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West Kensington and Barons Court W14 · Flat refurbishment

Flat refurbishment in West Kensington and Barons Court

Mansion blocks, 1930s landmarks and flats over the shops

Flats here include homes in late Victorian mansion blocks and 1930s blocks, over shops and on the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates. This page follows what Hammersmith and Fulham’s profiles record about named blocks, from painted brick in Queen’s Club Gardens to windows and railings elsewhere, then turns to the council’s rules and guidance on replacing a flat’s windows, homes over shops, sound between flats and its own consent process where it is the landlord.

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Flat refurbishment in West Kensington and Barons Court at a glance

The Barons Court profile of April 2005 describes the eastern part of its conservation area as tightly built, mostly with three- and four-storey terraces of homes and shops, and names a group of five-storey mansion blocks east of North End Road, two modern five-storey blocks in Vereker Road and seven-storey blocks of flats in Charleville Road and Barons Court Road that act as local landmarks. The Queen’s Club Gardens profile counts 33 mansion blocks, and the 2018 Local Plan describes the West Kensington Estate, of 1972-74, as 604 properties and the Gibbs Green Estate, of 1961, as 98 homes.

LBHF: Barons Court Conservation Area character profile, April 2005 edition, pages 21–32 · LBHF: Queen’s Club Gardens Conservation Area character profile, approved 14 July 2004, updated October 2005 · LBHF Local Plan 2018: policy document

For the whole area, including conservation areas, permissions and working hours, read our West Kensington and Barons Court renovation guide.

Approved guide prices

What does a flat refurbishment cost in West Kensington and Barons Court?

A flat refurbishment in West Kensington and Barons Court runs £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, and a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically lands between £60,000 and £110,000. Most programmes take 16–32 weeks on site. A written scope and site assessment are needed before any project price can be fixed.

Scope of workGuide rateTypical total
Full flat refurbishment (2-bed)£900–£1,700/sqm£60,000–£110,000
Typical programme16–32 weeks on site

Guide rates exclude VAT and are set by depth of work, not by postcode. Compare scopes in our London refurbishment cost-per-square-metre guide or try the cost calculator.

The buildings

Named blocks and what the profiles found

Hammersmith and Fulham’s profiles name many of the blocks here and note what had changed when each was written: 2004 to 2005 for Queen’s Club Gardens, April 2005 for Barons Court and May 2010 for Olympia & Avonmore.

The Queen’s Club Gardens profile records that a previous landlord painted the brickwork of Zenobia Mansions and the Normand Road fronts of Wellington and Victoria Mansions, and that the rear elevations of all 33 blocks were painted a pale colour. The profile’s ‘current landlord’ of 2004 to 2005 had sample areas of paint removed, which proved unsatisfactory because of damage to the bricks and earlier render repairs, so it was agreed that painted brick would be repainted to match. Almost every block kept its original cast-iron boundary railings; those outside Arnold to Faraday Mansions went in the Second World War.

LBHF: Queen’s Club Gardens Conservation Area character profile, approved 14 July 2004, updated October 2005

In the Barons Court Conservation Area, Challoner Mansions (Nos. 1 to 20) is a red-brick block of four storeys over a semi-basement, built in 1898 to 1899 with timber sash windows and stucco hoods to its entrances, and its rear is highly visible from the other end of Challoner Street. West Kensington Mansions, a run of adjoining five-storey red-brick blocks with scalloped parapets at the south junction of North End Road and Beaumont Crescent, had mostly timber sliding sashes when the profile was written and kept its original cast and wrought iron boundary and balcony railings.

LBHF: Barons Court Conservation Area character profile, April 2005 edition, pages 11–20 · LBHF: Barons Court Conservation Area character profile, April 2005 edition, pages 21–32

The Olympia & Avonmore profile describes Avonmore Gardens, a symmetrical red-brick mansion block of 21 bays under a red-tiled mansard, built in 1893, and Kingsley House on Avonmore Place, a four-storey block of flats inscribed 1888 that it found externally unspoilt, and it lists both as locally listed Buildings of Merit. On Addison Bridge Place, Portland Mansions and Welbeck Court rise much taller than the Georgian houses between them. The profile also records that Wellesley Mansions was among the properties transferred to the Gunter Estate Conservation Area on 27 June 2005, so check the council’s current map for any block.

LBHF: Olympia & Avonmore Conservation Area character profile, approved 10 July 2001, updated to May 2010 · LBHF: Gunter Estate Conservation Area

Permissions and local rules

Consents for a flat here: the council, the landlord and the block

Fitzgeorge and Fitzjames: features held in common

What does the profile ask of the two avenues’ blocks?

The Fitzgeorge and Fitzjames profile of March 2000 says the mansion blocks of the two avenues are of similar age and design, and their group value depends on common, unifying features which should be protected. Surviving original decorative railings, gates, finials, balconies and the like should be retained, reinstating missing parts, particularly boundary railings, to match surviving examples should be encouraged, and owners with poor replacement windows should be encouraged to change them for a more appropriate design when an opportunity arises. On ownership it says: “Although privately owned, there is a Management Company”, and it thought piecemeal alteration unlikely.

