Loft conversion in Kew

Test the roof space before settling on a layout.

Start with the loft conversion brief

A measured roof survey should establish headroom, structural spans and where a staircase could meet the floor below. Plan the stair, escape route, insulation and building services together before treating the loft as another room.

Compare the proposed roof shape with the address-specific design guidance below. Record chimneys, shared walls and neighbouring rooflines, then ask the appointed designers to identify the structural work and consents the proposal needs.

The local building context

Kew Gardens Conservation Area began in 1969 as the Lichfield Road Conservation Area and lies around Kew Gardens Station; its statement records five extensions, the latest on 9 February 2017. It describes substantial detached and semi-detached villas of two to two and a half storeys in large plots behind continuous walls or railings, built in red or yellow stock brick with timber sliding sashes. Ennerdale Road has three-storey Victorian and Edwardian houses with some infill flats, while the two-storey cottages of Clarence Road, Elizabeth Cottages and Victoria Cottages are small and closely packed.

Lawn Crescent, designated on 17 September 1974 and enclosed by the Kew Gardens area, is a group of two-and-a-half-storey houses in originally tuck-pointed red brick under steep slate mansard roofs. Along Kew Road, the Kew Road Conservation Area has Victorian villas between larger modern blocks, then tighter Edwardian terraces and pairs towards Richmond. In East Kew, Burlington Avenue and West Park Road, and Ruskin Avenue and part of Defoe Avenue, are both areas of paired Edwardian houses. The North Road, Dancer Road and Darell Road terraces sit in the 2014 guidance’s Chilton Road character area, not in a conservation area.

Kew is the name of a ward, of a Local Plan place strategy and of several conservation areas, but neither the name nor a TW9 postcode shows which council decides an application, whether a conservation area or the World Heritage Site covers the house, whether it is listed or whether an Article 4 direction names it. The river is a boundary as well: the bank opposite Kew is in Hounslow. Look up the house number on the council’s conservation area map, search the list for an entry and read the Article 4 directions, then turn to the title or lease and the planning history.

Local design and consent context

The Kew Green appraisal explains that the Article 4 directions in its area affect only unlisted houses in single occupation, and only elevations facing a highway, waterway, private street or other public space. The February 1977 direction, which the council’s register lists, covers roof changes including dormers, window changes including removing bay windows, and rendering or painting brickwork at Nos 1 to 21 Watcombe Cottages, Medina Cottage, The Toll House, 1 and 2 York Villas, 1 to 6 Thetis Terrace and 1 to 7 Willow Cottages. The direction dated 17 February 1995 varies by street: at Priory Road (1–59 odd) it covers only hard surfaces, satellite antennae, gates, fences and walls, and means of access; for Cambridge Cottages (1–36), The Green (28–46 even) and Gloucester Road (1–41 and 53–91 odd) it covers enlargement and roof changes among other items, with exterior painting added at Cambridge Cottages and The Green.

The Lawn Crescent direction of 2003 covers 1–41 (odd) and 2–16 and 20–42 (even) Lawn Crescent, removing several permitted development rights for work that fronts a highway, and for chimneys whether or not they face one. The Kew Gardens direction dated 13 July 2004 covers 1–16 Elizabeth Cottages and 1–12 and 14–26 Victoria Cottages in eight categories, including enlargement, roofs, porches and exterior painting where the work fronts a highway, with chimneys covered in any case; 13 and 13A Victoria Cottages have only the hard-surface and boundary categories. The 2014 guidance proposed reviewing the 1995 direction, so ask the council whether anything has changed. A separate 2022 direction concerns turning commercial premises on parades such as 1–16 Kew Green and 1–9 Mortlake Terrace into homes, not alterations to houses.

The Kew Village Planning Guidance is dated July 2014, though the council’s list shows no adoption date for it, and it was written against the 2009 Core Strategy and 2011 Development Management Plan, so read it for its account of local character rather than for current policy. The front-garden parking SPD of 2006 it refers to was withdrawn from 3 June 2020. The House Extensions and External Alterations SPD, adopted on 1 June 2015, discourages hip-to-gable roof extensions and says hipped or gabled dormers are often preferable to flat-roofed ones, with rooflights as an alternative.

Access and site planning

On closely packed streets, such as the cottage rows off Sandycombe Road, plan where a skip, scaffold and deliveries will go before work is booked. A skip on a path or road needs a licence, valid for up to three weeks, that only a registered skip company with public liability insurance can obtain, and a skip in a controlled parking bay also needs a bay suspension. Scaffolding, hoardings and stored materials need a licence issued only after a site meeting with an Inspection and Enforcement Officer, and no licence is granted just because the council has not replied. For a bay suspension, allow at least 10 working days’ notice, the longer of the two periods the council’s page gives; suspensions can be enforced even outside controlled hours.

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The Kew area guide · Loft conversion across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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