Holland Park W11 · Houses, flats & bathrooms
Listed stucco villas, studio houses and mansion flats
Renovating in Holland Park starts with the building and the street. The conservation area centres on Holland House and its parkland, the stuccoed houses on the three streets called Holland Park are listed as a group, and RBKC keeps noisy building work to weekdays unless it gives written permission, so each brief begins with the list entry and the programme.
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Start with your project
01 Converted villas and mansion flats
Many Holland Park houses became flats after the Second World War, and Oakwood Court is a group of mansion blocks; in either, the lease can make alterations subject to the landlord's permission.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Holland Park Conservation Area Appraisal (adopted June 2017), LEASE: alterations and home improvements
Plan a flat renovation02 Villas, terraces and studio-houses
From the listed Italianate group on the streets called Holland Park to James Hall's houses around Addison Road, each house is checked against its list entry and any Article 4 direction.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Holland Park Conservation Area Appraisal (adopted June 2017), RBKC, Article 4 Directions in Conservation Areas
Plan a house renovation03 Kitchens in listed rooms
Where a house is listed, vents, new openings and recessed lighting all appear on RBKC's consent list, so the extract route is fixed before the cabinetry.
Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: listed buildings explained
Plan a kitchen04 Bathrooms and en suites
A bathroom in new basement development needs a pumped device against sewer flooding under Policy CD11; in a flat, the lease terms decide which alterations need consent.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024), Leasehold Advisory Service: alterations and home improvements
Plan a bathroom05 Libraries and fitted storage
Our joinery team designs and makes libraries, fitted storage and studio cabinetry for period rooms.
See our joineryThe buildings
The Holland Park conservation area dates from 1981, when two smaller conservation areas were amalgamated. Its 2017 appraisal says the area centres on Holland House, listed grade I, its grade II parkland and the speculative development around them, some of which is listed too; the conservation area lies close to Kensington town centre and is covered by the W11, W14 and W8 postcode areas.
The three streets of stuccoed houses called Holland Park, with the mews between them, are all listed grade II as an important Italianate group, and Holland Park Mews is listed for its relationship to those houses. James Hall built some 120 houses in Addison Road, Addison Crescent, Lower and Upper Addison Gardens and Holland Villas Road, and the villas on Addison Road and Holland Villas Road have the largest front gardens in the borough. Melbury Road and Holland Park Road form one of the borough's enclaves with an important concentration of artists' studio-houses.
The Victorian houses were generally built with two generous main storeys over half basements, and after the Second World War many were converted into flats and given roof extensions. Oakwood Court is a group of mansion blocks with a private central garden, and there are communal gardens behind Upper and Lower Addison Gardens and Addison Crescent and one in front of Oakwood Court.
The Norland conservation area has rules of its own. When RBKC designated it on 29 January 1969 it took in the original Norland Estate as built up to 1852 and the north side of St James's Gardens of 1864 to 1879; its appraisal was adopted on 23 March 2020, and the Norland Neighbourhood Plan forms part of the development plan there. We check the conservation area map for the address before relying on either appraisal.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Holland Park Conservation Area Appraisal (adopted June 2017), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: conservation area maps, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: conservation area appraisals, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan
Rules that shape a project
A Holland Park project can meet several controls at once: a list entry for the house, Article 4 directions for its street and, on the Ilchester Estate or in a flat, a private consent as well.
The borough has over 3,800 listed buildings. RBKC says a listing protects all of a building, from its interior to any later extension, that works affecting its interest without consent are a criminal offence, and Policy CD5 resists the loss of features of architectural importance unless the justification is clear and convincing.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: listed buildings explained, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)
A conservation area does not rule out change, RBKC says, but houses there face tighter controls, and Article 4 directions remove rights over front doors, roof coverings, boundary walls and windows on streets such as Holland Park Avenue, Holland Park Road and Holland Villas Road. Applications must be fully detailed, and Policy CD4 asks development to preserve or enhance the area.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: conservation areas, RBKC, Article 4 Directions in Conservation Areas, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)
The appraisal counts building between chimney stacks, infilling between slopes, rooflights, dishes and aerials as harmful roof alterations, and oversized extensions, painted brick and moved windows as harm to rear elevations. Policy CD12 resists extra storeys on complete terraces or groups with an unimpaired roofline, and Policy CD13 resists extensions that break the general rear building line of the neighbours' extensions.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Holland Park Conservation Area Appraisal (adopted June 2017), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)
Policy CD11 of the Local Plan 2024, adopted on 24 July 2024, holds basements to half of each garden at most and usually to one storey, and rules out excavation beneath a listed building. The appraisal calls a visible modern deep basement in Ilchester Place at odds with the conservation area.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Holland Park Conservation Area Appraisal (adopted June 2017)
On the Ilchester Estate, Ilchester Estates' written consent is needed for any external alteration to a house's appearance, on top of RBKC's permissions. In a flat, the lease may make alterations subject to the landlord's permission regardless of planning, and mansion blocks have no permitted development rights.
