Flat refurbishment in Streatham

Plan the apartment and the shared building together.

Start with the flat refurbishment brief

Start with the lease, floor level, common access and the rooms you want to change. Trace shared drainage and services, identify the floor build-up and establish what the building manager needs before an internal layout is agreed.

Coordinate deliveries, noise, protection of common parts and waste removal with the building arrangements. Keep landlord approvals, design decisions and the construction scope separate so each responsibility is clear.

The local building context

Streatham Common Conservation Area, first designated on 16 June 1994, lies on Lambeth’s southern boundary; the adjoining Norwood Grove is in Croydon. Its April 2017 appraisal describes an eclectic mix of historic housing round a historic open space, in stock, red and gault brick, with timber sliding sashes the usual 19th-century window. Leigham Court Road (South), designated in 1981 and wholly residential, adjoins it at its own south-west corner and has smart detached houses in large gardens; unusually, it takes in some front gardens but not the houses behind them.

The Streatham High Road and Streatham Hill area, first designated on 7 December 1999 with boundary changes in January 2024, has a busy town-centre character: shops and entertainment buildings beside churches and residential mansion blocks. Immediately east of the High Road, Sunnyhill Road has modest terraced and semi-detached Victorian brick cottages, and Leigham Court Road (North), designated in 2002, has villas widely spaced in ample grounds. The Leigham Court Estate, first designated on 18 February 1981, was built between 1889 and 1928 as long terraces of flats and houses on a grid.

A Streatham address or an SW16 or SW2 postcode does not settle the council, a conservation boundary, a listing or the consent route. The Streatham Park and Garrads Road area sits on Lambeth’s boundary with Wandsworth and is contiguous with Wandsworth’s Tooting Bec conservation area, and Streatham Common is on the edge with Croydon. Lambeth’s own skip page asks applicants to confirm an address is in Lambeth first. Check the constraints tab on Lambeth’s planning database, the list entry, any Article 4 direction, the lease or title and the planning history.

Local design and consent context

Lambeth’s documents give these first designations: Garrads Road, 1969, renamed Streatham Park and Garrads Road in 1999; Sunnyhill Road, 2 April 1973, part of which moved to the High Road area in 1999; Leigham Court Estate, 18 February 1981; Leigham Court Road (South), 1981; Streatham Common, 16 June 1994; Telford Park, 9 September 1994; Streatham High Road and Streatham Hill, 7 December 1999; Leigham Court Road (North), 2002; and Streatham Lodge, 8 June 2009.

The documents vary in age. Leigham Court Road North and South have appraisals of September 2016, Streatham Common one of April 2017 and Sunnyhill Road one of May 2017; the Streatham Park and Garrads Road statement of November 2023 is a material planning consideration. Telford Park’s guidance is its 1994 designation report, Streatham Lodge’s 2009 designation report sets out the case for that area, and the High Road area has a conservation area statement.

The Leigham Court Estate direction is dated 22 October 1996 and was approved by the Secretary of State for the Environment on 18 November 1996. It takes away householder rights to enlarge or alter a house, add to or alter the roof, build a porch, lay hard surfaces and fit satellite antennas, plus rights over gates, fences and walls, means of access and exterior painting. The estate’s 2001 guidelines say that demolition under the direction includes removing chimney pots or stacks, windows, doors, fences or hedges.

Access and site planning

Lambeth sets the hours: construction and building work may start at 8am and must stop by 6pm on weekdays and by 1pm on Saturdays, and Sundays and bank holidays are off limits. Plan the noisy stages inside those hours, tell neighbours and any managing agent the dates in writing, and in a mansion block or on the Leigham Court Estate agree deliveries and access with the building. Decide with your household whether to stay at home through the loudest work.

Lambeth: building noise and permitted hours

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The Streatham area guide · Flat refurbishment across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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