LBHF: Fitzgeorge and Fitzjames Conservation Area character profile, March 2000, pages 11 to 15

Replacing a flat’s windows

When do new windows in a flat need permission?

Hammersmith and Fulham’s guidance says replacement windows in a flat need no planning permission if they are identical like-for-like replacements in appearance and material, but permission is likely to be required where they would not match in material, in the subdivision and thickness of frame and glazing bars, or in the size of the openings; the lease may also require the freeholder’s permission. In 2005 the Barons Court profile found that many replacement steel frames at Barton Court, a seven-storey 1930s block, lacked the original intermediate glazing bars, and that some of Charleville Court’s metal casements had been altered.

LBHF climate change and planning: replacement double and triple glazing windows · LBHF: Barons Court Conservation Area character profile, April 2005 edition, pages 11–20

Homes over the North End Road shops

What applies to a flat above a shop?

The Barons Court profile describes Nos. 187 to 195 (odd) North End Road, the street front of Kensington Hall Gardens, as a red-brick mansion block of four storeys and an attic, with shops below and a central entrance to the flats. In its centres and parades, Hammersmith and Fulham’s 2018 Local Plan supports converting unused or underused space above ground-floor units into homes, subject to its other policies. Where a home adjoins a shop, its guidance expects substantially enhanced sound insulation and asks for an assessment, with construction details, where homes and shops share a floor, ceiling or wall.

LBHF: Barons Court Conservation Area character profile, April 2005 edition, pages 21–32 · LBHF Local Plan 2018: policy document · LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018

Where Hammersmith and Fulham Council is the landlord

What does the council ask of its own leaseholders?

These rules apply only to the council’s own leaseholders and secure tenants, not to private leases. The council says you must get its consent before starting any alterations, which is separate from planning permission and building regulations approval; even minor works such as new kitchen units or flooring need an application, and major alterations a full licence. Its form for leaseholders says it does not normally consent to replacing council-owned windows and front entrance doors, because of its rolling replacement programme across the borough, and that in general you should allow at least eight weeks from a complete application.

LBHF: alterations to council properties, for council leaseholders and secure tenants, with the consent form (Rev. 5.1, 15 October 2026)

Working hours, skips, parking and the conservation area maps for the whole area are in our West Kensington and Barons Court guide. Local guidance checked ; requirements depend on the address, the building and the complete proposal.

What the work covers

What a flat refurbishment here covers

Hard floors and the flat below

Hammersmith and Fulham’s Planning Guidance SPD of February 2018 says the fashion for hard finishes such as hardwood floors makes good impact sound insulation in the floor and ceiling structures of apartment blocks essential. Before timber or stone goes down in a mansion-block flat, the existing floor is opened and measured, any floor clause in the lease is read and an acoustic layer is agreed with the managing agent; thresholds and skirtings are then set to the new level.

LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018

The entrance door and the common parts

A flat’s entrance door is part of the building’s fire safety. GOV.UK’s fact sheet says the Fire Safety Act 2021 confirms that flat entrance doors fall within the Fire Safety Order. In residential buildings below 11 metres the responsible person must make sure all fire doors, entrance doors included, can provide adequate protection, and since 23 January 2023, in multi-occupied buildings with storeys over 11 metres, they must also endeavour to check flat entrance doors onto the common parts every year. Agree any new door with the freeholder.

GOV.UK: Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, fact sheet on fire doors (regulation 10)

What belongs to the flat

Before a wall moves, the scope establishes which parts are yours under the lease, which may keep structural walls, chimney breasts, risers or the soil stack with the freeholder. Hammersmith and Fulham’s form for its own leaseholders, for instance, says that under the general terms of its leases chimney breasts and stacks are not within their demise, and that a watermist system is not accepted as compensation for removing walls that give passive fire protection. The drawings then mark each boundary for the landlord’s approval.

LBHF: alterations to council properties, for council leaseholders and secure tenants, with the consent form (Rev. 5.1, 15 October 2026)

How we work

How we run a West Kensington and Barons Court flat refurbishment

  1. First visit

    We see the flat, then the entrance, stairs or lift that serve it.

  2. Lease and consents

    We go through the lease’s consent requirements with you and the managing agent at the start.

  3. Survey and design

    Drainage and services are traced on site. Our own architects and structural engineers design the layout and any structural change around those routes, and any new external vent or window is checked for planning.

  4. Price and contract

    A fixed written price and a JCT contract follow the survey, scope and specification. The price names its allowances and exclusions, with consent fees and any common-parts work shown separately.

  5. Working in the building

    Common parts are protected and their condition recorded; deliveries keep to the building’s rules, and noisy work to those rules and the council’s permitted hours; key decisions go to a director.

