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Shepherd’s Bush W12 · Flat refurbishment

Flat refurbishment in Shepherd’s Bush

Divided houses, a former church, estate courts and flats over shops

Flats here come in several kinds that the council’s documents name: divided houses on Rylett Road and Coningham Road, a former church, now St. Mary’s Court, blocks such as Morland Court and Frobisher Court, the courts of Emlyn Gardens, and homes above shops on Askew Road and Goldhawk Road. Each kind brings different people into a refit: a freeholder or managing agent, the council where it is the landlord, the planning team, and the neighbours above and below.

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Start here

Flat refurbishment in Shepherd’s Bush at a glance

Work out first what kind of building the flat is in, because that decides who must agree. In sub-area B of the Ravenscourt and Starch Green profile, three blocks of flats at Nos. 33–38 Ashchurch Park Villas sit among the Victorian villas. The council’s 2015 local register names St. Mary’s Court (Nos. 1 to 25 consec. former Church) under Stamford Brook Road W6, so check the address. In courts the council inspects, such as those of Emlyn Gardens, check whether it is your landlord, as its consent then comes first. Over shops, the Local Plan’s parades shape what may change at street level.

LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green Conservation Area character profile, part 4: Starch Green, Askew Road and the Victorian housing north of Goldhawk Road · LBHF: Local Register of Buildings of Merit, as at August 2015 · LBHF: north area estate inspection dates, April 2026 to March 2027 · LBHF Local Plan 2018: policy document · LBHF: alterations to council properties, for council leaseholders and secure tenants, with the consent form (Rev. 5.1, 15 October 2026)

For the whole area, including conservation areas, permissions and working hours, read our Shepherd’s Bush renovation guide.

Approved guide prices

What does a flat refurbishment cost in Shepherd’s Bush?

A flat refurbishment in Shepherd’s Bush 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 the flats here were made

The register and the two profiles show flats made in three ways: houses divided over several decades, a church approved for conversion in the 1980s, and blocks built on infill sites or on land next to a conservation area.

On Rylett Road, in sub-area B, the register records approvals to convert houses into two flats in 1979, into two one-bedroom flats with a roof terrace on the back addition in 1983 and into three two-bedroom flats in 1990, while two further subdivisions were refused in 1988. On Coningham Road, approvals to convert property into flats or maisonettes run from the 1970s to the 2010s, most of them in the 1980s; in 2019 a family house was approved as four flats with a part one, part three storey rear extension, and in 2021 two maisonettes as three units.

LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search

The council’s 2015 register lists St. Mary’s Court, Nos. 1 to 25, the former St Mary’s Church, as a Building of Merit. Its planning register records approval in 1985 of conversion to use as twenty-five self-contained flats, thirteen of them maisonettes, after a 32-unit scheme was refused and a 27-unit scheme approved in 1984, and approval in 1987 to retain a dormer window in the north roof slope. In a refit there, internal stairs and the way rooms stack between homes come first. For the houses of Stamford Brook Road, see our Stamford Brook pages.

LBHF: Local Register of Buildings of Merit, as at August 2015 · LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search

The Coningham and Lime Grove profile calls Morland Court a very plain four-storey block, valued for its uniform appearance, and says only the facade of the former Hammersmith Public Baths and Wash Houses, a Building of Merit, remains, by 2004 forming the entrance to flats on Lime Grove. The former film-studio site beside the conservation area’s eastern boundary was redeveloped with housing and flats. At Pocklington Lodge on Rylett Road the register shows approvals from 1993 to 1997, first for eighteen studio flats for blind persons, and in 2025 an upward extension for 15 more homes, not shown as built.

LBHF: Coningham and Lime Grove Conservation Area character profile, approved 9 February 2000, updated June 2004 · LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search

Permissions and local rules

Who has a say over a flat refit here

If Hammersmith and Fulham Council is your landlord

What changes when the council is your landlord?

The council’s inspection schedule for April 2026 to March 2027 lists the Emlyn Gardens courts, Kelmscott Gardens, Becklow Gardens, Hadyn Park Court, Coningham Road (91 to 158) and the William Church Estate, which includes Frobisher Court on Lime Grove. That shows where the council inspects, not who owns your flat; the lease does. If the council is your landlord, its alterations page says its consent must come before any works start, minor ones such as new kitchen units or flooring included, and that this landlord’s consent is not the same thing as planning permission or building regulations approval.

