Loft conversion in Stamford Brook

Test the roof space before settling on a layout.

Start with the loft conversion brief

A measured roof survey should establish headroom, structural spans and where a staircase could meet the floor below. Plan the stair, escape route, insulation and building services together before treating the loft as another room.

Compare the proposed roof shape with the address-specific design guidance below. Record chimneys, shared walls and neighbouring rooflines, then ask the appointed designers to identify the structural work and consents the proposal needs.

The local building context

According to Hounslow’s appraisal, in 1898 the architect and surveyor J A Gill Knight took a lease of about 12 acres south of the common to build mansion flats and semi-detached houses for comfortably-off middle-class families and tenants. After the two listed houses came the mansion blocks of 1901 to 1905 and then the houses of 1907 to 1933. Stamford Brook station did not open until 1912, the appraisal adds, so building was not finished until after the First World War, and the railway and station border the conservation area to the south.

Street by street, the appraisal is specific. On Pleydell Avenue the houses on the western side are larger, with prominent decorative gables, decorative roof tiles and original windows. Vaughan Avenue’s houses vary considerably in design and rise to three storeys at the eastern end. Prebend Gardens has two-storey terraces of four houses on its western side and mostly two-storey semis on the eastern. West of the Pleydell Avenue junction, the houses of Stamford Brook Common South Side have prominent half-timbered gables and decorated timber porches, each built of brick with a rendered first floor.

The name Stamford Brook belongs to a common, a road, an avenue and a District line station. None of these, and no W6 postcode, decides the council that handles an application, the line of a conservation boundary, a building’s listing or the consents a job requires. Hounslow says Stamford Brook Road and the houses on its north side are outside its borough, yet its own schedule includes The Brook at 27 Stamford Brook Road, and only 42–74 (even) and 47–99 (odd) Prebend Gardens are in its conservation area. The house or flat number is what counts. Check that number on the right council’s conservation area map, in the statutory list and against any Article 4 schedule; the title or lease and past planning decisions on the building complete the picture.

Local design and consent context

Its guidance is brief and direct: dormers are very visible and should be carefully considered, uPVC is not recommended for windows and doors, strong front boundaries should be kept and new crossovers for vehicle access and parking resisted. It sees no obvious potential in this very tightly knit area beyond repair and small rear extensions. It also notes that the council could control the replacement of doors and windows, new window openings and changes to boundaries through an Article 4 direction, presenting that as a power the council could use.

Hounslow says its conservation-area Article 4 directions apply to the Gunnersbury and Bedford Park conservation areas, so none of them covers the Stamford Brook Conservation Area. Its borough-wide direction on turning houses into small HMOs was confirmed on 8 August 2023 and came into force on 4 September 2023.

On the Hammersmith and Fulham side, the council’s summary of Ravenscourt and Starch Green Direction No. 1 lists 2–10 (even), 5 and 7, and 9–25 (odd) Stamford Brook Road for alterations to the front roof, gables and dormers, coverings included, changes to rear roof coverings and the painting of unpainted brickwork. Direction No. 4 lists 2–10 (even) and 9–25 (odd) for alterations to the front elevation. Both summaries describe themselves as outside the legal documentation, so it is the wording of each direction that governs. Hammersmith and Fulham also has a borough-wide basement direction, in force from 26 April 2018.

Access and site planning

Check which council manages the street before booking a skip or scaffold. In Hounslow, licences from Hounslow Highways are needed for scaffolding, hoarding, building materials, crane operations and skips, and a parking suspension must be applied for at least ten working days before the space is needed. On the Hammersmith and Fulham side, the skip firm, not the householder, applies for the skip licence, with 14 days as the shortest period; the scaffolding firm applies for the scaffold licence, which lasts at least a month; and parking bays can be suspended, up to six of them for up to three days, on eight days’ notice, counting Saturdays and Sundays.

Continue planning

The Stamford Brook area guide · Loft conversion across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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