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North Kensington W10 and W11 · Flat refurbishment

Flat refurbishment in North Kensington

Flats over shops, divided houses and council-built homes

North Kensington’s flats came about in several ways: built above shops, divided out of large houses, or built by the council from 1919. RBKC’s appraisals record each kind, and the Local Plan 2024 protects the number of homes. This page sets out what that means for a flat refurbishment, from the lease and the council’s own landlord process to the shopfront below.

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Serving North Kensington from our Hampstead studio · NW3 6DN
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Flat refurbishment in North Kensington at a glance

Plan a North Kensington flat refurbishment inside the flat you have. Policy HO1 of the Local Plan 2024 protects existing homes across the borough, including by not allowing existing self-contained homes to be amalgamated, and Policy HO3 resists the net loss of affordable homes in the same way. Locally, the Oxford Gardens - St Quintin appraisal, in its edition dated October 2021, records that multiple occupation continues on Ladbroke Grove and the streets around it, while houses on the St Quintin Estate have reverted to single-family ownership in recent decades.

RBKC: Local Plan 2024, adopted 24 July 2024 (the council’s Local Plan page) · RBKC: Oxford Gardens - St Quintin conservation area appraisal, edition dated October 2021

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

Approved guide prices

What does a flat refurbishment cost in North Kensington?

A flat refurbishment in North Kensington runs £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, and a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically lands between £60,000 and £110,000. Most programmes take 16–32 weeks on site. A written scope and site assessment are needed before any project price can be fixed.

Scope of workGuide rateTypical total
Full flat refurbishment (2-bed)£900–£1,700/sqm£60,000–£110,000
Typical programme16–32 weeks on site

Guide rates exclude VAT and are set by depth of work, not by postcode. Compare scopes in our London refurbishment cost-per-square-metre guide or try the cost calculator.

The buildings

How North Kensington’s flats came about

Three kinds of flat recur in RBKC’s appraisals here: homes above shops, houses divided into flats, and blocks or cottage flats built by the council and later builders. Each comes with different neighbours and a different landlord.

The Colville appraisal, adopted in 2015, finds the smaller shop parades on Ledbury Road, Talbot Road, Powis Terrace and Westbourne Park Road mostly original units that would have been built in the 1800s with homes on the upper floors. On All Saints Road, a group of shop units became offices in the 1970s and 1980s and later homes, keeping their pilasters, corbels and fascias. The Oxford Gardens - St Quintin appraisal says most of its shops were purpose-built into Victorian or Edwardian terraces with flats above, the exception being a free-standing single-storey parade of 1931 on North Pole Road.

RBKC: Colville conservation area appraisal, adopted 17 February 2015 · RBKC: Oxford Gardens - St Quintin conservation area appraisal, edition dated October 2021

In Colville Gardens, buildings designed with ornate ‘rear’ elevations had their main entrances on the closet wings; when the dwellings at Pinehurst Court became apartments, the columned entrances were removed and the entrances moved to the opposite side. The Colville appraisal adds that after the First World War the Council converted twelve houses in Powis Square into flats, and that by 1922 only five of its forty-eight houses were in single occupancy. The 2018 Neighbourhood Plan found de-conversion no significant issue in its area, unlike the streets of larger houses in the eastern part of the Oxford Gardens conservation area.

RBKC: Colville conservation area appraisal, adopted 17 February 2015 · St Quintin and Woodlands Neighbourhood Plan 2015–2030, July 2018

In 1919, the Neighbourhood Plan records, the council bought nine acres around Methwold and Oakworth Roads, and by 1926 had built 202 cottages or cottage flats. The Oxford Gardens - St Quintin appraisal finds that estate generally very well conserved, which it says may be due to council ownership and the reduced permitted development rights for maisonettes, though there has been some creeping change. Beyond the Avondale conservation areas lie post-war estates of large blocks of flats and houses, and inside Avondale, St Clement’s Court on Stoneleigh Street is a small 1980s block of three storeys in brown brick.