LBHF: north area estate inspection dates, April 2026 to March 2027 · LBHF: alterations to council properties, for council leaseholders and secure tenants, with the consent form (Rev. 5.1, 15 October 2026) · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Windows and entrance doors in the courts and blocks

Can I choose my own windows or front door in a block?

Under the application type ‘Full Regulation 3 - LBHF is Developer’, the register lists approvals for new windows at Morland Court in 2003, Coningham House in 2009 and Frobisher Court and two other Lime Grove blocks in 2010, and a retrospective approval in 2025 for new entrance doors at Wandle, Lea and Longford Courts in Emlyn Gardens; approvals, not proof of the work. If the council is your landlord, its consent form says it does not normally agree to leaseholders replacing windows and front entrance doors that belong to it, as it runs a rolling replacement programme.

LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search · LBHF: alterations to council properties, for council leaseholders and secure tenants, with the consent form (Rev. 5.1, 15 October 2026)

Homes above the shops

What can change in a flat over a shop on Askew Road or Goldhawk Road?

The Local Plan’s Appendix 2 defines the Askew Road key local centre by number, and makes Goldhawk Road (Nos. 57–75 and 77–85, and 56–104 and 106–120) a satellite parade. Policy TLC3 refuses consent to any home on a ground-floor frontage there; a home behind may be appropriate, if satisfactory evidence shows neither shopping policy nor the shop’s long-term viability would be prejudiced. TLC1 supports homes in unused or underused space above ground-floor units, subject to other policies. For Goldhawk Road’s Nos. 155–163, see our Brackenbury Village pages and check the address.

LBHF Local Plan 2018: policy document

Roof terraces on back additions

Can the flat roof of a back addition become a terrace?

The register shows back-addition roof terraces on Coningham Road refused for one flat in 2020, with opaque screens 1.75 metres high to the sides, and for another in 2021, with French doors and obscure-glazed screens, then approved in 2021 for the second flat with screens around part of the roof, and a third with glass balustrades. Under the 2018 Planning Guidance SPD, a terrace whose use is likely to cause neighbours noise and disturbance, or to add overlooking, will not get permission, though sensitively designed screening may be acceptable, and a limit of 15 square metres may be sought.

LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search · LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018

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

What the work covers

What a flat refurbishment here covers

Floors and walls between flats

The 2018 Planning Guidance SPD calls the Building Regulations usually adequate for sound between homes, yet says poor installation and inappropriate stacking bring frequent complaints in conversions, so it expects better: enhanced insulation by condition, or possibly a recommendation to refuse where stacking is particularly inappropriate. It calls it essential, among other things, that similar rooms stack or adjoin and that halls buffer noise-sensitive rooms, and treats good impact insulation under hard floors as essential too. In a divided house, the scope starts with what lies above and below.

LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018

Entrance doors and the shared hall

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 give the responsible person in a multi-occupied block with storeys above 11 metres two door duties: checking common-part fire doors every three months, and trying each year to check every flat entrance door onto those parts. Below 11 metres the general fire precautions still include making sure fire doors, flat entrance doors among them, can protect adequately. So a new entrance door, or any change to a door onto a shared hall, is agreed with the responsible person before it is ordered.

GOV.UK: Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, fact sheet on fire doors (regulation 10)

Windows in a flat

Planning permission is not needed, says the council’s retrofit guide, for new windows in a flat or maisonette that copy the old ones exactly in look and material; it is likely to be needed if the material changes, if frames and glazing bars differ in subdivision or thickness, or if openings change size. Depending on the lease, the freeholder’s permission may also be needed for any change to the building’s exterior. In a block, establish who owns the windows before choosing any.

LBHF climate change and planning: replacement double and triple glazing windows

How we work

How we run a Shepherd’s Bush 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 Shepherd’s Bush. 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. Name the building and the floor

    Tell us the building as well as the flat: the name of the court or block, or whether it is a divided house, a former church or a flat over a shop, and which floor you are on. Say what lies above and below, because the homes next to yours shape much of the sound and drainage design.

  2. Say who your landlord is

    Tell us who the landlord is: a private freeholder, a residents’ company, a managing agent acting for one, or Hammersmith and Fulham Council. If it is the council, say so at the start, because its consent is a separate step that comes before any work, and the lease clause on alterations is read beside it.

