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Shepherd’s Bush W12 · House refurbishment

House refurbishment in Shepherd’s Bush

Ashchurch villas, Rylett pairs, Edwardian fronts and Coningham roofs

Hammersmith and Fulham’s two profiles for these streets, Ravenscourt and Starch Green (sub-areas B and C, north of Goldhawk Road) and Coningham and Lime Grove, say a good deal about the outside of a house. This page follows them and the council’s register of decisions through fronts, roofs, back additions, front walls and lower floors, so the outside work is settled before rooms are designed. Ravenscourt Park and the streets south of Goldhawk Road have their own pages.

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Serving Shepherd’s Bush from our Hampstead studio · NW3 6DN
020 7101 3168

Start here

House refurbishment in Shepherd’s Bush at a glance

Settle the front and the roof first. North of Goldhawk Road, the council’s letters to owners of 13 January 1986, filed with the direction it numbers No. 4, said that at the houses it names planning permission was now needed for works altering the frontal appearance, including changes to windows or window openings, removal of brick or stucco mouldings, and cladding or rendering. For roofs, the register shows dormers approved on Flanchford Road and Palgrave Road over several decades, and roof extensions refused at houses on Wendell Road. On Coningham Road, the Coningham and Lime Grove profile notes large dormers that have broken a uniform pitched roof in places.

LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green (No. 4) Article 4 direction summary · LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search · LBHF: Coningham and Lime Grove Conservation Area character profile, approved 9 February 2000, updated June 2004

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

Approved guide prices

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

Cost in Shepherd’s Bush depends on depth of work. A cosmetic refurbishment that keeps the existing layout runs £650–£1,250/sqm (typically £90,000–£180,000), while a back-to-brick renovation runs £2,250–£3,250/sqm (typically £275,000–£475,000), excluding VAT. A written scope and site assessment are needed before any project price can be fixed.

Scope of workGuide rateTypical total
Cosmetic — existing layout retained£650–£1,250/sqm£90,000–£180,000
Back-to-brick renovation£2,250–£3,250/sqm£275,000–£475,000
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

What the profile records on the houses’ fronts, sides and backs

The Ravenscourt and Starch Green profile notes small details a refurbishment can strip out without anyone deciding to: urns on party walls, a curved Edwardian front, the gaps between later houses, half-basements behind railings. Read them as observations of 1997.

In sub-area B, the Ravenscourt and Starch Green profile describes Nos. 34–42 Ashchurch Grove as a two-storey red-brick Edwardian curved terrace with an attic, decorative timber bays at ground floor and timber balcony details; check the address, as the conservation boundary runs within Ashchurch Grove. Of the 1870 pairs at Nos. 8–27, it says their pierced stucco parapet is echoed in the original boundary walls still standing in front of many houses. On Ashchurch Terrace, Nos. 1–6 and 10–14 form a three-storey terrace, four storeys at the ends, of grey brick with good stucco details.

LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green Conservation Area character profile, part 4: Starch Green, Askew Road and the Victorian housing north of Goldhawk Road · LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green Conservation Area character profile, designation and character

Also in sub-area B, the Rylett Road and Binden Road group has metal finials and urns on the front edge of some party walls and rendered Corinthian motifs on the eaves facing the road, and its Napoleon Hat bay roofs, the profile says, were built merely for show above plaster cornices. Nos. 25–35 (odd) Binden Road are a two-storey terrace with gables, a dormer and unusually large bay windows divided into three; Nos. 30–34 are three storeys with similar wide bays. On Rylett Crescent’s east side, a late 19th-century three-storey terrace has half-basements and railings with cast-iron copings.

LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green Conservation Area character profile, part 4: Starch Green, Askew Road and the Victorian housing north of Goldhawk Road · LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green Conservation Area character profile, design guidelines, printed pages 20 to 24

In sub-area C, the Edwardian houses have heavily modelled fronts with bays and gables, their interest coming from painted stucco, ornamental finials and ornate glazing patterns; in 1997 most kept their original windows and doors. To the north-west the houses are later, from the first quarter of the 20th century, and generally plainer, with terraced groups of cottages in places. The profile calls the breaks between houses an important feature of this more open layout and, as the backs of terraces are seen throughout, says care should be taken not to compromise their uniform rear appearance.

LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green Conservation Area character profile, design guidelines, printed pages 20 to 24

Permissions and local rules

Outside a house: the 1985 direction, the profiles and past decisions

The front-elevation direction of 1985

What does the 1985 direction control on the Ashchurch and Rylett streets?

