Skip to main content

Notting Hill & Notting Hill Gate W11 · Houses, flats & bathrooms

Renovations in Notting Hill and Notting Hill Gate

Stucco crescents, communal gardens and flats above shops

Plan around your home: a stucco terrace backing onto a communal garden, a Stanley Crescent house or a Pembridge Square house with a lower ground floor. For a stock-brick villa pair on Lansdowne Road or smaller Hillgate Village terrace, note the original features to keep. Flats in a converted house, mansion block or above a shop on Notting Hill Gate bring lease and access checks. Tell us the rooms involved and what your lease, title or list entry says.

Book a free feasibility visitChoose your service

Serving Notting Hill from our Hampstead studio · NW3 6DN
020 7101 3168

Hampstead Renovations design and build studio on Finchley Road
Our Hampstead studio · Finchley Road, NW3 6DN

Start with your project

Choose the work your Notting Hill home needs

Choose a focused room renovation or a coordinated refurbishment. Each service page explains the scope in more detail and gives you a direct route to discuss the work.

01 Terraces, villas and smaller houses

House refurbishment in Notting Hill

Plan a Notting Hill house as one project, whether it is a stucco terrace of three storeys over a basement on the hill, a stock-brick villa pair or triplet, a house of up to five storeys over a basement on Stanley Crescent, a Pembridge house near Westbourne Grove or a small Hillgate Village terrace south of Notting Hill Gate. Bring bathrooms, heating, wiring and insulation into the same scope as repairs to stucco, sashes, roof and railings, and treat any rear, roof or basement change, and anything touching a listed interior, as a separate item to check first.

  • List entry, conservation map and Article 4 list read
  • Garden-facing rear, roof and windows surveyed before design
  • Joists, walls and service routes opened up where needed
Explore house refurbishment in Notting Hill

02 Flats in converted houses, blocks and above shops

Flat renovation in Notting Hill

Many Notting Hill flats sit in a converted terrace house, a mansion block on Kensington Park Road or above a shop on Notting Hill Gate or Pembridge Road, sharing structure, drainage and entrances with other homes. Before fixing a layout, find the lease clauses on alterations and consent, locate the shared supplies and your isolation valves, and agree how stairs, entrances and deliveries can be used; a right to use a communal garden is not permission to work through it.

  • Alteration clauses read and consent sought in writing
  • Stack, risers and isolation valves located
  • Delivery route agreed without assuming garden access
Explore flat refurbishment in Notting Hill

03 Bathrooms in houses and flats

Bathroom renovation in Notting Hill

One room can be the whole project: we welcome standalone bathroom renovations in Notting Hill and Notting Hill Gate houses and flats, from a family bathroom in a terrace house to a shower room in a converted flat. Start from what the room allows, meaning the route back to a shared stack, the fall available for the WC and whether extract air would need a new outlet on a rear facing a communal garden, then choose finishes and fittings together.

  • WC connection and fall checked against the floor
  • Listed fabric and any new external outlet reviewed early
  • A second bathroom or stand-in shower lined up
Explore bathroom renovation in Notting Hill

Real projects, clearly located

Ideas for your Notting Hill refurbishment

Photographs of our work elsewhere in London

No in-progress Notting Hill project is recorded on this page. The photographs below are completed work elsewhere in London: a whole house in Belsize Park, an apartment on Chesterfield Street in Mayfair and a bathroom in Pimlico.

Completed exterior at Belsize Park Gardens after refurbishment

Whole-house refurbishment · Belsize Park, NW3

Belsize Park Gardens, NW3

Full-house refurbishment in Belsize Park with basement, extension and loft works.

Conservation Area · 5 Storeys · Documented programme: 12 months

Documentary programme, not verified elapsed construction time or a timetable for another project.

View the project

More London project records: Carlton Lodge, Belgravia · King’s Road, Chelsea.

103+
Completed Projects
RIBA
In-House Chartered Architects
Structural
Engineering Calculations
Planning
Applications & Consents
Building Control
Compliance Support
Leasehold
Licence for Alteration
£5M · £10M
Public · employers' liability
Independent
Surveying via Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

Local knowledge with a purpose

Understand the building before changing it

Notting Hill homes range from stucco terraces and villa pairs around private communal gardens to flats above the shops of Notting Hill Gate and small brick terraces south of it, and the questions change with each. Establish the designation, the guidance that applies and who else has a stake in the building before any layout is drawn.

