South Kensington Renovations & Design-Build — SW7

Yes. The whole project can be one bathroom, en-suite or shower room, in a South Kensington house, mews house or flat, with the rest of the home left as it is. To scope it, we need the room’s size, a set of photographs and the floor it sits on; if you know where the soil stack runs, or whether a second bathroom will stay usable, add that too.

That depends on the full address, if one covers it at all; RBKC has no conservation area named South Kensington. The Queen’s Gate area runs south from Kensington Road to Cromwell Road and Old Brompton Road, and the Thurloe Estate and Smith’s Charity area has South Kensington station at its centre. Brompton adjoins to the north-east and Courtfield lies south of Cromwell Road. Check the council’s map, not the postcode.

RBKC: conservation area appraisals and proposals statements · RBKC: conservation area maps · RBKC: Queen’s Gate conservation area appraisal, adopted 26 February 2020 · RBKC: Thurloe Estate and Smith’s Charity conservation area appraisal, adopted 25 October 2016 · RBKC: Brompton conservation area appraisal, adopted 25 October 2016 · RBKC: Courtfield conservation area appraisal, adopted 14 December 2015

Check each separately. RBKC’s basement direction applies across the borough, and its conservation-area table lists a direction at 51–61 Pelham Street (odd) covering windows and doors fronting the highway, hardstandings, gates, fences and walls, as well as an Onslow Gardens direction. Listing goes by entry: 1–14 Pelham Crescent is Grade II*, while 6–12 Thurloe Square and 1–19 Queen’s Gate are Grade II.

RBKC: borough-wide basement Article 4 direction, confirmed 2 March 2016 · RBKC: Article 4 directions in conservation areas · RBKC: Article 4 direction for 51–61 Pelham Street (odd), made 6 December 1999 · Historic England: 1–14 Pelham Crescent, Grade II* · Historic England: 6–12 Thurloe Square, Grade II · Historic England: 1–19 Queen’s Gate, Grade II · Historic England: listed-building consent

That depends on the building. In a listed building, listed building consent is needed to alter windows, and RBKC lists any window alteration, including secondary glazing, among works needing it. For an unlisted house, check whether an Article 4 direction, such as the one at 51–61 Pelham Street, covers windows facing the street. Flats lack householder rights altogether, so confirm the planning position and the lease terms before anything is ordered.

RBKC: listed buildings explained · Historic England: listed-building consent · RBKC: Article 4 direction for 51–61 Pelham Street (odd), made 6 December 1999 · Householder permitted development technical guidance · When planning permission is required · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

Moving internal partitions or replacing finishes within a flat generally falls outside the definition of development, so a planning application is rarely required. The lease sets whether your landlord or freeholder must agree in writing, and on what terms. If the building is listed, internal work affecting its interest can need listed building consent. Building Regulations apply separately to building work; in a higher-risk block, the Building Safety Regulator approves most work.

When planning permission is required · LEASE: alterations and home improvements · Historic England: listed-building consent · RBKC: listed buildings explained · When Building Regulations approval is needed · GOV.UK: Building Regulations approval

Ask a structural engineer whether the wall supports anything above and how the floor is framed, then confirm that the new bathroom position can be drained, supplied and ventilated. Cutting a new opening in a wall of a listed building is one of the works RBKC says needs consent. In a flat, add the lease terms and sound separation to the list, and the Party Wall Act where the work qualifies.

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

Refitting an existing lower ground floor is not excavating. Where Kensington and Chelsea is the council, its borough-wide direction has removed householder rights for basements and lightwells, so new basement work cannot rely on them. Policy CD11 limits a basement to one storey under no more than half of each garden and rules out excavation beneath a listed building, and the Basements SPD asks for a construction method statement from a qualified engineer.

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

On an RBKC street, noisy work may happen at no time on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, and only from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Breaking concrete and demolition are restricted further, to the hours of 9am to noon and 2pm to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. These are RBKC’s rules, so confirm the council for the address first, and check the lease or the block’s rules for anything stricter.

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

Line the quotations up against one written scope, so that rooms, quantities, repairs, finishes, provisional sums, exclusions and VAT are treated alike. Ask how listed fabric, stucco or railing repairs, lift and stair protection, street licences and the landlord’s conditions are handled. The address alone justifies no uplift and no fixed end date, so resolve the main unknowns before agreeing a sequence.

Our studio is at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN, and we serve South Kensington from this office. Include photographs and the full address, say which rooms are involved, attach any lease extracts, drawings or planning papers you hold, and tell us what matters most on budget.