The council files it as Ravenscourt and Starch Green (No. 4). Its legal text, dated 2 January 1985 and approved by the Secretary of State with modifications on 6 December 1985, controls the enlargement, improvement or other alteration of a house insofar as it would alter the external front appearance; the council’s letters to owners say it took effect on 13 January 1986. Its schedule names numbers on Ashchurch Grove, Ashchurch Park Villas, Rylett Road, Binden Road and Rylett Crescent, and Nos. 2–6 and 10–23 and The Shrubbery on Ashchurch Terrace. Check the direction for your number.

LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green (No. 4) Article 4 direction summary

Roofs and dormers in sub-area C

What has the council decided on roofs in Flanchford, Palgrave and Wendell Roads?

The register lists no reasons. On Flanchford Road, side and rear roof extensions were refused at three houses between 2003 and 2007, one refusal upheld on appeal, then approved at two of them in 2009; from 2011, rear roof extensions and second-floor extensions over the back addition were approved at several houses. On Palgrave Road a hip-to-gable roof extension was approved in 2023. At one house on Wendell Road, a hip-to-gable rear roof extension was refused in 2015 and 2016 and an enlarged rear dormer in 2017, the last two upheld on appeal. Check the address against the conservation-area map.

LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search

Roofs and chimneys in Coningham and Lime Grove

What does the Coningham and Lime Grove profile ask of a roof?

The profile, approved in 2000 and updated in 2004, calls front roof extensions generally unacceptable unless the terrace is already significantly impaired by them, and says high visibility of a rear roof may in some cases prohibit a roof extension that would harm the area’s character. Where traditional materials remain, roof and dormer work should use matching slate, lead and timber, and chimney stacks visible from the street or public spaces should be kept. In 2014 a front dormer with a three-storey rear extension was refused at a house on Coningham Road, and the appeal dismissed.

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

Front walls, railings and crossovers

What does the Coningham and Lime Grove profile say about the front boundary?

The Coningham and Lime Grove profile considers black or dark green, in the majority of cases, the most appropriate colour for railings, and says altering or removing original or traditional front walls and railings, and their footings, should be avoided. A new vehicular access will be resisted where it would harm the area’s environment, road safety or on-street parking, and permanent crossovers need highway consent. The 2018 Planning Guidance SPD adds, for conservation areas, that planning permission would be required for any new structure on a boundary higher than one metre beside the highway or two metres at the rear.

LBHF: Coningham and Lime Grove Conservation Area character profile, approved 9 February 2000, updated June 2004 · 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 the house work covers here

The front elevation and the roof covering

The scope opens with a record of the front and roof as they stand: mouldings, glazing patterns, bay roofs, ridge tiles, slates. Where the 1985 direction applies, the council’s 1986 letters said changing front windows, removing decorative mouldings, cladding or rendering needs planning permission, so nothing is ordered before that is settled. Coverings matter as well: in 1995 the council refused an application to keep artificial grey slates at a house on Rylett Road, on the main roof slope and the Napoleon Hat bay roof, with red concrete ridge tiles.

LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green (No. 4) Article 4 direction summary · LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search

Back additions and the neighbours either side

Hammersmith and Fulham’s 2018 Planning Guidance SPD says an extension beside the original back addition shall not rise above two metres on the boundary, measured from the neighbour’s ground level, and its roof shall slope at no more than 45 degrees. It warns that the strip between neighbouring back additions is sometimes already at the margins of acceptability, and that extending them further, particularly above ground level, will generally be resisted, as conditions next door could become unacceptable. So the scope starts from measured drawings of both neighbours’ back additions.

LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018

Lower floors, basements and groundwater

In Coningham and Lime Grove’s sub-area A, the profile describes mainly three-storey terraces with basements on the western side of Coverdale Road, basements and bays dominating their fronts, and three-storey terraced houses with basements at the south end of Lime Grove. West of Askew Road, the council’s 2015 Surface Water Management Plan, evidence, not policy, identifies increased potential for groundwater to rise within two metres of the surface, naming no street. Local Plan policy CC3 requires details of the structural waterproofing for any development with a part below ground.

LBHF: Coningham and Lime Grove Conservation Area character profile, approved 9 February 2000, updated June 2004 · LBHF: Updated Surface Water Management Plan, July 2015 (modelling evidence, not policy) · LBHF Local Plan 2018: policy document

How we work

How we run a Shepherd’s Bush house refurbishment

  1. Free feasibility visit

    We walk round the house with you and discuss what is feasible.

  2. Survey

    Rooms, levels and features to keep are measured, with opening-up or asbestos checks where needed.

  3. Design and consents

    Our own architects and structural engineers design the layout and structural openings, plan the service routes with them, and identify which consents and party wall notices apply.

  4. Price and contract

    A fixed written price and a JCT contract follow the survey, scope and specification. It records allowances, exclusions and how changes are priced.

  5. On site

    Work is inspected before it is covered, and a director reviews key decisions.

