Chelsea SW3 · Houses, flats & bathrooms
Stock-brick terraces, stucco squares and riverside houses
Whether the job is one bathroom or a whole house, a Chelsea renovation starts from the address: most external work in SW3 is judged against conservation-area tests, and a listed building is protected inside as well as out. Noisy building work is allowed from 8am to 6pm on weekdays; on Saturdays it needs RBKC's written permission in advance.
Serving Chelsea from our Hampstead studio · NW3 6DN
020 7101 3168
Chelsea projects
01 Flats and mansion blocks
On the Cadogan estate the lease sets what a flat owner may alter, and a Licence to Alter is applied for wherever Cadogan's consent is needed.
Source: Cadogan: residential customer welcome
See the flat page02 Terraces and townhouses
New basements are judged under Policy CD11: no more than half of each garden and, in most cases, one storey.
Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)
See the house page03 Kitchens in period rooms
Re-plastering, new openings, recessed lighting and vents in a listed building all need listed building consent, so the kitchen layout is checked against the list entry.
Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: listed buildings explained
See the kitchen page04 Bathrooms, en-suites and shower rooms
Swapping a bath, toilet or basin needs no building regulations approval, though new power or lighting points and circuit changes around a bath or shower are not exempt.
Source: GOV.UK: when you don't need building regulations approval
See the bathroom page05 Wardrobes, libraries and alcoves
Our joinery team designs and builds fitted wardrobes, library shelving and alcove cabinetry for Chelsea houses and flats.
See bespoke joineryThe buildings
Hans Town, Henry Holland's development, is named after Sir Hans Sloane, whose daughter and heiress married into the Cadogan family. Each design in Cadogan Square needed Lord Cadogan's approval, which explains the consistent theme of its substantial red-brick elevations, and the Hans Town statement identifies No. 61, built in 1879, as London's earliest high-class apartment building.
Around the Royal Hospital, whose buildings and grounds dominate the conservation area named after it, RBKC records streets of late Georgian and Victorian terraces. The council credits Cheyne with one of the longest building histories in the Royal Borough, and the Chelsea Conservation Area remains mainly residential, predominantly single-family houses in styles from 1830 to the present day.
Flats have their own position. The Local Plan 2024 notes that buildings such as mansion blocks, often in multiple ownership, lack the permitted development rights of a house, and that a flat may need planning permission for new windows if the building's appearance would be materially altered. LEASE adds that a lease can restrict particular work even where alterations are allowed: a clause requiring carpeted floors, for example, might rule out wooden or laminate flooring.
Chelsea's streets sit within several conservation areas on RBKC's register, including Chelsea, Chelsea Park Carlyle, Cheyne, Royal Hospital and Sloane Square, the last designated in 1985. Appraisals were adopted for Chelsea on 4 January 2016, Royal Hospital on 31 March 2016 and Cheyne on 30 January 2017. Parts of the borough that adjoin the Thames are designated the Thames Policy Area, and one of the borough's two Tier 1 Archaeological Priority Areas centres on the Chelsea Porcelain Factory.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Hans Town Conservation Area Proposals Statement (adopted January 2000), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: conservation area maps, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024), LEASE: alterations and home improvements, RBKC conservation area maps (register of the borough's conservation areas), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: conservation area appraisals
Consents
Cadogan's guidance puts the lease first: it sets what may be altered on the estate and sometimes forbids alterations, and when Cadogan's consent is required the leaseholder seeks a Licence to Alter. LEASE adds that a landlord may need to give permission even after planning or building regulations approval.
Sources: Cadogan: residential customer welcome, LEASE: alterations and home improvements
Nearly three quarters of the Royal Borough lies within its 38 conservation areas. Houses there keep permitted development rights, but under stricter controls than elsewhere, and the Local Plan 2024 requires fully detailed planning applications, since outline ones are insufficient in a conservation area.
Sources: RBKC - Conservation areas (heritage and conservation overview page), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: conservation areas, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)
Listing covers the whole of a building, interior included, and the borough has more than 3,800 listed buildings. Policy CD5 asks for clear and convincing justification before features of architectural importance are removed or modified in a way that harms historic fabric, and an owner can be held liable for unconsented work alongside whoever carried it out.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: listed buildings explained, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)
Basements now fall under Policy CD11 of the July 2024 Local Plan, which replaced the 2019 plan and its Policy CL7. Excavation is capped at half of each garden and usually one storey, nothing may be dug beneath a listed building, and a metre or more of soil must cover any basement under a garden.
Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)
Policy CD12 resists extra storeys where a terrace's roof line is still complete, and CD13 resists extensions that pass the general rear building line of neighbouring extensions. At properties named in Article 4 directions on streets such as Cadogan Square, Carlyle Square, Chelsea Square and Glebe Place, replacing windows or front doors, rebuilding boundary walls and changing roof coverings need planning permission.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024), RBKC - Article 4 Directions in Conservation Areas (register of directions by street)
Policy GB1 requires retrofit of historic and listed buildings, and of properties in conservation areas, not to harm their special interest or fabric, and Policy GB8 resists air conditioning units and heat pumps whose noise and vibration would have an unacceptable impact on the surrounding amenity. A Local Listed Building Consent Order grants blanket consent for solar panels on listed buildings, subject to conditions.
Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)
Building work
Work that can be heard beyond the site boundary is permitted from 8am to 6pm on weekdays, and demolition and concrete-breaking only from 9am to noon and 2pm to 5.30pm. Saturdays are off limits for noisy work under RBKC's construction code, as are Sundays and bank holidays, unless the council has given written permission beforehand.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: construction site enforcement, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice (April 2019)
Deliveries and collections run from 9.30am to 4.30pm on weekdays, or to 3pm where a school is on the route. No parking suspensions are issued at weekends or on bank holidays unless a traffic management plan allows one, and skips, scaffolding, hoardings and cranes on the highway each need a licence.
Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice (April 2019)
RBKC sorts each site into one of three categories before it starts, from Category 1 for digging a basement down to Category 3 for internal refurbishment.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice (April 2019)
RBKC expects proposals to be discussed with neighbours before a planning application, and a Category 1 site needs a neighbour liaison strategy. Where the Party Wall etc Act 1996 applies, adjoining owners are given notice as the Act prescribes, and a party wall agreement may cover vibration damage next door, cracked plaster included.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice, GOV.UK: Party Wall etc. Act 1996 guidance
Collecting construction and demolition waste and delivering concrete count as noisy activities, so they happen only within the permitted hours. Footways stay open unless a closure is agreed, with at least 1.2 metres clear, and no plant, materials or skips may be placed on the highway without a licence.
Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice (April 2019)
Questions before you begin
Yes. Chelsea's streets sit within several conservation areas, where RBKC says proposals must preserve or enhance the historic or architectural character or appearance, and the borough's 3,800-plus listed buildings are protected inside and out. RBKC is equally clear that living in a conservation area does not prevent changes to a property.
Sources: RBKC conservation area maps (register of the borough's conservation areas), RBKC - Conservation areas (heritage and conservation overview page), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: listed buildings explained, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: conservation areas
RBKC's Local Plan 2024, adopted on 24 July 2024. The council marks the Local Plan 2019 as superseded, and its basement policy is now Policy CD11 rather than the earlier Policy CL7, restricting excavation to under half the garden and, in most cases, a single storey.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)
It depends on the lease. Cadogan says the terms of a lease define what can be altered on its estate and in some cases prohibit alterations; where its consent is needed, the leaseholder applies for a Licence to Alter.
Source: Cadogan: residential customer welcome
Quiet work only, unless RBKC agrees otherwise in writing: its construction code bars noisy work on a Saturday, and work that can be heard beyond the site needs the council's written permission in advance at weekends and on bank holidays. On weekdays it runs from 8am to 6pm, with demolition and concrete-breaking held to 9am to noon and 2pm to 5.30pm.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice (April 2019), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: construction site enforcement
It can. RBKC's Local Plan 2024 names two Tier 1 Archaeological Priority Areas in the borough, one of them focused on the Chelsea Porcelain Factory, and designates the parts of the borough beside the River Thames as the Thames Policy Area.
Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)
A Chelsea renovation is priced on the specifics of the property. Cadogan's licence requirements, Kensington and Chelsea's listed building rules and Code of Construction Practice, any basement proposal, and party wall matters with the neighbours all affect the work, along with how the street handles deliveries and parking. We examine these at a feasibility visit, agree a scope and specification, and give a written quotation.
The same team stays with the project from the first visit to handover. Our in-house architects, designers and structural engineers draw and specify the work. Master joiners make the fitted furniture. Building Regulations approval comes from the building control body appointed for the project. Independent surveying is a separate appointment: Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy, our RICS-regulated sister practice, is a separate firm that a homeowner instructs directly. One JCT contract covers the building work. Electrical and gas work is carried out by appropriately registered engineers. Completed structural work carries a 12-month aftercare/defects period. Cover is £5M public liability, £10M employers' liability and contractors' all risks cover. Main office: 250 Finchley Road, Hampstead, London NW3 6DN. Central London client consultation address: 2 Eaton Gate, Belgravia, London SW1W 9BJ. Telephone 020 7101 3168.
Licence to alter · Independent surveying by our sister practice
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Projects in Chelsea: Cheyne Walk, SW3, the renovation of a Grade II listed townhouse, and King's Road, SW3, a conversion with a mansard extension.
