House renovation and refurbishment
for Chelsea's listed and period homes

Chelsea's streets are spread across several conservation areas on RBKC's register, Chelsea, Chelsea Park Carlyle, Cheyne, Royal Hospital and Sloane Square among them. RBKC is clear that a conservation area does not stop change, but Policy CD4 of the Local Plan 2024 asks new work to preserve or enhance the area's character, appearance and significance, and an outline application is not enough there: the plan wants a fully detailed one.

RBKC lists the Chelsea appraisal as adopted on 4 January 2016, the Royal Hospital appraisal on 31 March 2016 and the Cheyne appraisal on 30 January 2017, while the Sloane Square Conservation Area was designated in 1985. In the Royal Hospital area the hospital and its grounds dominate, and the streets around them are late Georgian and Victorian terraces.

A house keeps permitted development rights, but RBKC applies tighter controls inside conservation areas. Article 4 directions go further at the properties they name on streets such as Cadogan Square, Carlyle Square, Chelsea Park Gardens, Chelsea Square, Glebe Place and the King's Road, where replacing windows and front doors, removing or rebuilding boundary walls, roof coverings and other front-elevation works need planning permission. Outside those directions, an unlisted house can change to double glazing without planning permission if similar materials are used.

The Royal Hospital appraisal describes residential buildings of modest scale, two to six storeys, in finely grained terraces, most of them built from the early nineteenth century, with the area largely developed by 1900; in Cheyne, most houses stand on a half basement under a raised front door.

Sources: RBKC conservation area maps (register of the borough's conservation areas), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: conservation areas, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: conservation area appraisals, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: conservation area maps, RBKC - Article 4 Directions in Conservation Areas (register of directions by street), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Royal Hospital Conservation Area Appraisal, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Cheyne Conservation Area Appraisal

Since RBKC adopted its Local Plan 2024 on 24 July 2024, with the 2019 plan marked as superseded, basement schemes have been assessed under Policy CD11. All basement development must stay within half of each garden or open part of the site, leaving the untouched garden as one area that, where relevant, joins the neighbouring gardens, and depth is restricted to a single storey in most cases: one that cannot later be split into more floors, generally about 3 to 4 metres floor to ceiling.

Nothing may be dug under a listed building, vaults included, and a basement that already has permission, has been built or came through permitted development cannot gain another floor. Front or side light wells with railings are resisted where they would seriously harm the look of the locality, particularly where they are not already an established feature of the street, while the plan does not regard a basement with no visible sign outside as affecting a conservation area.

Every scheme needs a sustainable drainage system that stays in place, a metre or more of soil over any part lying under a garden, and a suitable pumped device to guard against sewer flooding, since a non-return valve alone does not direct sewage away from the building. A qualified civil or structural engineer's construction method statement, with a ground and hydrological report, must go in with the planning application.

While the work is under way, CD11 requires noise, vibration and dust to be held at acceptable levels throughout, and traffic and site activity must not cause unacceptable harm to pedestrian, cycle, vehicular and road safety.

Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)

RBKC expects the owner, developer and contractor to talk proposals through with neighbours before applying for planning permission, and a Category 1 site must prepare a neighbour liaison strategy. Notices under the Party Wall etc Act 1996 follow the form the Act sets down, and RBKC notes that vibration damage to adjoining structures, even cracked plasterwork, may be provided for under a party wall agreement.

We begin with a feasibility visit and a survey of the house, then confirm the list entry, the conservation area and any Article 4 direction for the address. Our in-house architects prepare the planning and listed building consent drawings, our in-house structural engineers design any structural work, and independent surveying is available through our sister practice, Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy.

A written quotation follows the agreed scope, with No Deposit Required. Building starts once the consents are in place, to a design and site programme agreed in writing beforehand.

Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice, GOV.UK: Party Wall etc. Act 1996 guidance

I would like to thank Ross and his team for their consistent commitment to quality and their unerring reliability.

We have worked with Ross and his company many times. They are extremely professional and hardworking individuals who can work under any circumstances. There was no variation to the works.