RBKC’s Ladbroke conservation area, designated in 1969 and appraised in a document adopted on 15 October 2015, centres on the summit of Notting Hill, from which its crescents, terraces and communal gardens fan out along the contours. The appraisal calls the gardens behind the houses, reached directly from them, the estate’s great innovation; the housing is mostly terraced, most often three storeys over a basement and up to five in the largest houses, with villa pairs and triplets in Lansdowne Road, Clarendon Road and Kensington Park Gardens.

RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015 · RBKC: conservation area appraisals and proposals statements

Historic England registers the communal gardens together as the Ladbroke Estate, a Grade II park and garden in Notting Hill laid out between 1840 and about 1868, most of them behind the houses and reached from the backs of the houses or through gates from the street. It also lists 10–22 Kensington Park Gardens, a mid-19th-century row of four-storey stuccoed houses facing Ladbroke Square Garden, at Grade II.

Historic England: Ladbroke Estate communal gardens, registered park and garden, Grade II · Historic England: Nos 10 to 22 Kensington Park Gardens, Grade II · Historic England: listed-building consent

East of Pembridge Road and Portobello Road, the Pembridge conservation area, appraised in a document adopted on 30 January 2017, is a quiet residential area of late Georgian and Victorian streets between Westbourne Grove and Notting Hill Gate, from formal terraces in Clanricarde Gardens and Linden Gardens to detached and semi-detached houses on Pembridge Square, Pembridge Place and Dawson Place. Along Notting Hill Gate the appraisal records rows of shops with living accommodation above, and the Local Plan says the town centre was comprehensively redeveloped in the 1950s, at a scale and character different from the conservation areas around it.

RBKC: Pembridge conservation area appraisal, adopted 30 January 2017 · RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document

The first local check

Notting Hill is a name, not a boundary

No RBKC conservation area is called Notting Hill. Addresses around the hill and the Gate may fall in the Ladbroke, Pembridge, Colville or Norland conservation areas, or, south of Notting Hill Gate, in the Kensington conservation area, which takes in Hillgate Village, or the Kensington Palace conservation area; east of Chepstow Place and Ossington Street the Bayswater conservation area belongs to Westminster. For the full address, confirm the council, then read the conservation map, the list entry, RBKC’s Article 4 list, the lease or title and the planning history.

Find the council for the property · RBKC: conservation area maps · RBKC: conservation area appraisals and proposals statements · RBKC: Pembridge conservation area appraisal, adopted 30 January 2017 · RBKC: Kensington conservation area appraisal, adopted 3 February 2017 · RBKC: Kensington Palace conservation area appraisal, adopted 17 July 2025 · Historic England: listed-building consent · RBKC: Article 4 directions in conservation areas · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Ladbroke conservation area · RBKC · W11

The Ladbroke Estate: Ladbroke Square, Lansdowne Road and Crescent, Stanley Crescent

The Ladbroke appraisal describes each of these streets. On Lansdowne Road, whose villa pairs were built with wide gaps, Nos 2–12 are pairs of 1844 in stock brick, and it calls Nos 1–3 the largest detached houses in the conservation area. Nos 68–102 and 79–117, of about 1852, have Dutch gables, arched windows and canted ground-floor bays, with the same gables and detail at the rear, a design it calls particularly rare in the borough. On Lansdowne Crescent, Henry Wyatt’s bow-fronted houses of 1860–2 at Nos 21–26 and 31–38 are predominantly painted white.

RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015

Ladbroke Square garden, the largest communal garden, fronts the street of the same name on one side; ornamental gates with Felix Ladbroke’s crest lead into it, and one set of its gates is listed Grade II. Thomas Allom’s Stanley Crescent dates from 1853–4 (Nos 1–13) and 1862–3 (Nos 14–23), and the appraisal names it among the streets with the largest houses, up to five storeys over a basement. Planning Data lists Nos 1–13 Stanley Crescent and Nos 19–38 Lansdowne Crescent at Grade II, so read the list entry before planning internal work.

RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015 · Planning Data: gates between Nos 9 and 10 leading to the gardens of Ladbroke Square, Grade II, list entry 1224181 · Planning Data: 1–9 Stanley Crescent, Grade II, list entry 1226829 · Planning Data: 10 and 11 Stanley Crescent, Grade II, list entry 1226832 · Planning Data: 12 and 13 Stanley Crescent, Grade II, list entry 1265641 · Planning Data: 19–28 Lansdowne Crescent, Grade II, list entry 1225246 · Planning Data: 29–38 Lansdowne Crescent, Grade II, list entry 1225295 · Historic England: listed-building consent

RBKC’s Article 4 list puts many Lansdowne Road and Lansdowne Crescent houses under both the 1996 and 1998 Ladbroke directions, while its Stanley Crescent rows start at No. 14. Nos 53 and 55 Lansdowne Road have directions of their own, listed from 1978 and 1997, No. 55’s on enlarging, improving or altering the rear; ask the council how each applies today. The appraisal records harm from enlarged or added dormers on uniform terraces, front and rear, and from side extensions that break a villa pair’s symmetry.

