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North Kensington W10 and W11 · Bathroom renovation

Bathroom renovation in North Kensington

One room, old sewers, and pipework kept off the front

A bathroom is one room, but here it connects to old combined sewers, to conservation-area elevations where outside pipework shows, and, in a council-owned flat, to the council’s own consent process. This page covers where waste pipes and vents can go, what RBKC’s flood policy and Basements SPD say about lower floors, and the adaptations the council describes for people who need them.

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Serving North Kensington from our Hampstead studio · NW3 6DN
020 7101 3168

Start here

Bathroom renovation in North Kensington at a glance

Decide where the pipes will run before choosing fittings. The Avondale and Avondale Park Gardens appraisal, adopted in 2015, lists wires, plumbing, vents and flues attached to the outside of buildings among the common alterations that have caused harm, creating unsightly clutter on the elevations, and says vents and flashings have broken up the uninterrupted slate roofs of Avondale Park Gardens. The appraisal does not mention bathrooms, but a new waste pipe, soil vent or extract outlet is the kind of fitting that ends up on a wall or roof, so look for routes inside the house, or at the rear, first.

RBKC: Avondale and Avondale Park Gardens conservation area appraisal, adopted 14 December 2015

For the whole area, including conservation areas, permissions and working hours, read our North Kensington renovation guide.

Approved guide prices

What does a bathroom renovation cost in North Kensington?

A typical bathroom renovation in North Kensington costs £10,000–£30,000 excluding VAT. The final price depends on the scope, the specification and the complexity of the room, and a fixed written price follows the visit and the design.

Scope of workTypical cost
Typical bathroom renovation£10,000–£30,000

The figure excludes VAT. A standalone bathroom gets its own room-specific quotation; try the cost calculator for a first figure.

The buildings

Bathrooms in North Kensington’s houses, then and now

The houses here were built with very different arrangements for washing, from half-landing bathrooms in 1870 to council cottages planned with a bathroom in the 1920s. Never assume the original layout survives; read it as background to the home you have.

RBKC’s Oxford Gardens - St Quintin appraisal, in its edition dated October 2021, quotes the sale particulars of 1870 for substantial Ladbroke Grove houses built by the developer Charles Henry Blake: a half-landing bathroom with bath, sink, hot and cold water and a fireplace, a passage that led to a garden lavatory and water closet, and a bath and hot water service in the basement. The Avondale appraisal records that its area gained proper sewers in the 1860s, but public baths and washhouses, at the junction of Silchester and Lancaster Roads, only in 1888.

RBKC: Oxford Gardens - St Quintin conservation area appraisal, edition dated October 2021 · RBKC: Avondale and Avondale Park Gardens conservation area appraisal, adopted 14 December 2015

The council-built homes of the 1920s were planned differently. The Oxford Gardens - St Quintin appraisal calls the cottage estate, built between 1919 and 1926, an important early council estate of good quality houses and flats with modern sanitation and front and back gardens for every dwelling. In Avondale Park Gardens, the cottages Kensington Borough Council completed in 1923 had a standard layout of three bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, parlour, scullery, bathroom and toilet. A bathroom in one of these homes may since have been moved or rebuilt.

RBKC: Oxford Gardens - St Quintin conservation area appraisal, edition dated October 2021 · RBKC: Avondale and Avondale Park Gardens conservation area appraisal, adopted 14 December 2015

Below ground, the drainage is old and combined. The St Quintin and Woodlands Neighbourhood Plan of July 2018 says Counters Creek, one of London’s lost rivers, runs directly beneath its area and, with its catchment, forms part of Thames Water’s sewage network; check whether your address is in the plan area. RBKC’s flood risk assessment of October 2022 describes the borough’s sewers as combined sewers carrying foul sewage and surface water, built in the latter half of the 19th century, and the Basements SPD notes that properties along Counter’s Creek have reported high levels of sewer flooding historically.

