More for Wimbledon homes: our Wimbledon hub, house refurbishment in Wimbledon, kitchen renovation in Wimbledon, bathroom renovation in Wimbledon. The same work nearby: flat refurbishment in Barnes and flat refurbishment in Putney. Across London: flat refurbishment in London.
Flat
refurbishment
in Wimbledon, SW19
Architects, Engineers, Surveyors & Builders Under One Roof.
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Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building ConsultancyWimbledon flats include 1930s blocks such as Raymond Court and Woodside House and houses divided long ago, which Merton's plan says can be brought up to modern standards.
A common-facing flat with a building-specific brief
For a Parkside mansion flat or a Wimbledon period conversion, inspect the shared floors, risers and entrance route before specifying the interior. Check the exact conservation boundary and lease conditions instead of inferring them from a Village or SW19 address. Coordinate flooring, wet areas and fitted joinery with that survey.
A flat refurbishment in a Wimbledon building: what it covers
A Wimbledon flat may occupy part of a converted house or sit above a shop, and flats in converted houses often share soil stacks and rising supplies with the homes above and below. Before any room is replanned, establish from the lease which pipes, walls and floors belong to the flat and which the building keeps.
Source: LEASE: alterations and home improvements
In a house split into flats, sound insulation between homes, the depth of the floor build-up and the lease's conditions form one decision, which Approved Document E informs. Lift a few boards to see which way the joists run, and ask an engineer whether an internal wall is load-bearing before it comes out.
Source: GOV.UK: Approved Document E, resistance to sound · LEASE: alterations and home improvements · When Building Regulations approval is needed
A flat has no householder permitted development rights, so replacement windows or a new external door call for a planning check as well as the landlord's view. Record each window's condition first, then compare repair, draught-stripping and secondary glazing with replacement before any frames are ordered.
Source: Householder permitted development technical guidance · LEASE: alterations and home improvements
Consents to confirm before altering a Wimbledon flat
The lease governs a leasehold flat in a Wimbledon conversion or above a shop: its alterations clauses say when the landlord's written consent is required and which conditions may attach to floors, services and windows. Get that answer before drawings are finalised, and keep it apart from any council decision, since neither one stands in for the other.
Source: LEASE: alterations and home improvements
New layouts and finishes inside a flat are not normally development, yet listing can still bring internal work under control, because Merton requires listed building consent for alterations likely to affect special historic interest. Conservation-area status is a further question; several Merton areas share the Wimbledon name, so check its map for the exact address.
Source: When planning permission is required · Merton: statutory listed buildings · Historic England: listed-building consent · Merton: list of conservation areas, appraisals and design guides
Source: When Building Regulations approval is needed · GOV.UK: Building Regulations approval · Find the council for the property · Party-wall work requiring notice
Running flat works in a shared Wimbledon building
Measure the shared entrance, stair and landings, with every turn on the way up, before long flooring lengths or a bath are ordered. Agree with the landlord or managing agent how the common parts will be protected, and on which days a shared supply may be isolated.
Source: LEASE: alterations and home improvements
Merton allows noisy building work between 8am and 6pm on weekdays and from 8am until 1pm on Saturdays, not normally on Sundays or bank holidays, yet a lease or block rules may set narrower hours. Let the other residents and any managing agent know beforehand when strip-out and the noisiest work will happen.
Source: Merton: building noise and permitted hours · LEASE: alterations and home improvements
Waste from an upper-floor flat still leaves by the street. Merton licenses skips only to registered skip hire companies, accepts none on a red route or double yellow lines, and may restrict licences around the Wimbledon Championships. If you plan to live in the flat during the works, decide which rooms stay usable and how dust is contained.
Source: Merton: skip licences
Preparing a Wimbledon flat brief for quotation
Have the lease and any block rules to hand, with plans from earlier work, past planning or listed building decisions and building control completion certificates for the flat. If you know the conservation area, name it, bearing in mind that Wandsworth designates a Wimbledon North conservation area of its own, separate from Merton's.
