Loft conversion in Kingston upon Thames

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

Coombe has three conservation areas, which the council’s pages date to January 1990 for Coombe Wood, January 1996 for Coombe Hill and February 1997 for Coombe House. Coombe Hill is largely 20th-century houses within the grounds of two 19th-century mansions, with several mid-19th-century buildings by George Devey. Coombe Wood has large Victorian, Edwardian and 20th-century houses in the triangle of Kingston Hill, George Road and Warren Road. Coombe House is the core of a demolished 16th-century manorial estate, whose high brick walls survive on Warren Rise and Fitzgeorge Avenue.

In North Kingston, the Richmond Road conservation area occupies land between Albany Park Road and Richmond Road that once formed part of the Bank Grove Estate. Most of the houses on those two roads went up between 1891 and 1898, detached on Albany Park Road and semi-detached along Richmond Road, with gabled fronts, bay windows, tile hanging and decorative brickwork. It lies close to Riverside North, designated in November 2004, a linear area shaped by the Thames, where the 2002 appraisal records four substantial houses of about 1895 on Lower Ham Road and three eight-storey blocks of flats.

Neither a place name nor a postcode tells you the council, a conservation boundary, a listing or the consent route. A Coombe Lane West address in KT2 carries the post town New Malden, Kingston Vale addresses can carry SW15, Merton has its own Westcoombe Avenue conservation area and Richmond upon Thames its own Richmond Road (East Twickenham) conservation area. Check the exact address against the council’s conservation area pages, the list entry, the Article 4 and Local Area of Special Character pages, then the title or lease and the property’s planning history.

Local design and consent context

The council’s pages give these designation dates: Liverpool Road, November 1980, extended October 1990; Park Road, June 1989; Coombe Wood, January 1990; Coombe Hill, January 1996; Kingston Vale, September 1996, extended January 2002; Coombe House, February 1997; and Kingston Hill and Riverside North, both November 2004. Kingston Vale grew out of the Richmond Park (Kingston) conservation area, after part of the park area at Robin Hood Gate passed from Richmond upon Thames to Kingston in a 1995 boundary review.

Among the documents the council links are the Park Road character appraisal and management strategy of July 2008, and the Canbury Gardens appraisal of November 2002, prepared by consultants for the council and linked as the Riverside North appraisal. Two advisory committees of local residents, whose main activity is reviewing planning applications, cover these areas: New and Old Malden for Kingston Vale, Kingston Hill, Coombe Wood and Coombe House, and Kingston and North Kingston for Coombe Hill, Liverpool Road, Park Road, Richmond Road and Riverside North.

The council explains that an Article 4 direction leaves development possible but means planning permission must be sought for the type of work it covers. It lists three directions: one for the Seething Wells filter beds in Surbiton, one on changing commercial premises to homes, and one for North Lodge and South Lodge in the Kingsnympton Park estate off Kingston Hill. The Coombe Hill, Coombe Wood, Coombe House, Kingston Hill, Kingston Vale, Liverpool Road, Park Road, Richmond Road and Riverside North pages each record no Article 4 direction.

Access and site planning

Plan the street side before fixing a start date. A skip on any part of the public highway needs a licence, which the council issues only to skip companies; a skip on private land needs none, and a licensed skip may not stand within 15 metres of a junction, bend or other hazard. Scaffolding on the highway needs a licence that only scaffold companies with the required public liability cover can obtain, with a 1.2-metre pedestrian route; a hoarding needs one even on private land, as do building materials stored on the highway. Parking suspensions are charged per five-metre space per day and can be up to 75 metres away, and red routes are managed by TfL.

Continue planning

The Kingston upon Thames area guide · Loft conversion across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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