RBKC: Article 4 directions in conservation areas · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 68, Ladbroke conservation area, sealed 12 July 1996 · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 41, Ladbroke conservation area, sealed 9 July 1998 · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 70, 55 Lansdowne Road, made 23 April 1997 · RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015

Pembridge and Ladbroke conservation areas · RBKC

Pembridge Square, Pembridge Villas and the west end of Westbourne Grove

Pembridge Square crosses the borough line. Nos 1–18 and 23–35 are in RBKC’s Pembridge conservation area, and the appraisal places the houses at the square’s eastern end in the City of Westminster. Nos 6–18 and 23–35 are ornate detached stucco houses of the 1850s with lower ground floors and attics, and canted bays from the lower ground to the second floor, round a long communal garden, the conservation area’s largest green space. The square’s W2 postcode does not follow the borough line, so check the council for the address.

RBKC: Pembridge conservation area appraisal, adopted 30 January 2017 · Planning Data: 6 Pembridge Square, Grade II, list entry 1225817 · Planning Data: Pembridge Square list entry at the Westminster end of the square, Grade II, list entry 1226495 · Find the council for the property

Pembridge Villas is a tree-lined street of large double-fronted or semi-detached houses, three or four storeys over a lower ground floor, in stock brick that is either fully stucco-fronted or stuccoed on the lower and upper ground floors. The builder James Hall put up its double-fronted detached villas; Nos 22–30 (even) and No. 23 add large Corinthian pilasters, and Nos 37–39 (odd) are a Gothic pair. In both streets the appraisal records harm from infill that joins detached houses and closes the gaps between them, and in the square from front lightwells opened up into large hard standings.

RBKC: Pembridge conservation area appraisal, adopted 30 January 2017

Westbourne Grove passes into Westminster around Chepstow Place and Chepstow Road, so check the council for the address. The street’s west end towards Kensington Park Road is in RBKC’s Ladbroke conservation area. The Pembridge appraisal describes the terrace at Nos 178–236 (even), partly merged into larger shops, and shops at Nos 139–157 (odd), and says the street’s shops have no basements and open straight onto it. RBKC lists the 1999 Pembridge direction at Nos 209–219 and 223–225 (odd), including front hardstandings, and a 1998 direction for No. 221 on front hard surfaces, gates, fences and walls.

RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015 · RBKC: Pembridge conservation area appraisal, adopted 30 January 2017 · Westminster: Westbourne conservation area mini guide · Find the council for the property · RBKC: Article 4 directions in conservation areas · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 78, Pembridge conservation area, sealed 9 December 1999 · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 87A, 221 Westbourne Grove, made 5 August 1998

Separate checks, one coordinated brief

Planning, listed buildings, building control and leases

One approval does not settle every requirement. Identify the applicable routes before ordering work, and record who will prepare submissions, arrange inspections and provide the relevant completion information.

Planning permission and householder rights

Does the work count as development?

Planning permission is not usually needed for internal work in a Notting Hill house or flat, because such work is generally not development. Flats, including flats above shops and in mansion blocks, have no Part 1 householder rights. For a house in a conservation area, the GPDO already excludes roof additions and upward extensions; then check whether an Article 4 direction applies, as many Ladbroke and Pembridge addresses carry directions covering front windows and doors, and some cover the rear, the side or garden walls.

When planning permission is required · Householder permitted development technical guidance · GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 1: householder permitted development · RBKC: Article 4 directions in conservation areas · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 68, Ladbroke conservation area, sealed 12 July 1996 · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 41, Ladbroke conservation area, sealed 9 July 1998 · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 78, Pembridge conservation area, sealed 9 December 1999

Listing and the registered gardens

What do listing and the communal gardens add?

Listing reaches inside: RBKC’s list of works that can need consent runs from re-plastering and removing or adding cornices, skirtings, fireplaces and internal doors to new openings, suspended ceilings, recessed lighting, vents and any change to windows, even secondary glazing, and works that affect a listed building’s interest without consent are a criminal offence. The communal gardens are a registered park and garden, and Policy CD7 says extensions to properties backing onto registered communal gardens must preserve views into, from and across the garden, including the effect of artificial lighting.

RBKC: listed buildings explained · Historic England: listed-building consent · Historic England: Ladbroke Estate communal gardens, registered park and garden, Grade II · RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document

Building Regulations

Who certifies the construction work?

