Kitchen
renovation
in Kensington, W8
Designers, Architects, Engineers & Builders Under One Roof.
One Studio. One Contract. One Team.
A Kensington kitchen may sit in a mansion block, which the Local Plan notes has no permitted development rights, or in a listed house, where RBKC's list of works needing consent includes new openings, recessed lighting and vents. In a flat the lease can require the landlord's permission for alterations as well, so the layout is checked against both before any cabinetry is drawn.
Consent for a kitchen in a listed or leasehold home
RBKC says a listed building is protected as a whole, including the inside and its internal features, and that carrying out works affecting its interest without consent is a criminal offence. Several kitchen tasks appear on its list of smaller changes that need listed building consent: new openings, removing floorboards, re-plastering, suspended ceilings, recessed lighting and vents.
Removing an internal wall is one of the larger changes RBKC says needs consent, and Policy CD5 resists alterations that remove or modify features of architectural importance and harm historic fabric, unless clearly and convincingly justified.
In a leasehold flat, LEASE warns, the lease itself may make the landlord's consent a condition of any alteration, even once planning permission or building regulations approval exists. A mansion block, the Local Plan notes, has no permitted development rights to rely on.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: listed buildings explained, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024), LEASE: alterations and home improvements
Staying in the room, moving it or extending
Moving the kitchen into another room of a listed house is weighed against the Local Plan's view that the location and hierarchy of rooms, and historic floor plans and levels, form part of a listed building's special interest.
Where the kitchen needs new floor area, Policy CD13 resists extensions beyond the general rear building line of neighbouring extensions or rising to the original main eaves or parapet; our page on kitchen extensions in Kensington covers that work. If a new window is part of the plan, RBKC's Article 4 directions bring replacement windows under planning control at the properties they name on streets including Kensington Square, Kensington Court Place and Kensington Church Street.
Gov.uk lists replacing a sink, adding power or lighting points and changing circuits away from baths and showers among the jobs that need no building regulations approval; repairs and replacements to heating systems, fuse boxes and glazing units are outside that exemption.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024), RBKC - Article 4 Directions in Conservation Areas (register of directions by street), GOV.UK: when you don't need building regulations approval
Worktops, cabinets and Kensington's delivery hours
Stone slabs and tall units arrive by road, and RBKC's Code of Construction Practice confines deliveries and collections to 9.30am to 4.30pm on weekdays, or until 3pm where a school or other traffic-sensitive use is on the route. A parking suspension will not be issued for a Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday unless a Construction Traffic Management Plan specifies an exception.
A kitchen refit inside the existing walls is internal refurbishment, which the Code places in Category 3. Noisy work audible beyond the site is permitted from 8am to 6pm on weekdays, with concrete-breaking limited to 9am to noon and 2pm to 5.30pm, and a council licence is needed before a skip is deposited or a mobile crane is operated on the highway.
Cabinet runs, larder units and other fitted furniture can be designed and made to measure by our joinery team; the Kensington bespoke joinery page explains that service.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice (April 2019), Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: construction site enforcement
How we run a Kensington kitchen project
Our survey covers the room, the floor beneath it and every route for water, waste and extract, alongside the list entry and, for a flat, the lease. Our in-house designers and architects work the layout out from those constraints, and if a wall has to open, our in-house structural engineers size the beam or frame.
After the feasibility visit you get a written quotation for the agreed scope, with No Deposit Required, and the fitting is programmed around when the cabinetry, worktops and appliances arrive.
A kitchen from a project in Kensington
Kensington kitchen renovation: questions
Do I need listed building consent for new kitchen lighting or an extractor vent?
In a listed building, quite possibly: RBKC's list of smaller changes that need consent names recessed lighting and vents, as well as new openings and suspended ceilings.
Can I knock the kitchen through in a listed Kensington house?
Only with consent. RBKC counts removing internal walls among the larger changes that need listed building consent, and the Local Plan treats the location and hierarchy of rooms as part of a listed building's special interest.
Does a new kitchen in a Kensington mansion flat need the landlord's approval?
Possibly: that is for the lease to say. LEASE notes that a lease can require the landlord's permission for an alteration even after planning permission or building regulations approval has been obtained.
Can a kitchen extension go further back than my neighbours' extensions?
Policy CD13 resists extensions that would go beyond the general rear building line of neighbouring extensions or rise above their general height, so the general building line of neighbouring extensions is the starting point.
What does a kitchen renovation cost in Kensington?
A Kensington kitchen is priced after checking what can move. Opening a wall in a listed or leasehold home, finding an extract route, running services through the floor, and bringing worktops in during the hours the council's Code allows are the main variables; the cabinetry comes after. A feasibility visit shows which apply to your home, then we agree a scope and specification and issue a written quotation.