Sources: Ilchester Estate consent requirement, as published in RBKC's Holland Park Conservation Area Appraisal (2017), LEASE: alterations and home improvements, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)
Policy CD1 resists the demolition of artists' studios and inappropriate alterations and extensions to them. The east of the conservation area, including the Holland House site, lies in the tier 2 'Holland Park, Campden Hill and Kensington' archaeological priority area.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Holland Park Conservation Area Appraisal (adopted June 2017)
Details
The appraisal records that external brickwork was first left fair-faced and treats painting it as a later intervention that usually harms the conservation area. Royal Crescent (1 to 44) and Royal Crescent Mews (11 to 32) appear on RBKC's Article 4 list under direction 96, in force since 6 July 2012.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Holland Park Conservation Area Appraisal (adopted June 2017), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Article 4 Directions in conservation areas
Double glazing can go into an unlisted house in a conservation area without planning permission if similar materials are used, unless an Article 4 direction applies. A flat may need permission for new windows that would materially change the building's appearance, and on a listed building every window alteration, secondary glazing included, is on RBKC's consent list.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: listed buildings explained
Front or side light wells and railings are resisted under Policy CD11 where they would seriously harm the character and appearance of the locality, especially where they are not an established feature of the street. The appraisal finds that side extensions built between detached houses harm their open setting.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Holland Park Conservation Area Appraisal (adopted June 2017)
Policy GB1 expects retrofit work on historic and listed buildings, and on properties in conservation areas, to leave their special interest, historic fabric and the area's character unharmed. RBKC's Local Listed Building Consent Order grants solar panels on listed buildings blanket consent, subject to conditions, and anyone proposing air conditioning, even a single unit, is asked to explore passive cooling and ventilation fully first.
Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)
Building regulations are a test of their own. Gov.uk lists as exempt most repairs, replacements and maintenance, new electrical points and circuit changes, and replacing baths, toilets, basins and sinks, but the exemption stops at heating systems, oil tanks, fuse boxes and glazing units, and at new electrics around baths and showers.
Source: GOV.UK: when you don't need building regulations approval
Where work falls under the Party Wall etc Act 1996, gov.uk guidance says adjoining owners must be given notice in the way the Act sets down, and the Act offers a route for settling disagreements. RBKC notes that a party wall agreement may provide for vibration damage to adjoining structures, even superficial cracks in plaster.
Sources: GOV.UK: Party Wall etc. Act 1996 guidance, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice
On site
Audible work is allowed between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday, with demolition and concrete breaking only between 9am and noon and between 2pm and 5.30pm. At weekends and on public holidays, noisy work needs RBKC's written permission in advance.
Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: construction site enforcement
RBKC's Code of Construction Practice gives every site a category from 1 to 3 before work begins.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice (April 2019)
Skips, scaffolding and hoardings on the highway each need a council licence.
Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice (April 2019)
Named streets
The Norland Neighbourhood Plan names Royal Crescent, Norland Square, St James’s Gardens and Addison Avenue, with Queensdale Road, as its grand compositions, and its Policy N1 asks development there to closely reflect the existing rhythm, proportion, height, scale, massing, materials and storey heights. Royal Crescent, laid out by the estate architect Robert Cantwell in 1837, is two stucco quadrants with circular pavilions and turrets facing Holland Park Avenue, with inward-opening French doors on the principal first floor; Planning Data lists Nos 1–6 at Grade II* as well.
Norland Square has three stucco terraces round its garden, with houses two bays wide and bow fronts at lower ground and ground floor under continuous first-floor iron balconies; most of its houses are listed Grade II. John Barnett designed 37 houses in St James’s Gardens, built in 1847–51, predominantly stock brick over channelled stucco, with frontages 8 feet wider than Norland Square’s and up to four rooms a floor. Addison Avenue is one of the few Norland streets with front gardens; at its north end, enlarged dormers have unbalanced many of the houses that read as villa pairs.
