Flat refurbishment in Teddington

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

Teddington Lock Conservation Area was designated in 1977 and spans both banks of the Thames, with most development on the Teddington side and the Ham bank keeping its rural character. Its appraisal, adopted on 30 March 2023, takes in part of the High Street and residential streets such as Twickenham Road, Manor Road and Kingston Road. The lock, built in 1811 and rebuilt in stone in 1857, marks the end of the tidal Thames. At the eastern end of Ferry Road, modest two-storey cottages stand beside four-storey late Victorian semi-detached houses and a timber-clad boathouse.

High Street Teddington Conservation Area, designated on 7 September 1982 and extended in 2013 and 2019, covers the High Street between the railway and Kingston Lane with Manor Road, Cambridge Road, Watts Lane and Waldegrave Road. Its 2023 appraisal describes a predominantly Victorian and Edwardian High Street with many original shopfronts. Cambridge Road and Manor Road, added in 2019, are lined mainly with Edwardian semi-detached houses, all of them Buildings of Townscape Merit, while Watts Lane is a compact group of two-storey 19th-century stock-brick terraced cottages.

Teddington is a ward, but so is Hampton Wick & South Teddington, and a TW11 postcode does not settle the council, the ward, the conservation area, the listing or the Article 4 position. Broom Water abuts the borough’s eastern boundary, and Kingston lies in the neighbouring borough beyond Hampton Wick. Broom Road shows why the street name is no guide: its north-west end, including 4–10, is in Teddington Lock Conservation Area, the houses on its south-west side either side of Atbara Road are in Broom Water Conservation Area, and Broom House on the King Edwards Grove corner is in King Edwards Grove Conservation Area. Check the council’s map, the list, the Article 4 directions, the title or lease and the planning history.

Local design and consent context

Two Teddington areas have appraisals adopted on 30 March 2023. The Teddington Lock appraisal gives the designation as 7 September 1977, while the council’s statement and studies page give 15 March 1977; all agree on extensions in 1982 and 2005, and the appraisal and statement add 2019. The High Street Teddington appraisal says that area adjoins Teddington Lock to the east, Broad Street to the west and The Grove to the north. The Teddington Lock appraisal also says the lock’s two footbridges of 1888 are Grade II listed.

The council’s own statement for each of the other areas gives these details. Park Road (No. 22), designated on 10 December 1974, has substantial 18th-century detached houses in mature grounds on its west side; The Grove (No. 26), from 15 March 1977, is a planned estate that the Royal Dutch Shell Co built for its employees after a house there was demolished in the 1920s; Blackmore’s Grove (No. 39), from 1982, is a tightly packed group of two-storey terraced cottages with a few detached and semi-detached houses; Broom Water (No. 28) was extended in 2003 and 2005. Broad Street (No. 84), Church Road (No. 85), Royal Road (No. 81), Wick Road (No. 83) and King Edwards Grove (No. 80) all date from 20 February 2019.

The Hampton Wick and Teddington Village Planning Guidance SPD was adopted on 30 June 2017, prepared in light of the existing and emerging Local Plan policy of that time, and its character areas include Teddington Lock, the High Street, Broom Road and Kingston Road, and Broom Water. The 2023 appraisals refer front-garden parking questions to a Transport SPD; the council’s list now shows a Transport SPD adopted on 12 June 2026. For roofs, the borough-wide House Extensions and External Alterations SPD of 1 June 2015 is against turning a hip into a gable, finds hipped or gabled dormers often preferable to a flat-roofed one and suggests rooflights as another option.

Access and site planning

Richmond allows noisy work between 8am and 6pm from Monday to Friday and between 8am and 1pm on Saturday, with no noisy work on Sundays or bank holidays, and its Construction Code of Practice puts scaffolding in the noisy category. Above a shop, agree delivery and working arrangements with the shop and the building’s owner as well as the neighbours. Check the lease for its own rules, and decide early whether you will stay in the home during the loudest stages.

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

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