Neither planning permission nor listed building consent nor a landlord’s licence shows that work meets building standards; that is the role of the Building Regulations. In a Notting Hill refurbishment they can reach new plumbing, electrics near a bath or shower, structural openings, new windows and heating, so settle item by item whether RBKC building control or an installer registered with a competent person scheme signs each off. The Pembridge appraisal describes residential buildings ranging from two to seven storeys, and GOV.UK says building work on an existing block of two or more homes that is at least seven storeys or 18 metres high needs the Building Safety Regulator’s approval, with some exceptions.

When Building Regulations approval is needed · GOV.UK: Building Regulations approval · RBKC: building control · RBKC: Pembridge conservation area appraisal, adopted 30 January 2017

Landlord consent, garden rules and the Party Wall Act

Who else must agree before work starts?

Take today’s landlord or freeholder from the title and the lease, not from a historic estate name. For a flat in a converted house, a mansion block or above a shop, the lease is where any need for written consent, and any conditions on floors, services, windows or common parts, will be found. Historic England records that committees and by-laws were set up to manage the communal gardens, so agree in writing before moving materials through one. Party Wall procedures apply only to notifiable work, such as cutting into a shared wall or digging near the foundations next door.

LEASE: alterations and home improvements · Historic England: Ladbroke Estate communal gardens, registered park and garden, Grade II · Party-wall work requiring notice

Local facts that affect the brief

Apply the controls to the work you actually need

Appraisals adopted 2015 and 2017

Use the appraisal for the conservation area at the address

The Ladbroke appraisal, adopted on 15 October 2015, says the rears facing the communal gardens are often as finely detailed as the fronts and almost all flat, without closet wings. It records harm from large plate-glass units at lower levels, light spilling from over-large windows and glass extensions into the gardens, and hard surfaces, enlarged lightwells and solid fences that can be seen from them.

RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015

The Pembridge appraisal, adopted on 30 January 2017, describes buildings from two storeys up to five or six, with some blocks of flats at seven, front lightwells lighting most lower ground floors, and Notting Hill Gate as part of the Roman road west, widened in 1957. RBKC’s list also carries the Colville appraisal for the streets to the north and the Kensington appraisal, whose Hillgate Village character area lies south of Notting Hill Gate.

RBKC: Pembridge conservation area appraisal, adopted 30 January 2017 · RBKC: conservation area appraisals and proposals statements · RBKC: Kensington conservation area appraisal, adopted 3 February 2017

Directions listed from 1996 to 1999

Find the address on RBKC’s Article 4 list

RBKC links each conservation-area direction as a scanned document. The Ladbroke direction listed from 12 July 1996 removes rights, at the addresses it schedules, to alter a window or door in an elevation fronting a highway, to lay hard surfaces fronting a highway and, at 126–184 (even) Kensington Park Road, to paint the exterior; its schedule takes in all of Ladbroke Square and houses in Lansdowne Road, Lansdowne Crescent, Stanley Crescent, Kensington Park Gardens and Ladbroke Grove.

RBKC: Article 4 directions in conservation areas · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 68, Ladbroke conservation area, sealed 12 July 1996

A second Ladbroke direction, listed from 9 July 1998 and approved by the Secretary of State on 14 October 1998, removes rights for enlargements or alterations affecting the rear or the side of specified houses, and for gates, fences and walls under 1 metre facing a street or under 2 metres facing a communal garden. The Pembridge direction listed from 9 December 1999 covers front windows and doors on Portobello Road, Chepstow Crescent, Pembridge Crescent and Chepstow Villas, rendering of front brickwork and front hardstandings. These were made under Orders since superseded; read the document for your address.

RBKC: Article 4 directions in conservation areas · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 41, Ladbroke conservation area, sealed 9 July 1998 · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 78, Pembridge conservation area, sealed 9 December 1999

Local Plan 2024, adopted 24 July 2024

Test roof, rear and garden-side ideas against the current plan

The Local Plan 2024, adopted by RBKC on 24 July 2024, carries full weight under its adoption statement; the 2015 and 2017 appraisals cite chapters of the earlier plan, so read them with the 2024 policies. Policy CD7 asks extensions backing onto registered communal gardens to preserve views into, from and across the garden, lighting included, and the plan says precedent will not be taken from older, ill-fitting extensions.

