaches numbered properties on Brook Green, Bute Gardens, Dunsany Road, Rowan Road and Rowan Terrace, where, depending on the address, it covers front elevations and porches, hardstandings, boundary walls and fences, and painting.

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.

Continue planning

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

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