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Chiswick W4 · Flat refurbishment

Flat refurbishment in Chiswick

Mansion blocks, flats over shops and Bedford Park’s named blocks

A flat refurbishment in Chiswick is shaped as much by the building as by the flat: a 1930s mansion block on Turnham Green, rooms above a High Road shop, a converted store or brewery, or one of the Bedford Park blocks on Ealing’s side. This page covers what the official records say about those buildings, and the consents, landlords’ rules and street-front controls that follow from them.

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Start here

Flat refurbishment in Chiswick at a glance

Start with the name of your building. Hounslow’s Turnham Green and Grove Park appraisals describe their blocks one by one, and Part B10 of its design codes, adopted in May 2024, says the dominant ground-floor use on the High Road, Turnham Green Terrace and Devonshire Road is retail, with office and residential uses on the upper floors. On Ealing’s side of Bedford Park, Ealing’s 2008 Article 4 direction has a separate schedule of unlisted blocks of flats. Which of these records your flat appears in decides whether the questions are about the block, the shop below or Ealing’s directions.

Hounslow: Turnham Green Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted January 2021 · Hounslow: Grove Park Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted January 2021 · Hounslow SPD Part B10: Chiswick, May 2024 · Ealing Council: Article 4 (2) Direction for the Bedford Park Conservation Area, sealed 30 October 2007, confirmed 28 January 2008 (scanned PDF)

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

Approved guide prices

What does a flat refurbishment cost in Chiswick?

A flat refurbishment in Chiswick 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

Chiswick’s blocks, conversions and flats over shops

The appraisals record when these blocks were built and, for some, what survives. None of them says who owns a block today, so the lease and the title register settle that.

On Turnham Green, Hounslow’s January 2021 appraisal describes Watchfield Court, behind Heathfield Terrace, as a 1930s mansion block with open-plan gardens; red-brick Sandown House and Goodwood House, set behind a front boundary wall, are part of the same complex. Heathfield Court is a 1930s group of three six-storey mansion blocks. Beverley Court and Belgrave Court on Wellesley Road and Beaumont Court on Sutton Lane, six-storey neo-Georgian blocks with mansard roofs, were built on the former Fromow nursery after Edwin Fromow died in 1932. Garth Court on Ellesmere Road is a post-war group of linear blocks of three to four storeys.

Hounslow: Turnham Green Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted January 2021

Hounslow’s Grove Park appraisal of January 2021 names Burlington Court, a substantial apartment block of 1900 by Walter Hearn at the Grove Park Road end of Spencer Road, and four-storey Kelvin Court of 1935, which keeps some of its original windows. Hartington Court has projecting stepped balconies and central stair towers, and 22 flats demolished by enemy action were reinstated in 1946 in the original style. Cherwell Court, of about 1950, is described as good municipal housing distinguished only by its verdigris copper roofs. At Strand on the Green, Lorraine Road has facing terraces of early twentieth-century half-house maisonettes.

Hounslow: Grove Park Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted January 2021 · Hounslow: Strand on the Green Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted October 2018

Other flats sit over shops or in converted buildings. The Parade at 5–15 (odd) Grove Park Road was built around 1900 as shops with flats above. Fromow’s Corner, at the south-west tip of Turnham Green, is a row of shops and flats whose shopfronts keep granite pilasters and Corinthian capitals. The former Army and Navy Repository on Heathfield Terrace was converted into flats in 1988, and Hounslow’s local list says its windows make a strong contribution to its character. Behind Church Street, the Lamb Brewery building was redeveloped as offices and flats in the mid-2010s.

Hounslow: Grove Park Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted January 2021 · Hounslow: Turnham Green Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted January 2021 · Hounslow: Local List of heritage assets (undated; includes the 2024 nominations) · Hounslow: Old Chiswick Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted Autumn 2019

Permissions and local rules

Consents for a Chiswick flat, council by council

Ealing’s directions on Bedford Park blocks

Does Ealing’s Bedford Park direction name my block?