RBKC: Local Plan 2024, adopted 24 July 2024 · RBKC: Local Plan 2024 adoption statement · RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document · RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015 · RBKC: Pembridge conservation area appraisal, adopted 30 January 2017

Policy CD12 resists additional storeys on complete terraces whose roofline is unimpaired, on roofs of historic or architectural interest and on terraces broken only by isolated roof additions; the Ladbroke appraisal describes terraces designed to follow the contours with a continuous roofline behind a parapet, and the Kensington appraisal finds Hillgate Village’s rooflines largely free from additional storeys. Policy CD13 resists extensions beyond the general rear building line or rising to or above the original main eaves or parapet.

RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document · RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015 · RBKC: Kensington conservation area appraisal, adopted 3 February 2017

Basement direction in force 28 April 2016; Policy CD11

A lower-floor refit is not a basement project

Refitting an existing lower floor is one job; excavating to deepen it, digging beneath the garden or forming a new lightwell is another, with its own controls. RBKC’s borough-wide Article 4 direction, made on 15 April 2015, confirmed on 2 March 2016 and in force from 28 April 2016, removes householder rights for basement development, lightwells and any other development below a house or its curtilage.

RBKC: Article 4 directions · RBKC: borough-wide basement Article 4 direction, confirmed 2 March 2016

Under Policy CD11, new basement space may be a single storey under at most half of each garden, with at least a metre of soil over any part beneath a garden; no further floor may be added where a basement exists, nothing may be dug beneath a listed building, and light wells and roof lights must be discreetly sited and limit light pollution, which the plan also asks of extensions beside the communal gardens.

RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document

The April 2016 Basements SPD asks for a construction method statement with the planning application, and RBKC’s Code of Construction Practice places basement excavation or extension in Category 1, which brings a signed checklist, approval of a Site Construction Management Plan before work starts, a construction bond and an application for Section 61 prior consent. The Local Plan strongly advises discussing a basement with neighbours and the council, and starting party wall negotiations, before applying.

RBKC: Basements Supplementary Planning Document, April 2016 · RBKC: Code of Construction Practice and permitted working hours · RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document

Settle the consent route for the exact Notting Hill or Notting Hill Gate address before windows are ordered, a roof, rear or garden-side change is agreed or excavation is committed to. Article 4 directions, planning permission, conservation-area guidance, listed building consent, the policy on registered gardens, Building Regulations, consent under the lease and Party Wall procedures each answer a different question, so a yes under one leaves the others open, and an appraisal’s description of a street is not a decision on your proposal.

When planning permission is required · RBKC: Article 4 directions in conservation areas · Historic England: listed-building consent · RBKC: conservation areas · RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document · When Building Regulations approval is needed · LEASE: alterations and home improvements · Party-wall work requiring notice

Local guidance checked . The linked sources help you prepare a brief; requirements depend on the address, building and complete proposal.

From retained details to shared services

Garden-facing rears, front windows, shared stacks and lower floors

Rears that face a communal garden

Treat a rear facing a communal garden as a second front. The Ladbroke appraisal records many such rears designed as matching set pieces, and harm from large plate-glass units and from glass extensions and over-large windows that spill light into the gardens; Policy CD7 asks extensions there to preserve views across the garden, lighting included. At addresses in the 1998 Ladbroke direction, alterations affecting the rear or side need planning permission.

RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015 · RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 41, Ladbroke conservation area, sealed 9 July 1998

Front windows, doors and parapets

Look at each window’s frame, glass and cords before weighing repair against secondary glazing or replacement. Under the Ladbroke and Pembridge directions, altering a window or door facing the street needs planning permission at many addresses, and on a listed building RBKC lists any window alteration, secondary glazing included, among works that can need consent. The Ladbroke appraisal also regrets lost balustrades and cornices, so record them before scaffolding goes up.

RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 68, Ladbroke conservation area, sealed 12 July 1996 · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 78, Pembridge conservation area, sealed 9 December 1999 · RBKC: listed buildings explained · RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015

Bathrooms, stacks and extract routes

A bathroom in a converted terrace house or a flat above a shop drains to a stack shared with homes above and below, which limits how far the room can move. Ask the building manager who maintains the stack and how it is reached, and agree the tanking and floor build-up before choosing tiles. Policy CD10 treats servicing equipment as a small-scale alteration to be discreetly located, and RBKC lists vents among listed-building works that can need consent.

LEASE: alterations and home improvements · When Building Regulations approval is needed · RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document · RBKC: listed buildings explained

Joists, walls and noise between homes

Before a wall comes out or a heavy floor finish goes down, establish the joist direction, notches cut by earlier services and whether partitions carry load. In a listed house, removing floorboards, cutting new openings and fitting suspended ceilings are on RBKC’s list of works that can need consent. Where flats are stacked in a converted house or above a shop, decide the acoustic layers, new floor depth and lease terms together.