St Quintin and Woodlands Neighbourhood Plan 2015–2030, July 2018 · RBKC: Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment, October 2022 (Local Plan evidence) · RBKC: Basements Supplementary Planning Document, adopted 14 April 2016 (guidance)

Permissions and local rules

Rules that reach a North Kensington bathroom

Soil and vent pipes on a house

For a house, the national order makes installing or replacing a soil and vent pipe permitted development under Class G, but among its limits the pipe may not exceed the highest part of the roof by 1 metre or more, and in a conservation area it may not go on a wall or roof slope that fronts a highway and forms the principal or a side elevation. Flats have no householder permitted development rights at all. Whether an RBKC Article 4 direction reaches this class at your address is a question to put to the council.

legislation.gov.uk: GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 1, Class G: chimneys, flues and soil and vent pipes on a dwellinghouse · Householder permitted development technical guidance · RBKC: Article 4 directions in conservation areas

Bathrooms in a new basement

If the work creates a new basement, Policy CD11 of the Local Plan 2024 requires it to be protected from sewer flooding by a suitable pumped device. The Basements SPD, which is guidance, explains that basements are generally below the sewer, so the usual gravity system does not work, and that the requirement applies only where the basement has a waste outlet, such as one with toilets, bathrooms or utility rooms; applicants must show the device on the drawings. The policy concerns new basement development, not refitting a bathroom in a basement you already have.

RBKC: Local Plan 2024, adopted 24 July 2024 (the council’s Local Plan page) · RBKC: Basements Supplementary Planning Document, adopted 14 April 2016 (guidance)

Critical drainage and flood measures

RBKC’s critical drainage areas page names one called North Kensington, where surface and sewer water flooding interact in complex ways, and says a planning application in such an area needs a flood risk assessment; the council’s map, not the postcode, shows whether your address is inside. Where an assessment is needed, paragraph 4.96 of the Local Plan expects it to identify resistance measures, such as drainage pumps or raised lightwell walls, and resilience measures, such as solid concrete floors, sump pumps and raised electrical sockets.

RBKC: critical drainage areas · RBKC: Local Plan 2024, adopted 24 July 2024 (the council’s Local Plan page)

If the house is listed

Policy CD5 resists alterations to a listed building that remove or modify features of architectural importance, internal and external, and harm historic fabric, unless a clear and convincing justification can be made. Paragraph 6.43 adds that a listed building’s special interest goes beyond appearance to the location and hierarchy of rooms, historic floor plans and levels, and features such as original staircases. A new bathroom position, or pipes cut through historic floors, can therefore need listed building consent under section 7 of the 1990 Act.

RBKC: Local Plan 2024, adopted 24 July 2024 (the council’s Local Plan page) · legislation.gov.uk: Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, section 7 · Historic England: listed-building consent

Working hours, skips, parking and the conservation area maps for the whole area are in our North Kensington guide. Local guidance checked ; requirements depend on the address, the building and the complete proposal.

What the work covers

What a North Kensington bathroom renovation covers

Drainage and vent routes worked out first

The survey traces where the waste can fall and where a soil vent and an extract can terminate without adding pipes to a street elevation. Where a route has to cross a joist or pass through an old service void, the structure is checked before the layout is fixed, and the extract is sized for the room and its window.

Fittings, electrics and certificates

GOV.UK says that simply replacing baths, toilets, basins and sinks needs no Building Regulations approval, and that new power or lighting points need none either, except around baths and showers. So plan the electrical work near the bath or shower with an installer registered with a competent person scheme, who can self-certify it, tell the council where needed and issue a certificate that shows up in solicitors’ searches.

GOV.UK: building regulations approval, when you do not need approval · GOV.UK: building regulations approval, use a competent person scheme

Lower-floor bathrooms and backflow

A bathroom on a lower ground floor calls for a look at the drainage beneath it. Among measures for existing buildings being redeveloped, RBKC’s flood risk assessment explains that non-return valves fitted in a property’s private sewer can stop water entering from drains and sewers, and that they must be carefully installed and regularly maintained. The scope can include a drainage survey and, where it suits the house, such a valve, alongside tanking and a floor that tolerates water.

RBKC: Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment, October 2022 (Local Plan evidence)

How we work

How we run a North Kensington bathroom renovation

  1. Visit

    We see the room, trace where the stack runs, and check which floor it is on and what lies beneath.