Ealing’s 2008 direction schedules these unlisted blocks of flats: Bedford House on The Avenue, St Catherine’s Court and St James Court on Bedford Road, Kara Lodge on Newton Grove, Bedford Park Mansions with Chestnut House on The Orchard, and Sydney House on Woodstock Road. It does not say which withdrawn rights apply to a block of flats. Ealing’s 1985 direction, sealed on 28 February 1985, disapplies all parts of Class II of the 1977 Order for the properties in its schedule, several of these blocks among them; Ealing’s 2020 addendum says those rights would appear to include sundry operations.

Ealing Council: Article 4 (2) Direction for the Bedford Park Conservation Area, sealed 30 October 2007, confirmed 28 January 2008 (scanned PDF) · Ealing Council: Article 4 direction for certain properties in the Bedford Park Conservation Area, given under seal 28 February 1985 (scanned PDF) · Ealing Council: Bedford Park Conservation Area update addendum, July 2020

Windows and paint on Ealing’s side

Do flat windows need permission in Ealing’s part of Bedford Park?

Ealing’s Generic Management Plan for its conservation areas, March 2023 guidance that is not part of its Local Plan, words this two ways. Paragraph 5.28 says planning permission is usually required to install new PVC-U windows in flats. Paragraph 5.40 says it is always required for replacement windows in flats in conservation areas, and that in a block, agreement should be reached where possible with the other residents so that all the windows match. Ealing’s conservation FAQs add that painting the facade of flats, or of a house converted to flats, needs planning permission regardless.

Ealing Council: Generic Management Plan for Conservation Areas, March 2023 · Ealing Council: Ealing conservation areas FAQs, 2023–24 consultation

If Hounslow Council is your landlord

What does Hounslow ask of its own leaseholders?

Hounslow’s pages for its own leaseholders say you need the council’s written permission to alter a leasehold flat, and that structural alterations include changing the internal layout, installing a new central heating system and altering services when fitting a new kitchen or bathroom. That consent is in addition to any planning or building control consent. The council says it will not give consent to replace windows, because under its leases the frames belong to the freeholder, though its repairs page says the individual lease decides. With any other landlord, check what your own lease says.

Hounslow: making alterations to your home as a council leaseholder · Hounslow: council leaseholders’ repair responsibilities (general guidance; the individual lease decides) · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Flats above a Hounslow shopfront

What applies to a flat above a High Road shop?

Hounslow’s 2015 Local Plan says residential use is not considered appropriate at ground-floor level in its town centres. Part A2 of the design codes SPD says separate doors to the upper floors should be retained, so they can continue to be used independently, and Part B10’s code for Chiswick town centre says ground-floor residential entrances should be welcoming and clearly visible where they sit among other uses. It also says mansards will not be considered on the High Road, except where they are already the prevalent character of that part of it.

Hounslow Local Plan 2015–2030, Volume One · Hounslow SPD Part A2: Common Considerations, May 2024 (shopfronts and public buildings) · Hounslow SPD Part B10: Chiswick, May 2024

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

What the work covers

What a Chiswick flat refurbishment covers

The lease and the block’s papers

Before design, the lease is read for the parts of the building it gives you and the parts it keeps for the freeholder: the windows, the entrance door, the floor structure, the pipes that serve other flats and any roof or loft space. Where the block has a managing agent, its rules on noise, deliveries and floor coverings are collected at the same time, so the design starts from what the building allows.

Sound, floors and the flat below

Lifting a floor in a mansion block or converted house exposes the joists and the ceiling of the home below. The scope says how the floor will be rebuilt, what resilient layer goes under hard finishes and how that ceiling is protected during the work. Where rooms move, kitchens and bathrooms are kept above or beside rooms of the same kind where the plan allows, one of the ways Hounslow’s Local Plan gives for reducing noise in conversions.

Hounslow Local Plan 2015–2030, Volume One

Windows and the outside of the block

Anything that shows outside the flat, such as windows, a flue, an extract grille, a satellite dish or paint, is listed separately in the scope, because each may need its own consent and the lease may reserve the outside to the freeholder. Where windows are renewed, the scope follows the pattern of the rest of the building, in line with Ealing’s guidance on its side of Bedford Park that, where possible, all the windows in a block should match.