When Building Regulations approval is needed · RBKC: listed buildings explained · GOV.UK: Approved Document E, resistance to sound · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Garden boundaries and trees

The 1998 Ladbroke direction brings gates, fences and walls under 1 metre facing a street, or under 2 metres facing a communal garden, under planning control at the houses it lists, and the appraisal welcomes restored railings or balustrades between private and communal gardens. In RBKC, trees in conservation areas are protected by law and consent is needed to cut any part of a protected tree, roots included; most tree work on private land needs approval where the trunk is wider than 75mm at 1.5 metres up, and an unprotected conservation-area tree needs a section 211 notice first.

RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 41, Ladbroke conservation area, sealed 9 July 1998 · RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015 · RBKC: trees and planning · Tree preservation orders and conservation-area trees

Lower floors, drainage and archaeology

Find the cause of any damp in an existing lower floor, and how it drains and breathes, before new finishes go in. Historic England’s appraisal puts a corridor along Holland Park Avenue, Notting Hill Gate and Bayswater Road, which takes in the medieval hamlet of Notting Hill and part of a recorded Roman cemetery site at Ladbroke Grove, in a Tier 2 archaeological priority area; for small developments inside one, the Local Plan advises pre-application advice from GLAAS.

Historic England: Kensington and Chelsea Archaeological Priority Areas appraisal, August 2016 · RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document

A practical plan for the street and building

Working hours, deliveries and shared access

Street access, licences and TfL roads

RBKC takes highway licence applications only from registered companies, and work waits for its written approval. Book any bay suspension first, with at least 10 full working days’ notice for a resident bay, and quote it on the skip licence form; a skip on the road needs its own licence, renewed while it stays, roll-on, roll-off containers are not allowed and scaffolds need a temporary structure licence. On TfL’s road network data, Notting Hill Gate, Pembridge Road, Ladbroke Grove, Kensington Park Road and Portobello Road are not TfL roads, while the Westway is; for a frontage east of Chepstow Place, check whether Westminster is the council.

RBKC: apply for a highways licence · RBKC: parking suspensions and highway licences · RBKC: skip licences · RBKC: temporary structure licences for scaffolds and hoardings · TfL: red routes and the TLRN map · TfL: highway licences on red routes · RBKC: Pembridge conservation area appraisal, adopted 30 January 2017

Working hours, neighbours and occupation

RBKC’s permitted hours for construction work are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, and at no time on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays; demolition and concrete-breaking may only take place from 9am to noon and 2pm to 5.30pm on weekdays. Its Code of Construction Practice places internal refurbishment in Category 3, and the Local Plan says smaller projects must also comply, using the Control of Pollution Act 1974. A lease may be stricter; above a shop, agree delivery times with the shop as well as the building manager, and decide early whether you can manage with a bathroom out of use.

RBKC: Code of Construction Practice and permitted working hours · RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

A clear scope before a price

Plan your renovation budget and quotation

Notting Hill prices should rest on a measured survey of the building and a scope agreed in writing, not on the W11 postcode. Separate the quotation into room work, listed fabric, stucco, roof and window repairs, garden-side work and items shared with other owners, so that each line can be compared.

The building as it stands

Record what is there and its condition, so that nothing is priced on an assumption.

  • Measured drawings and a photographic condition record
  • Stucco, cornices, sashes and roof coverings to repair
  • Damp, structure and drainage to open up and check

Rooms, finishes and services

Give each room a written specification, so that no contractor has to guess.

  • Room layouts, quantities and named finishes
  • Plumbing, heating, extract and electrical scope
  • Fittings you supply and when they will arrive

Approvals and site arrangements

Include the consents and street arrangements the work actually needs, and no others.

  • Consents from the council and under the lease
  • Party Wall notices where qualifying work is planned
  • Highway licences, bay suspensions and protection of shared entrances

Written allowances and sequence

Make uncertain items, exclusions and responsibilities visible before signing.

  • Allowances for unknowns, exclusions and VAT stated
  • Lead times for windows and fittings noted
  • Building control sign-off and records at handover

Location alone puts no fixed surcharge on a Notting Hill price and sets no programme. Each quotation should say plainly how it handles VAT and professional fees, and what happens if opening up reveals something unexpected. A standalone bathroom gets a quotation specific to that room.

From an idea to a workable scope

Prepare your brief and renovation budget

  1. Tell us about the building and rooms

    Give the full address, the kind of home, such as a whole house, a flat in a converted house, a mansion-block flat or a flat above a shop, and the floor for a flat. Name the rooms involved and include photographs of the front, the entrance, the rear or garden side, the roof and any damp patches.

