Basement conversion in East Sheen

Investigate the structure and ground before design.

Start with the basement conversion brief

Distinguish an existing cellar conversion from excavation for a new basement. Record levels, drainage, access and the adjoining structures, and obtain project-specific ground and structural investigations before relying on a design or budget.

Plan temporary works, waterproofing, ventilation, escape and spoil removal as part of the same brief. Ask Hampstead Chartered Surveyors to assess party-wall matters and Hampstead Architecture & Planning to coordinate the design requirements. An area name alone does not establish ground conditions.

The local building context

Richmond’s Local Plan groups East Sheen with Mortlake in place strategy PBS8 and, echoing the Village Planning Guidance, describes a mainly residential area between the River Thames and Richmond Park. Large houses line attractive tree-lined streets towards the park, while terraced cottages and houses shape the streets north of Upper Richmond Road West. That road bisects East Sheen’s district centre, and the plan says it has a major impact on its appearance and character.

The East Sheen Village Planning Guidance, adopted on 8 January 2016, describes the area street group by street group. Around Palewell Park, on land the Gilpin family sold in 1896, Edwardian houses are generally bow-fronted with gables; Church Avenue and Vernon Road mix red brick, roughcast render and clay tiles; Alexandra Road, Lewin Road and King’s Road have small yellow-brick terraced cottages, probably of about 1900; and Deanhill Court is a post-war estate with large red-brick blocks of flats.

Richmond’s statement describes the Christchurch Road conservation area as centred on the historic core of East Sheen, where the Plough, Percy Lodge and neighbouring cottages form an exceptional 18th-century group, and describes The Mall, built in 1924 by Robert Atkinson, as Neo-Georgian red-brick houses with pantile roofs and timber sliding sashes. On Fife Road, Historic England lists The Halsteads, of 1868 by A W Blomfield, at Grade II as the first known architect-designed concrete house.

Local design and consent context

Richmond lists Article 4 directions for East Sheen Avenue, including Park Avenue, for Model Cottages and for The Mall, and no conservation-area direction for Sheen Lane (East Sheen), Sheen Common Drive, Holmesdale Avenue or Sheen Lane (Mortlake), although the borough-wide basement directions apply there too. The 2002 direction covers 1–38 and 39–59 (odd) East Sheen Avenue and 1–26 Model Cottages. The direction dated 19 May 2015 covers 52–108 (even) and 63–121 (odd) East Sheen Avenue, with 2–16 (even) and 1–11 (odd) Park Avenue.

Richmond’s basement rules are aimed mainly at new or extended basements, though its flood table also covers converting an existing basement and Policy 54 covers lightwells; simply refitting an existing lower-ground room is usually a smaller question. Two non-immediate Article 4 directions together cover the whole borough, so basement and subterranean development has needed planning permission from 1 April 2018. For homes, Policy 54 resists more than one storey below existing ground level and limits how much existing garden land a basement may take, and it asks for naturally draining soil with a drainage layer over basements under gardens and a pumped device where there is a waste outlet.

Every basement application needs a Construction Management Plan; Richmond’s basement page also asks for a Construction Management Statement and sign-up to a Considerate Construction Scheme, and says freeholder consent is always required. Most East Sheen points checked lie outside Flood Zones 2 and 3, where Table 16.5 sets no flood-zone restriction, although its throughflow and groundwater rows and Policy 54 still apply where relevant. Points on Clifford Avenue and by Mortlake station read Zone 2 or Zone 3, where the table limits basements according to the council’s breach-hazard mapping: in Zone 2, for example, a basement may be permitted only if it is not self-contained or used for bedrooms, with internal access to a higher floor and flood-resistant design. Check the flood zone for the address.

Access and site planning

Plan how materials will reach the room, past any shared entrance or along a narrow route such as the informal path in front of Model Cottages. At the points checked on TfL’s data, Upper Richmond Road West and Clifford Avenue are TfL roads, where TfL issues highway licences and considers a skip only in rare situations where loading directly into a vehicle is impracticable; Sheen Lane, Christchurch Road, Fife Road, Palewell Park and Temple Sheen Road are not. On council roads, only a registered skip company can apply for a skip licence, which lasts up to three weeks and can be renewed, and in a controlled parking zone the council takes two working days to process a skip licence and a further five full calendar days to display suspension signs. Richmond’s suspension page asks for at least 10 working days’ notice, so allow that, and expect a site meeting before a scaffolding or hoarding licence, with no tacit consent.

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The East Sheen area guide · Basement conversion across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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