Source: LEASE: alterations and home improvements · Wandsworth: conservation area appraisals · Merton: list of conservation areas, appraisals and design guides
Mark which repairs and finishes are settled and which await the landlord's reply, lifted floorboards or an engineer's view, so the open items can appear as provisional sums. Decide who corresponds with the landlord or managing agent, who arranges inspections and how changes to the specification will be logged.
What does a flat refurbishment cost in Wimbledon?
A written scope and site assessment are needed before any project price can be fixed.
Interwar blocks, divided houses and family homes
The Hill Road character assessment describes Raymond Court as a large four storey block of 1931 whose top floor is largely a mansard roof hung with tiles, and Woodside House as a very large block of four storey flats from 1937.
Merton's plan notes that many larger houses were divided into flats or houses in multiple occupation before today's space standards applied, and that converting, reconfiguring or extending such properties can bring them up to modern standards.
A new conversion of a family house with three or more bedrooms must keep at least one family-sized home, and every conversion has to meet the London Plan's space standards.
In Flood Zone 3a the plan permits no self-contained basement flat and no bedroom at basement level.
Some Wimbledon houses have gone the other way: West Wimbledon's assessment notes that some historic houses have been converted back into individual family homes.
Inside the flat the lease lists the alterations needing the landlord's approval, and LEASE cautions that a change made without a needed consent breaches the lease even if an earlier owner carried it out.
If a refurbishment creates a new flat in a conversion, a ground floor home should meet the London Plan's Policy D7 on accessible housing, while upper floor homes in a minor development can meet the M4(1) standard where step-free access is not feasible.
Flats at the bottom of a building can be at risk from below: Merton's basement guidance notes that basements may be more susceptible to sewer flooding, and the plan requires positively pumped devices where a basement discharges to the sewer.
Some leases forbid particular works outright, LEASE notes, cutting into external walls being its example, which would stop a new flue or extract unless the landlord agrees.
Merton asks anyone with a freehold interest in the property to be consulted, and their requirements met, before an application goes in, which in a block of flats means the freeholder and often the managing agent too.
On Woodside the 1937 block's walls are mainly light brown brick with bays projecting in white render, and its windows have been replaced with uPVC double glazing that keeps the inter-war horizontal glazing bars; along the same road, a detached house of 1898 is now divided into flats.
Most of West Wimbledon's housing was built speculatively and has always been privately owned, the assessment notes, though there are exceptions, among them homes built by the local Cottage Improvement Society near Denmark Road, then called South Road.
Outside Wimbledon: Gloucester Road, South Kensington, an apartment on Gloucester Road that we refurbished.
In an interwar block the managing agent is asked for the building's drawings and its rules for works before the survey.
Sources: Merton: Wimbledon Hill Road conservation area character assessment (July 2006); Merton Local Plan 2024–2037/38 (adopted 20 November 2024); Merton: West Wimbledon conservation area character assessment (2004); GOV.UK - Leasehold property; LEASE: alterations and home improvements; Merton: Basement and Subterranean Planning Guidance SPD (March 2017).
Flat Refurbishment in Wimbledon: Questions
Do I need building control approval for a Wimbledon flat refurbishment?
For parts of it. The Building Regulations 2010 cover building work and their approval is separate from planning permission, and electrical work in the special location around a bath or shower is one of the parts that usually needs it.
Is a basement flat allowed in Wimbledon?
Not in Flood Zone 3a, where Merton permits no self-contained basement home or basement bedroom; elsewhere a basement flat still has to meet the plan's basement and space rules.
Can a Wimbledon house be converted into flats?
Possibly. Merton requires a conversion of a family home with three or more bedrooms to keep at least one family-sized home, every new flat to meet the London Plan space standards, and ground floor homes to meet its accessible housing policy.
What kinds of flats do you refurbish in Wimbledon?
Flats in purpose-built blocks of the 1930s such as Raymond Court and Woodside House, and flats in Victorian and Edwardian houses divided before today's space standards applied.
Are the common-facing mansion flats in Wimbledon leasehold?
Most flats are leasehold, and the lease records whether alterations need the landlord's permission, so we read it before the survey.
Does Wimbledon's conservation status affect a flat refurbishment?
For external changes it can. In a conservation area Merton expects a Heritage Statement showing how a proposal conserves the area's significance, and new windows or doors on a period building are judged against its original features.