  2. Survey

    The drainage falls, the extract route and the floor build-up at the door are measured before a layout is drawn.

  3. Design

    The layout, waterproofing and storage are drawn; where a floor or wall changes, our own architects and structural engineers design it.

  4. Price

    You receive a fixed written price once the design and fittings are agreed.

  5. Installation

    The dates, and any days without a working bathroom, are agreed before work starts.

  6. Handover

    Testing, then care notes for the finishes and fittings. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our bathroom renovation work elsewhere in London

None of these projects is in North Kensington. Each card names where the work was done, so you can judge the finish and the approach before you brief your own.

Your brief

Before you ask for a quotation

  1. Describe the room and what surrounds it

    Tell us which floor the bathroom is on, what lies below and beside it, and whether the building is in a conservation area or listed. Pictures of the room, its window and the outside wall where the pipes run show us what is already visible.

  2. Note any flooding the home has had

    Say whether water or sewage has ever come up through a lower-floor drain, a WC or a shower, and whether a non-return valve or pumped device is already fitted. If someone in the household needs adaptations, tell us whether an occupational therapist has assessed them.

  3. Choose what must stay

    List any original features in the room or on the pipe route, such as a fireplace, panelling, a cast iron bath or a historic floor, and say which you want kept. In a listed house these can shape the layout as much as the drainage does.

Ready to take the next step? Send the address and a short outline of the work.

Book a free feasibility visit

Questions before you begin

Bathroom renovation in North Kensington: questions

Do you take on a standalone bathroom renovation in North Kensington?

Yes. A standalone bathroom renovation is a full project for us, whether the room is in a Victorian terrace house, a red-brick Edwardian house, a 1920s council-built cottage or a flat over a shop. We start with the drainage route and what will show on the outside, then price the room on its own, with any work beyond the room listed separately.

What consent does a council leaseholder need for a bathroom?

If Kensington and Chelsea Council is your landlord, its leaseholder page says a like-for-like bathroom refurbishment needs the council’s formal landlord’s consent, and that creating a bathroom or shower room, changing the layout or moving or removing walls needs a Licence to Alter. Planning permission or Building Regulations approval, where needed, are separate matters. For a housing association or private landlord, the lease sets the rules.

RBKC: leaseholder alterations, improving your home (the council’s own leaseholders) · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Can the council help pay to adapt a bathroom?

Possibly, through a Disabled Facilities Grant. RBKC’s grants and adaptations page says it does not matter whether you own or rent, but you must intend to live in the home for the next five years; the grant is means-tested, except for people under 19. A private tenant can apply, and the landlord will need to give permission for the work. GOV.UK adds that you might not get any grant if work starts before the council approves the application.

RBKC: grants and adaptations · GOV.UK: Disabled Facilities Grants, eligibility

What bathroom adaptations does RBKC describe?

Its page describes adaptations as changes to help you move around more easily or use the kitchen and bathroom: minor ones such as lever taps, and major ones involving building work, such as a shower over the bath or a level access shower. An occupational therapist visits to assess you and may recommend equipment, a raised toilet seat for example. For council tenants the works are arranged at no cost, and housing association tenants should talk to their association.

RBKC: grants and adaptations

What is a FLIP, and might my home already have one?

The Local Plan glossary describes a FLIP as a small self-contained pumping unit that pumps sewage and rainwater from a property’s private drains to the main sewer, even when the sewer is full, with a non-return valve to prevent backflow. The St Quintin and Woodlands Neighbourhood Plan recorded in 2018 that Thames Water installs these devices at properties at the highest risk of flooding. Ask Thames Water whether one is fitted at yours.

RBKC: Local Plan 2024, adopted 24 July 2024 (the council’s Local Plan page) · St Quintin and Woodlands Neighbourhood Plan 2015–2030, July 2018

How much does a bathroom renovation cost in North Kensington?

A typical bathroom renovation in North Kensington costs £10,000–£30,000 excluding VAT. The final price depends on the scope, specification and complexity of the project. We give a fixed written price after the visit and the design.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your North Kensington bathroom

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your North Kensington bathroom. We reply within one working day, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Or call 020 7101 3168. We serve North Kensington from our studio at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN.

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