Sources: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: listed buildings explained, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024), LEASE: alterations and home improvements
Rooms and elevations typical of Kensington
Design, joinery and the build, under one contract in Kensington
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
What clients have said about the work
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.
Verified Planning, Estate & Conservation Sources
- Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: listed buildings explained
- Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Plan (adopted July 2024)
- LEASE: alterations and home improvements
- RBKC - Article 4 Directions in Conservation Areas (register of directions by street)
- GOV.UK: when you don't need building regulations approval
- Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Code of Construction Practice (April 2019)
- Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: construction site enforcement
Related pages
The local building context
RBKC’s Kensington conservation area, whose appraisal was adopted on 3 February 2017, spreads around the borough’s administrative centre in the Campden ward, in postcode area W8. The appraisal describes many solidly developed streets with a highly urban form and very little green space, and names Campden Square as the area’s only historic garden square. It also records architect-designed studio houses, blocks containing several studios and studios added to houses or gardens.
The Phillimore Estate is a character area within the Kensington conservation area, not a conservation area of its own, taking in streets such as Argyll Road, Essex Villas, Phillimore Gardens, Phillimore Place, Stafford Terrace and Upper Phillimore Gardens. The appraisal says it combines a diversity of house types into a consistently elegant residential area of detached villas, semi-detached pairs and short and longer terraces. Historic England lists 1–27 (odd) Stafford Terrace, an 1868 terrace, at Grade II.
Kensington Square, first designated on 28 January 1968, was the Royal Borough’s second conservation area, and its appraisal says almost all of the buildings around the square are listed; Historic England dates the Grade II pair at 11 and 12 to about 1700. The Edwardes Square, Scarsdale and Abingdon appraisal identifies squares and villas west of Earl’s Court Road, Scarsdale and Abingdon Villas to the east, and an area with a large number of red brick mansion flats.
- RBKC: Kensington conservation area appraisal, adopted 3 February 2017
- Historic England: 1–27 (odd) Stafford Terrace, Grade II
- Historic England: listed-building consent
- RBKC: Kensington Square conservation area appraisal, adopted 23 November 2017
- Historic England: 11 and 12 Kensington Square, Grade II
- RBKC: Edwardes Square, Scarsdale and Abingdon conservation area appraisal
Local design and consent context
The Kensington appraisal, adopted on 3 February 2017, explains that separate conservation areas designated in the 1970s were extended and joined in 1976 to form the present area, with parts of the High Street added in 1982 and 1994. The Kensington Square appraisal followed on 23 November 2017: that area was first designated on 28 January 1968 and extended on 17 October 1979, with Abbots Court added in 1980 and Young Street in 1983.
RBKC links each conservation-area direction as a scanned document. For 14–19 Kensington Square, listed from 23 October 1984, the direction removes permitted development rights for alterations, improvements and extensions to any part of the rear elevation, and for curtilage buildings, enclosures and oil tanks. For specified houses in Essex Villas, Phillimore Gardens and Phillimore Place, listed from 25 May 1988, the printed text removes rights for alterations, improvements and extension to any part of the roof of the original dwellinghouse.
Under Policy CD11, new basement space may be a single storey and may occupy at most half of each garden, with at least a metre of soil over any part beneath it. No further floor may be added where a basement exists or has permission, and nothing may be dug beneath a listed building, vaults included. Sewer-flood protection must be a suitable pumped device; a non-return valve on its own is not acceptable.
- RBKC: Kensington conservation area appraisal, adopted 3 February 2017
- RBKC: Kensington Square conservation area appraisal, adopted 23 November 2017
- RBKC: conservation area appraisals and proposals statements
- RBKC: Article 4 directions in conservation areas
- RBKC: Article 4 direction 42A, 14–19 Kensington Square
- RBKC: Article 4 direction 59, Essex Villas, Phillimore Gardens and Phillimore Place
- RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document
Access and site planning
RBKC takes highway licence applications only from registered companies, and work waits for written approval. Arrange any bay suspension before the other licences, with at least 10 full working days’ notice for a resident bay. Going by TfL’s road data at sample points, Holland Road and West Cromwell Road are TfL roads, on which TfL issues licences for materials, scaffolds and, only rarely, skips, but Kensington High Street, Kensington Church Street and Kensington Road are not, at the points checked; check the frontage.
- RBKC: apply for a highways licence
- RBKC: skip licences
- RBKC: temporary structure licences for scaffolds and hoardings
- RBKC: parking suspensions and highway licences
- RBKC: terms and conditions for highway licences
- TfL: red routes and the TLRN map
- TfL: highway licences on red routes