  2. Share what you already hold

    Gather the lease, building rules and any communal garden rules, drawings, earlier planning and listed building consents, and certificates from past building control work. If you have already looked up the list entry, the conservation map or RBKC’s Article 4 list, say what you found, and mention trees near the work.

  3. Split decisions from open questions

    Separate what is already decided, such as known repairs, preferred finishes and the layout you have in mind, from what depends on opening up a wall, an engineer’s visit, a check against a direction or the landlord’s reply. That way the open items appear as allowances instead of guesses.

  4. Agree roles, access and hours

    Settle who will apply for each consent, serve each notice and book each inspection. Agree delivery times, licences and protection of common parts with the building manager and any shop below, build RBKC’s weekday-only working hours into the plan, and say whether you will stay in residence and how variations will be recorded.

Ready to take the next step? Send the property address and a short outline of what you want to change.

Discuss your Notting Hill project

Our Hampstead base, serving Notting Hill

Talk to our Finchley Road studio

Our studio is in Hampstead on Finchley Road, at NW3 6DN. We serve Notting Hill from this office. Bring us the practical questions about your house, flat or bathroom and the result you want to achieve.

Contact the studio to discuss your brief and arrange the next step. If you already have drawings, a lease or planning correspondence, tell us what is available.

Book a free feasibility visit
Hampstead Renovations
Unit 3, Palace Court
250 Finchley Road
London NW3 6DN

020 7101 3168
contact@hampsteadrenovations.co.uk

Find our studio on Google Maps

Questions before you begin

Renovating in Notting Hill: practical answers

Do you cover Notting Hill Gate as well as Notting Hill?

Yes. Use this hub and the Notting Hill service pages for Notting Hill Gate too, and give the full address and floor level, because the streets around the Gate fall in different conservation areas and, east of Chepstow Place and Ossington Street, a different council.

RBKC: Pembridge conservation area appraisal, adopted 30 January 2017 · RBKC: conservation area maps · Find the council for the property

Can I hire you for a standalone bathroom renovation in Notting Hill?

Yes. We renovate single bathrooms as projects in their own right, from a family bathroom in a terrace house to a shower room in a converted flat or a flat above a shop. Tell us the room’s size, which floor it is on and where the stack runs if you know, attach a few photographs and say whether you have a second bathroom to use meanwhile.

Is my Notting Hill home in a conservation area?

It depends on the full address, so check RBKC’s maps. Conservation areas here include Ladbroke, Pembridge, Colville and Norland, with the Kensington and Kensington Palace conservation areas south of Notting Hill Gate. No conservation area is called Notting Hill, and a W11 postcode does not settle any boundary.

RBKC: conservation area maps · RBKC: conservation area appraisals and proposals statements · RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015 · RBKC: Pembridge conservation area appraisal, adopted 30 January 2017 · RBKC: Kensington conservation area appraisal, adopted 3 February 2017 · RBKC: Kensington Palace conservation area appraisal, adopted 17 July 2025 · Find the council for the property

Could an Article 4 direction or listing affect my plans?

Yes, address by address. RBKC lists Ladbroke directions covering front windows and doors, front hard surfaces and, at many houses, rear and side alterations and walls facing a communal garden, and a Pembridge direction covering front windows and doors, rendering and hardstandings; a borough-wide direction covers basements. Listing goes entry by entry: Historic England lists 10–22 Kensington Park Gardens at Grade II, and the communal gardens are a registered Grade II park and garden.

RBKC: Article 4 directions in conservation areas · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 68, Ladbroke conservation area, sealed 12 July 1996 · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 41, Ladbroke conservation area, sealed 9 July 1998 · RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 78, Pembridge conservation area, sealed 9 December 1999 · RBKC: borough-wide basement Article 4 direction, confirmed 2 March 2016 · Historic England: Nos 10 to 22 Kensington Park Gardens, Grade II · Historic England: Ladbroke Estate communal gardens, registered park and garden, Grade II · Historic England: listed-building consent

Can I build a glass extension facing a communal garden?

Check before designing one. Where the 1998 Ladbroke direction applies, alterations affecting the rear need planning permission; Policy CD7 asks extensions backing onto registered communal gardens to preserve views into, from and across the garden, including the effect of artificial lighting, and Policy CD13 resists extensions beyond the general rear building line. The Ladbroke appraisal names glass extensions and over-large windows as sources of light in the gardens.

RBKC: Article 4 direction no. 41, Ladbroke conservation area, sealed 9 July 1998 · RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document · RBKC: Ladbroke conservation area appraisal, adopted 15 October 2015

Who has to agree before I change the layout of my Notting Hill flat?