  6. Handover

    Commissioning, drawings, certificates and any managing-agent close-out. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our flat refurbishment work elsewhere in London

None of these projects is in West Kensington and Barons Court. Each card names where the work was done, so you can judge the finish and the approach before you brief your own.

Your brief

Before you ask for a quotation

  1. Name the block, the council and the landlord

    Send the address and the block’s name, and tell us who the freeholder and managing agent are, or whether Hammersmith and Fulham Council is your landlord. Confirm the council for the address before anything else, since W14 is shared with Kensington and Chelsea, and send the lease and the building’s rules.

  2. Show the windows, door and floors

    Photograph the windows inside and out, the entrance door, the floors and any visible pipework, and say what lies above and below the flat: another flat, a shop, the roof or the ground. These pictures show early which parts the lease, the council or the neighbours will need to see.

  3. Decide what is changing

    Say whether the rooms stay where they are or the layout changes, whether you want hard floors, and whether you are thinking of joining flats, dividing a house or using space below or above. Each choice brings its own consents, so it is the first decision to settle.

Ready to take the next step? Send the address and a short outline of the work.

Book a free feasibility visit

Questions before you begin

Flat refurbishment in West Kensington and Barons Court: questions

Do the council’s rules apply to a flat on the West Kensington or Gibbs Green estate?

That depends on who your landlord is, which your lease shows. Hammersmith and Fulham’s Housing strategy 2021 to 2026 lists among its commitments that the council will seek to protect all existing housing estates, including these two, and develop further mechanisms to prevent any future sell-offs to developers; it does not say who holds each flat. Where the council is your landlord, its own consent process applies; where it is not, follow your lease and your freeholder.

LBHF: Housing strategy 2021 to 2026 · LBHF: alterations to council properties, for council leaseholders and secure tenants, with the consent form (Rev. 5.1, 15 October 2026)

Are Holman Hunt House and Mary Macarthur House council blocks?

The Queen’s Club Gardens profile records that Fulham Borough Council built these two five-storey blocks on Field Road in 1939, each with a central external access staircase and open concrete balconies with metal railings, and that some of their original metal casement windows had been replaced. It does not say who owns or manages them today, so check your lease before assuming that Hammersmith and Fulham Council’s rules for its own leaseholders apply.

LBHF: Queen’s Club Gardens Conservation Area character profile, approved 14 July 2004, updated October 2005

Can a house here be divided into flats, or flats joined back into a house?

Hammersmith and Fulham’s 2018 Local Plan notes that many houses have been converted into smaller flats generally unsuitable for families, and that the council may support turning smaller flats back into a single family home. Policy HO2 supports conversions that increase the number of high-quality family-size homes, particularly where a family house is reinstated, and the plan says it is important that the borough’s smaller terraced houses, a source of family homes, are not unduly reduced by conversion into flats or larger HMOs. Any division is tested against HO2’s criteria.

LBHF Local Plan 2018: policy document

Can a lower-ground flat extend into the basement?

Hammersmith and Fulham’s 2018 Local Plan says the council will allow houses and flats to extend into the basement below the building, provided there is no adverse impact on neighbours’ amenity, such as flooding, and no negative impact on the street scene; Policy DC11 sets further tests. New self-contained basement flats will not be permitted in Flood Zone 3 areas at risk of rapid inundation, or in surface water flooding hotspots with a significant or higher hazard rating, unless a satisfactory means of escape can be provided.

LBHF Local Plan 2018: policy document

How should rooms line up between flats for sound?

For conversions and new homes, Hammersmith and Fulham’s Planning Guidance SPD says it is essential that large family flats are not placed above smaller ones, that similar rooms are stacked above or beside each other, bedroom to bedroom and living room to living room, and that halls buffer noise-sensitive rooms from communal areas. It says the Building Regulations are usually deemed adequate, but that enhanced sound insulation will be required by condition, or refusal of planning permission may be recommended where stacking is particularly inappropriate.

LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018

Where can bins and meters go in a front garden here?

In the Barons Court Conservation Area, the profile says that in streets and terraces with traditional railings, dustbin or meter enclosures should not be permitted where they would detract from the area’s appearance. Hammersmith and Fulham’s 2018 guidance for conservation areas adds that where enclosures in a front garden are acceptable, their design should be in proportion to the boundary and the garden, and they should not be reached through new openings in boundary walls, hedges or railings. Settle their place before any conversion is drawn.

LBHF: Barons Court Conservation Area character profile, April 2005 edition, pages 21–32 · LBHF Planning Guidance SPD, adopted 28 February 2018

How much does a flat refurbishment cost in West Kensington and Barons Court?

Guide rates in West Kensington and Barons Court are £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, with a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically between £60,000 and £110,000, over a 16–32 weeks programme. A written scope and site assessment come before any fixed price.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your West Kensington and Barons Court flat

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your West Kensington and Barons Court flat. We reply within one working day, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Or call 020 7101 3168. We serve West Kensington and Barons Court from our studio at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN.

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