House refurbishment in Streatham

Bring the whole-house scope together.

Start with the house refurbishment brief

Survey the rooms, structure and building services before separating repairs from alterations. Identify the features to keep and the rooms that must remain usable, then coordinate heating, electrics, bathrooms, kitchens and finishes in one written scope.

Record allowances and exclusions against the drawings. Plan inspections before work is covered, agree how changes will be priced and keep a clear handover list for certificates, commissioning and snagging.

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.

On Lambeth’s south-western edge, the Streatham Park and Garrads Road area, designated as Garrads Road in 1969 and extended in 1999 and 2002, is roughly bounded by Garrads Road, Bedford Hill, Ockley Road and Rydal Road; its November 2023 statement describes leafy suburban development of 1880 to 1930, including large Queen Anne-style semi-detached houses on ample plots. Streatham Lodge, designated on 8 June 2009, centres on an estate of late 19th and early 20th-century houses in a mature suburban setting, and Telford Park, from 1994, covers houses laid out between 1878 and 1882.

Local design and consent context

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.

The Streatham Lodge direction was made on 21 June 2010, served on 23 July 2010 and confirmed on 18 October 2010, and covers only part of the conservation area: the houses its schedule names on nine streets, including Baldry Gardens, Braxted Park, Copley Park and Strathbrook Road. Where the work fronts what the notice calls a relevant location, it controls house alterations, roof slopes, porches, hard surfaces, gates, fences and walls, their demolition and exterior painting. Lambeth says permission is required for any work a direction identifies.

The Lambeth Local Plan 2021, adopted on 22 September 2021, covers 2020 to 2035, and under its Policy Q23 the council keeps a local heritage list. Lambeth has two borough-wide supplementary planning documents and one for a single area. Its Design Guide SPD was adopted on 8 August 2023: Part 4 guides alterations, extensions and retrofit, and Part 5 guides basement schemes. The Leigham Court Estate guidelines of 2001 are not among the current SPDs, so treat them as dated guidance.

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 · House refurbishment across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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