Planning permission is seldom needed to rearrange rooms or renew finishes inside a flat, since that is generally not development; changes outside are another matter, because a flat has no Part 1 householder rights. The lease decides whether the landlord’s written consent is needed and on what conditions. Listing can bring internal work under listed building consent where it affects the building’s interest, and the Building Regulations apply either way.

When planning permission is required · Householder permitted development technical guidance · LEASE: alterations and home improvements · Historic England: listed-building consent · RBKC: listed buildings explained · When Building Regulations approval is needed

Could I add or deepen a basement under my Notting Hill house?

Not as of right. Under RBKC’s borough-wide Article 4 direction, householder permitted development rights no longer cover basement development or lightwells, and Policy CD11 allows only a single storey under at most half of each garden, no extra level below an existing basement and none beneath a listed building, with light wells and roof lights discreetly sited. Refreshing an existing lower floor is a separate and simpler matter.

RBKC: borough-wide basement Article 4 direction, confirmed 2 March 2016 · RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document

What hours can builders work in Notting Hill?

For an address in RBKC (confirm the council first), the permitted hours for construction work are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, and at no time on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Demolition and concrete-breaking are restricted to 9am to noon and 2pm to 5.30pm on weekdays. The Local Plan says smaller jobs such as internal refurbishment must comply too, using the Control of Pollution Act 1974, and your lease may be stricter.

RBKC: Code of Construction Practice and permitted working hours · RBKC Local Plan 2024: policy document · LEASE: alterations and home improvements · Find the council for the property

How do I compare quotations for a Notting Hill project?

Line the quotations up against one written scope, so each prices the same work room by room, and check that allowances, exclusions and VAT are all written down. Then ask how each handles listed fabric, garden-side work, highway licences, protecting common parts and the landlord’s conditions, and whether it assumes RBKC’s weekday-only hours. The address alone justifies no uplift or fixed finish date.

Where is your studio, and how do I start?

Our studio is at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN, and we serve Notting Hill and Notting Hill Gate from this office. A first message is most useful with the full address, the type of home, the rooms in question, some photographs and whatever lease, drawings or planning papers you already have, plus what matters most in your budget.

Is an in-progress Notting Hill project shown on this page?

No. No in-progress Notting Hill project is recorded here. The photographs of work elsewhere in London show a whole house in Belsize Park, an apartment on Chesterfield Street in Mayfair and a bathroom in Pimlico.

Go deeper where it matters

Guides for your property and project

Explore the relevant property guide, then check the current official sources above for your address and proposed work.

More help with your renovation brief

House and flat projects

House and flat renovation in Notting Hill

Explore the service for your property type, including the layout, specification and practical arrangements to discuss before work starts.

House Renovation & Refurbishment in Notting Hill Flat Renovation & Refurbishment in Notting Hill
Client Reviews
“

I would like to thank Ross and his team for their consistent commitment to quality and their unerring reliability. They delivered our property to specification and on time, proving to be an extremely effective, experienced, and proactive contractor.

JW
James WardInvestment Director, Belgravia
“

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.

CR
Cirus RehmanFinance Director, Grosvenor Street, Mayfair
“

A company where you get value for your money while at the same time achieving excellent quality. Their work is carried out on time and within budget. We've worked with them on multiple projects and they never disappoint.

BI
Brian InghamDirector, Green Evolution Limited
Independent
Surveying
Hampstead Renovations operates alongside Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy — an RICS Regulated firm providing chartered building surveying, fire safety and project advisory services, under shared directorship. Both practices are based in Hampstead NW3, giving Notting Hill clients access to professional oversight from survey through to handover.
Explore Nearby Areas
Chelsea Kensington Knightsbridge Earl's Court Fulham Battersea Parsons Green Putney North Kensington
Design-Build in Notting Hill

Looking for a Local Builder in Notting Hill?

Coordinate the refurbishment through an agreed scope and point of contact. Identify design, engineering, independent surveying and construction responsibilities in the appointment, then confirm the specification, allowances, exclusions and process for changes before work.

View Our Refurbishment Company
South West London overview
Property Refurbishment Company in South West London →

See how Notting Hill fits within our wider South West London refurbishment service — house, flat and apartment refurbishment, extensions, lofts, basements and listed work under one team.

Full Service Directory

Services relevant to Notting Hill, W11

The reviewed local pages are house refurbishment, flat refurbishment and bathroom renovation. Bespoke joinery stays the London page.

Refurbishment

House refurbishment in Notting Hill →

Bathrooms

Bathroom renovation in Notting Hill →

Interiors & Joinery

Bespoke joinery →

Chat with us!