  6. Handover

    Testing, commissioning and snagging. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our house 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. Look up what was decided nearby

    Search the council’s register for your street before a design is drawn. Its decisions are dated and give no reasons, but they show which roof, rear and front changes were approved or refused on houses like yours. Send us the years and the work described in any that look close to your own plans.

  2. Photograph the back as well as the front

    Take photographs of the rear elevation, the back addition, both roof slopes and the backs of the terrace as seen from the garden, as well as the front wall, railings and footings. Several of the profiles’ concerns here are about the backs and roofs of terraces, not only the street front.

  3. Say whether the house is now flats

    Tell us if the house is divided into flats or maisonettes, how many there are and whether you own all of them. Turning them back into one house raises planning, title and lease questions of its own, and the answers decide what can be drawn.

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

House refurbishment in Shepherd’s Bush: questions

Can a house that was split into flats become one house again?

It can. Policy HO2 in Hammersmith and Fulham’s Local Plan supports residential conversions that add high-quality family-size dwellings, particularly where a family house can be reinstated, and its explanation says the council may support turning smaller flats back into a single family dwelling. On Rylett Road the register shows approvals for three one-bedroom flats into one house in 2012, two flats into one house with a front-garden lightwell enlarging the basement in 2017, and two flats into one house with a rear dormer in 2022. These are approvals, not proof of the work.

LBHF Local Plan 2018: policy document · LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search

Why does the direction for these streets carry two numbers?

Hammersmith and Fulham files the 1985 direction as Ravenscourt and Starch Green (No. 4), and its summary note and 2011 list use that number, but the direction’s own citation clause names it the “(No. 2) Town and Country Planning Direction 1985”, and the 1986 letters to owners are headed No. 2 as well. The council’s separate No. 2 file is a 1982 direction for Wellington Terrace on Wingate Road, covered on our Ravenscourt Park pages. When you ask the council, quote No. 4 and the date, 2 January 1985.

LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green (No. 4) Article 4 direction summary · LBHF: properties affected by Article 4 directions, list last amended 1 October 2011 · LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green (No. 2) Article 4 direction, Wellington Terrace, dated 22 February 1982

Can I build over the back addition?

On Rylett Road, a scheme including a second-floor extension on top of the back addition was refused at one house in 2012 and allowed on appeal; a hip-to-gable and second-floor scheme at another, linked to a new studio flat, was refused in 2014 and the appeal dismissed. Whether those houses are in the conservation area is not established. Where planning permission is needed and amenity space is already limited, or the space between buildings confined, the 2018 Planning Guidance SPD says it may not be appropriate to permit any rear extension.

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

Can the windows be replaced or double-glazed?

First see whether the 1985 direction covers your number: the council’s 1986 letters put changes to windows and window openings among the work needing permission. For a house, the council’s retrofit guide says new windows do not generally need planning permission unless the frame material changes; where an Article 4 direction removes the rights, permission may be required, and a listed house needs both planning permission and listed building consent. It also describes slim double-glazed units for existing timber sashes. In 1998, uPVC replacements were refused at a property on Godolphin Road.

LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green (No. 4) Article 4 direction summary · LBHF climate change and planning: replacement double and triple glazing windows · LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search

Do the gaps between houses matter in the Edwardian streets?

In sub-area C they do: the Ravenscourt and Starch Green profile calls the breaks between properties an important feature of its more open layout. In conservation areas, the 2018 Planning Guidance SPD wants side and rear extensions sized with regard to the existing pattern of buildings, respecting the symmetry of the original additions along a terrace. Local Plan policy HO11 counts an extension acceptable where it is shown not to harm neighbours’ privacy, their daylight and sunlight or their outlook, or the openness between properties.

LBHF: Ravenscourt and Starch Green Conservation Area character profile, design guidelines, printed pages 20 to 24 · LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018 · LBHF Local Plan 2018: policy document

What has been decided on roofs in Ashchurch Park Villas?

The register shows roof extensions approved at several villas between 1977 and 1985, front and rear roof extensions at two villas in 1995 and 1997, and rear dormers approved repeatedly from 2006 to 2026; in 1992 the council refused to certify that a rear dormer was lawful without planning permission. Each is a decision at its date, given without reasons, so read it against the Ravenscourt and Starch Green profile’s roof guidelines and the direction lists for the villa’s number before a roof is designed.

LBHF: planning, building control and licensing applications search

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

It depends on scope. In Shepherd’s Bush, a cosmetic refurbishment keeping the existing layout runs £650–£1,250/sqm (typically £90,000–£180,000); a back-to-brick renovation runs £2,250–£3,250/sqm (typically £275,000–£475,000), excluding VAT. A written scope and site assessment come before any fixed price.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your Shepherd’s Bush house

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your Shepherd’s Bush house. 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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