  3. List what the flat shares

    List what the flat shares with its neighbours: the roof of a back addition, a garden, the front area with its bins or meters, a hall and stairs. Each shared part brings the freeholder or another owner into the decision, and a terrace, a new door or a moved meter can turn on it.

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 Shepherd’s Bush: questions

Is my flat council-owned if the block is on the council’s inspection list?

Not necessarily. The council’s estate inspections are open to all tenants, leaseholders and freeholders living in property it manages, so the schedule shows which courts and estates it manages, not who owns or leases each flat. The 2024 ward profiles place Emlyn Gardens and Kelmscott Gardens in Wendell Park ward, and Becklow Gardens, Hadyn Park Court and Kelmscott Gardens in Coningham ward. Your lease and title settle ownership; where the council is your landlord, its own consent rules sit alongside planning.

LBHF: estate inspections, open to residents of property the council manages · LBHF: Wendell Park ward profile 2024 · LBHF: Coningham ward profile 2024 · LBHF: alterations to council properties, for council leaseholders and secure tenants, with the consent form (Rev. 5.1, 15 October 2026) · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Can a flat be split, or a house turned into flats?

Start with the council’s policy. Hammersmith and Fulham’s Local Plan wants the borough’s smaller terraced houses, a source of family homes, not unduly reduced by conversion into flats. For conversions, the 2018 Planning Guidance SPD gives minimum internal areas: 32.5 square metres for a self-contained flat with its own bedroom, and 25 for a studio, whose living and sleeping space should reach 14. On the Emlyn Gardens estate, a flat was approved in 2019 for conversion into two self-contained flats.

LBHF Local Plan 2018: policy document · LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018 · LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search

Does my lease include the loft above the flat?

Read the lease plan. If Hammersmith and Fulham Council is your landlord, its alterations page says its leases do not include loft spaces: you would need to apply to buy the space, and it is the council’s decision whether to sell it or grant a licence; nor may you build on communal ground. In other buildings the lease and its plan show what the flat includes, and the roof space may belong to the freeholder, so ask before anything is drawn above the ceiling.

LBHF: alterations to council properties, for council leaseholders and secure tenants, with the consent form (Rev. 5.1, 15 October 2026) · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

My flat is above a shop on Goldhawk Road. What else applies?

In its sub-area C, the Goldhawk Road frontage, the Coningham and Lime Grove profile describes Nos. 56–64 as a terrace of about 1870 with shops below and homes above, three storeys of gault brick with a large half-hipped dormer to each unit and paired sashes, some altered by 2004. Where a home adjoins commercial premises, the 2018 Planning Guidance SPD expects substantially enhanced sound insulation. Under Local Plan policy DC5, where premises with an original shopfront change use, or a traditional shopfront remains, the council expects it to be kept and restored.

LBHF: Coningham and Lime Grove Conservation Area character profile, approved 9 February 2000, updated June 2004 · LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018 · LBHF Local Plan 2018: policy document

Who should hear about the work before it starts?

If Hammersmith and Fulham Council is your landlord, its alterations page says you may need to serve party wall notices on the council and any adjoining owners, and must also serve them on leaseholders of an adjoining council property. Its conditions ask you to discuss your plans with neighbours, deal quickly and sympathetically with any complaints from other residents, which must be reported to the council within 24 hours, and not to start before the licence is issued. Elsewhere, the lease and the managing agent’s rules say what notice other flats are owed.

LBHF: alterations to council properties, for council leaseholders and secure tenants, with the consent form (Rev. 5.1, 15 October 2026)

Where can bins and meter boxes go in front of a divided house?

Both profiles deal with it, with different strength. Where a street or terrace has traditional railings, Ravenscourt and Starch Green says enclosures for dustbins or meters should not be permitted if they would detract from the area’s appearance, while Coningham and Lime Grove says they will not normally be permitted where they detract. If an enclosure is accepted, the 2018 Planning Guidance SPD wants it sized to the boundary treatment and the garden, and reached without cutting new openings in walls, hedges or railings.

LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green Conservation Area character profile, design guidelines, printed pages 20 to 24 · LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green Conservation Area character profile, printed pages 25 to 28 · LBHF: Coningham and Lime Grove Conservation Area character profile, approved 9 February 2000, updated June 2004 · LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018

How much does a flat refurbishment cost in Shepherd’s Bush?

Guide rates in Shepherd’s Bush 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 Shepherd’s Bush flat

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your Shepherd’s Bush flat. We reply within one working day, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

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

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