Ealing Council: Generic Management Plan for Conservation Areas, March 2023

How we work

How we run a Chiswick 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 Chiswick. 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. The building and its record

    Tell us the name of your building and its street, which floor the flat is on and what lies below it: another flat, a shop or the ground. If an appraisal, the local list or one of Ealing’s Bedford Park schedules names the block, say so, and tell us which council your address comes under.

  2. Your lease and landlord

    Send the lease, or at least its alterations clause, the managing agent’s details and any earlier consent letters for the flat. Tell us who the freeholder is, whether Hounslow Council or Ealing Council is your landlord, and whether the freehold is shared, since each route to consent is different.

  3. What you want to change

    Mark on a plan what moves and what stays: walls, the kitchen and bathroom positions, floor finishes, windows and the entrance door. Setting it all out at once lets a single request for consent go to the landlord, and shows early whether anything outside the flat is affected.

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 Chiswick: questions

What does Ealing’s 2020 addendum say about the Bedford Park blocks?

It agrees that Bedford Park Mansions, a four-storey turn-of-the-century block on The Orchard, is a positive contributor, and that Sydney House, a substantial apartment building facing Woodstock Road, is one in part. It records Ormsby Court on The Avenue and Chestnut House on The Orchard among the negative buildings of Ealing’s 2007 appraisal. It recommended that the post-1930s flats and houses on Esmond Road stay outside the conservation area, noting, as one possibility only, that the Article 4 direction could be extended to the houses there but not the flats.

Ealing Council: Bedford Park Conservation Area update addendum, July 2020

Can a large Chiswick house or flat be split into more homes?

On Hounslow’s side, the 2015 Local Plan expects a minimum net original internal floor area of 130 square metres for a property to be considered suitable for conversion, and says one that reaches that size only through earlier extensions or added outbuildings will not be supported. The policy requires at least one family-sized unit, of two bedrooms and four persons or more, at ground floor in any residential conversion, and expects one except in locations not considered suitable for families. The Grove Park appraisal warns that large properties are always vulnerable to subdivision.

Hounslow Local Plan 2015–2030, Volume One · Hounslow: Grove Park Conservation Area Appraisal, adopted January 2021

Can a flat above a High Road shop be enlarged at the back?

Hounslow’s Part B10 says there is some potential to intensify at the rear of High Road buildings, improving service areas and permeability while respecting the character and massing of the building facing the High Road; that describes potential, not a permission. The Chiswick High Road appraisal, whose adoption status is unresolved, notes that most recent development there has been infill at the rear to create flats, or roof extensions. Part A2 adds that when the shopfront below is refurbished, its fascia should not obscure first-floor windows or their sills.

Hounslow SPD Part B10: Chiswick, May 2024 · Hounslow: Chiswick High Road Conservation Area Appraisal (cover October 2021; adoption status unresolved) · Hounslow SPD Part A2: Common Considerations, May 2024 (shopfronts and public buildings)

Does Hounslow’s air quality policy apply to a flat on Chiswick High Road?

Only to development that needs planning permission, such as a conversion. The text explaining Policy EQ4 in Hounslow’s 2015 Local Plan says that where development is proposed in areas of poor air quality, specific measures on internal ventilation and air filtering may be required, and in 2015 it named Chiswick High Road among the areas exceeding European Union limit values. Refurbishing the inside of an existing flat is not caught, but the same thinking is worth applying when choosing extract fans and ventilation for rooms facing the road.

Hounslow Local Plan 2015–2030, Volume One

Who answers for a flat’s entrance door and fire safety?

GOV.UK’s fact sheet says the responsible person for a residential building below 11 metres must make sure all fire doors, flat entrance doors included, can provide adequate protection; where a multi-occupied building has storeys over 11 metres, entrance doors need annual checks, so far as possible. If Hounslow Council is your landlord, it says a leaseholder can replace the door if the lease makes them responsible, but an urgent replacement must use an installer on the Competent Person Register and an application to building control. Elsewhere, agree a new door with the freeholder.

GOV.UK: Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, fact sheet on fire doors (regulation 10) · Hounslow: flat entrance fire door upgrades in council buildings

How much does a flat refurbishment cost in Chiswick?

Guide rates in Chiswick 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 Chiswick flat

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

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

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