St Quintin and Woodlands Neighbourhood Plan 2015–2030, July 2018 · 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

Permissions and local rules

Consents for a flat in North Kensington

If Kensington and Chelsea Council is your landlord

If Kensington and Chelsea Council is your landlord, its leaseholder alterations page says you must seek its formal approval before alterations or improvement works go ahead, and that obtaining approval is a condition of the lease. Larger schemes, such as a loft conversion, roof terrace, extension or basement, need a Licence to Alter, and a Deed of Variation may also apply. Works carried out without permission are an unauthorised alteration and a breach of the lease, and applying afterwards for retrospective consent is no assurance that the alteration will be accepted.

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

Changes to the outside of the building

Paragraph 6.88 of the Local Plan 2024 notes that a high proportion of the borough’s homes are flats, and that while houses have permitted development rights, buildings such as mansion blocks, often in multiple ownership, do not; it says a consistent approach to alterations and additions across the building can keep it visually coherent. Policy CD12 resists an additional storey on a mansion block of flats where it would add significantly to the bulk or unbalance the architectural composition. So plan any outside change to one flat with the whole building in mind.

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

A flat above a shop

Policy CD14 requires new and altered shopfronts to maintain existing independent access to upper floor accommodation, and resists a new shopfront that would remove an existing separate entrance to homes above. The Neighbourhood Plan records shop units in the southern part of the St Helens Gardens parade converted with new shopfronts, with some retail space lost to homes. RBKC’s 2021 analysis of a proposed conservation area extension describes premises at North Pole Road and Latimer Road built with a shop below and two floors of homes above; check the conservation area map for those.

RBKC: Local Plan 2024, adopted 24 July 2024 (the council’s Local Plan page) · St Quintin and Woodlands Neighbourhood Plan 2015–2030, July 2018 · RBKC: proposed extension of the Oxford Gardens - St Quintin conservation area, analysis, March 2021

Self-contained homes below ground

Policy GB11 does not permit highly vulnerable development, self-contained basement dwellings included, in Flood Zone 3 or in the Critical Drainage Areas defined by RBKC’s Surface Water Management Plan. Paragraph 4.95 adds that in a Critical Drainage Area a flood risk assessment is required for development below ground or at ground level that increases vulnerability to flooding or the number of habitable units. Before a lower-ground room becomes a separate flat, check the address against the council’s Critical Drainage Area maps.

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

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 flat refurbishment covers

Rooms, services and the homes either side

The new layout is drawn against the flats above and below, so that kitchens and bathrooms sit over or under rooms of the same kind where possible and new pipe runs do not cross a neighbour’s ceiling. Wiring, heating and ventilation are planned for the whole flat at once, and the make-up of the new floors is agreed before any finish is chosen.

Shared parts and access

The scope names every shared part the work touches: the entrance, stair and hall used for deliveries, any riser or communal pipe, and the roof or façade if a window or vent changes. Each goes to the landlord or managing agent with the drawings, together with how the common parts will be protected and the working hours the building’s own rules allow.

If the work would make a new flat

Creating a self-contained flat is a different project from refurbishing one. Policy HO4 of the Local Plan 2024 requires every new home to meet the minimum space standards in the Nationally Described Space Standards, which paragraph 5.57 says the council uses as set out in London Plan Policy D6. Settle which project you are undertaking before design starts, because the drawings, the consents and the lease questions all differ.

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

How we work

How we run a North Kensington flat refurbishment

  1. First visit

    We see the flat, then the entrance, stairs or lift that serve it.

  2. Lease and consents

    We go through the lease’s consent requirements with you and the managing agent at the start.

  3. Survey and design

    Drainage and services are traced on site. Our own architects and structural engineers design the layout and any structural change around those routes, and any new external vent or window is checked for planning.