The plan, confirmed by RBKC in 2014 after the December 2013 referendum, runs to 2028. Its guidelines say rear extensions should not reach more than 3 metres from the original rear wall and roof terraces should be set back at least 50 cm from the eaves, and they prefer slim double glazing to chunkier units; Policy N5 resists painting unpainted brickwork or stucco. The 2012 Norland direction lists all four streets and ties painting to a colour schedule, Hopsack for Norland Square’s stucco and white at Nos 25–41 St James’s Gardens, so read its schedules for the house.
Sources: RBKC: Norland Neighbourhood Plan 2013–2028, Volume 1, planning policies · RBKC: Norland conservation area appraisal, adopted 23 March 2020 · Planning Data: 1–6 Royal Crescent, Grade II*, list entry 1226300 · Planning Data: 2–18 Norland Square, Grade II, list entry 1266246 · Planning Data: 19–35 Norland Square, Grade II, list entry 1225684 · Planning Data: 36–52 Norland Square, Grade II, list entry 1225685 · RBKC: Norland Neighbourhood Plan · RBKC: Norland Neighbourhood Plan 2013–2028, introduction for the December 2013 referendum · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 96, Norland area and 133–159 (odd) Holland Park Avenue, made 6 July 2012 · RBKC: Article 4 directions in conservation areas
Portland Road was not part of the original Norland Estate layout: very little of it appears on an 1852 map, but it was largely in place by 1879, and its north end and the area around Clarendon Cross joined the Norland conservation area in 1978. All its housing is terraced. On the east side a long group is presented as semi-detached villas with ground-floor bays and shallow slate roofs, some since raised in height, blurring the original separation of their roofs; the west side has many columned porches. Almost every house sits behind an open lightwell with railings.
Clarendon Cross is a crossroads of shops and restaurants on a pedestrianised part of Portland Road, with a few houses beside the shopfronts. One terrace group on its south side keeps unpainted stucco on the first and second floors, apart from one painted house. The street is split between conservation areas: the Norland appraisal describes most of it, but RBKC lists 12 Clarendon Cross under two Ladbroke Article 4 directions and the Ladbroke appraisal includes the former Clarendon Works, now a house, while most of Clarendon Road is in the Ladbroke conservation area. Check the map for the address.
RBKC lists Nos 1–179 (odd) and 16–136 (even) Portland Road under the 2012 Norland direction and No. 142A under the 1996 Ladbroke direction. The Norland direction sets white for all-stucco fronts at Nos 1–41 (odd) and pale pastel with white detailing at Nos 16–36 (even) and 43–179 (odd); check its schedules for the house. On Portland Road north, the plan’s guidelines generally accept rear extensions within half the house’s width, at least 300 mm below the gutter (even side) or 600 mm below it and within 3 metres of the original rear wall (odd side).
Sources: RBKC: Norland conservation area appraisal, adopted 23 March 2020 · RBKC: Norland Neighbourhood Plan 2013–2028, introduction for the December 2013 referendum · RBKC: Article 4 directions in conservation areas · RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015 · RBKC: conservation area maps · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 96, Norland area and 133–159 (odd) Holland Park Avenue, made 6 July 2012 · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 68, Ladbroke conservation area, sealed 12 July 1996 · RBKC: Norland Neighbourhood Plan 2013–2028, Volume 1, planning policies
Questions before you begin
Yes: one bathroom can be the whole project. It starts with a feasibility visit to the room, and the written quotation follows.
It depends on the address. The houses on the three streets called Holland Park and the mews between them are listed grade II as a group, Holland House is grade I, and the appraisal says some of the speculative development around the house and its parkland is listed too.
Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Holland Park Conservation Area Appraisal (adopted June 2017)
Possibly, within Policy CD11: half of each garden at most, usually a single storey, a metre or more of soil over any part beneath a garden, and no digging under a listed building. Basement excavation also makes the site Category 1 under RBKC's Code of Construction Practice.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice
Not noisily. RBKC's Code of Construction Practice put Saturdays off limits for noisy construction work, and the council issues no parking suspensions at weekends or on bank holidays unless a construction traffic management plan makes an exception.
Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice (April 2019)
Holland Park projects differ widely, so each is priced on its own survey. A listed villa's stucco, Article 4 rules on particular streets, mansion-block leases, party wall matters and the borough's construction code on deliveries all affect the scope. We look at these on a feasibility visit, agree a scope and specification, and send 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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Describe the property and the work in our project planner. A quotation follows a review of the property and the specification.
Nearby: Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill W11, a stucco-fronted house, fully renovated with a rear extension and a loft conversion.