  4. Price and contract

    A fixed written price and a JCT contract follow the survey, scope and specification. The price names its allowances and exclusions, with consent fees and any common-parts work shown separately.

  5. Working in the building

    Common parts are protected and their condition recorded; deliveries keep to the building’s rules, and noisy work to those rules and the council’s permitted hours; key decisions go to a director.

  6. Handover

    Commissioning, drawings, certificates and any managing-agent close-out. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our flat refurbishment 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. Say who your landlord is

    Tell us whether the freeholder is Kensington and Chelsea Council, a housing association or a private landlord, and send the lease if you have it. For a council lease, the Leasehold Alterations Team usually expects scaled plans of the existing and proposed layout and a room-by-room scope of works, so allow time for those drawings.

  2. Place the flat in its building

    Note the floor, what lies above and below, whether there is a shop underneath, and where the drainage stack and the meters are. Pictures of the entrance, the stair and any shared riser help us plan how materials reach the flat.

  3. Gather the building’s rules

    Ask the managing agent for the building’s rules on working hours, deliveries, protection of the common parts and contractors’ insurance, and for the name of the person responsible for fire safety in the shared areas.

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

Flat refurbishment in North Kensington: questions

Does the council’s landlord consent cover planning permission too?

No. If Kensington and Chelsea Council is your landlord, its leaseholder page lists building control approval and planning consent from the council among the documents an application usually includes, so these remain separate approvals. After approval, major works also need a structural engineer’s report and, where they apply, a party wall agreement and asbestos removal. For any other landlord, the lease sets out what consent is needed and when.

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

Can I replace the windows of a council-owned flat?

If Kensington and Chelsea Council is your landlord, its page says window replacement needs a Deed of Variation. Among its conditions for assigning windows to a leaseholder are that the building is no greater than four storeys, is not listed and is not within a conservation area, so a flat in a conservation area falls outside that route; ask the council’s Leasehold Alterations Team. For other landlords, read the lease first.

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

Who approves building work in a tall block?

Under the national rules, a higher-risk building has at least seven storeys or is at least 18 metres high, with at least two homes, and building work to an existing one needs the Building Safety Regulator’s approval before it starts, unless it consists only of exempt work, competent person scheme work, fibre optic cabling or emergency repairs. RBKC’s leaseholder page gives the same height threshold for its own blocks. Ask your managing agent whether your block counts.

GOV.UK: building control approval for higher-risk buildings (Building Safety Regulator) · RBKC: leaseholder alterations, improving your home (the council’s own leaseholders)

Can I change my flat’s front door?

Agree it with the building first. Since 23 January 2023, in every multi-occupied residential building in England with storeys over 11 metres, the responsible person must check the fire doors in the common parts every quarter and make every effort to check all flat entrance doors, closers included, once a year. A new entrance door, its closer and its frame should therefore be agreed with that person, and checked against the lease, before they are ordered.

GOV.UK: Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, fact sheet on fire doors (regulation 10) · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Is a lower-ground flat in North Kensington at risk of flooding?

Check the address rather than the area. RBKC’s flood risk assessment of October 2022 records that on 12 July 2021 surface water and sewer flooding was reported on 69 streets across the borough, where over 325 properties flooded, North Kensington library and Colville Primary School among the buildings affected; it names no street. Policy GB11 supports retrofitting flood resilience and resistance measures to homes that have flooded or are at risk, and paragraph 4.97 supports measures in conservation areas that are sympathetic or cause no harm, internal ones for example.

RBKC: Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment, October 2022 (Local Plan evidence) · RBKC: Local Plan 2024, adopted 24 July 2024 (the council’s Local Plan page)

How much does a flat refurbishment cost in North Kensington?

Guide rates in North Kensington are £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, with a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically between £60,000 and £110,000, over a 16–32 weeks programme. A written scope and site assessment come before any fixed price.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your North Kensington flat

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your North Kensington flat. 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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