Kitchen
renovation
in Esher, KT10
Designers, Architects, Engineers & Builders Under One Roof.
One Studio. One Contract. One Team.
Plan an Esher kitchen from the structure, extract route and drainage of the house you have, whether a Clive Road house, an Esher Place house or an original at Lakeside Drive.
Kitchens in Esher sit inside very different plans: a 1920s Blair Imrie house on Clive Road whose modern plan shows on the outside, a large inter-war house in Esher Place, or a Lakeside Drive house where the kitchen shares a service core with the entrance hall.
The first question is seldom the units. It is which walls can move, where cooking fumes can be ducted out and how the waste will reach the drain.
Kitchen layouts in Esher's main house types
The Lakeside Drive appraisal describes houses conceived as a kit of parts, with service cores that hold the entrance hall and kitchen, and window walls usually along the sitting room and main bedroom. It also records alterations to internal layouts that have reduced or removed the architect's intended views to the lake, especially from entrance halls, which is the first thing we test when a Lakeside Drive kitchen is enlarged or opened up.
On Clive Road, where George Blair Imrie designed the original houses, the appraisal finds them clearly of the 1920s and puts that down mainly to a modern plan form that is partly expressed on the outside. A new kitchen window, door or garden opening on a visible elevation is therefore a question for the street, and within the conservation area the appraisal would look for painted windows where a traditional design is used, generally ruling out plastic or aluminium frames.
Esher Place, a 1930s extension of large houses in generous plots, and the New Road, Esher Park Avenue and Milbourne Lane sub-area of mostly large detached houses give more room to work with. Those descriptions come from the 2012 companion guide, which now describes rather than decides: the Design Code adopted in April 2024 took over from its parent guidance for applications submitted after 6 January 2025. If you would like the kitchen moved into a new addition at the back, the planning and party wall questions on our Esher extensions page come into play too.
Sources: Elmbridge Borough Council: Lakeside Drive conservation area character appraisal and management plan; Elmbridge Borough Council: Esher Conservation Area Character Appraisal & Management Proposals (endorsed February 2008); Elmbridge Borough Council: Design and Character SPD companion guide - Esher (April 2012); Elmbridge Borough Council: Design Code SPD page
Ventilation, electrics and structure in an Esher kitchen
Approved Document F deals with kitchen refits directly. A fan or cooker hood that already extracts to the open air stays, or is renewed, and any that are retained get tested to confirm they still work. A hood that only recirculates air cannot meet Part F by itself, and the guidance wants the hood at least as wide as the cooker beneath it. Replacing a hood or fan on cabling already in place is not something building control has to be told about. That is the guidance of the 2021 edition, which continues to apply to buildings under earlier standards; a 2026 edition now covers buildings subject to the 2026 standards, and we check which one the kitchen falls under.
Approved Document P sorts electrical jobs into notifiable and non-notifiable. Running a new circuit, or changing the consumer unit, falls in the first group; a built-in oven wired to a circuit that is already there falls in the second unless a fresh cooker circuit is needed. An electrician registered with a competent person scheme can certify notifiable work without a separate application.
Where knocking the kitchen through to the dining room alters the structure, the work may need approval under the Building Regulations: from Elmbridge Building Control Services (EBCS), for Elmbridge Borough Council, until 31 March 2027, and from 1 April 2027 the provider named by East Surrey Council, or from a registered approver in the private sector. Where a beam has to be pocketed into the party wall between your house and the next, the neighbours are owed notice under the Party Wall Act.
If the house is listed, consent comes first for any alteration inside that would bear on its special character, a new opening included. The 2008 appraisal counted 25 listed buildings in the Esher conservation area alone, so we confirm the listing position before a single wall is marked up.
Sources: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (gov.uk): Approved Document F, Volume 1: Dwellings, 2021 edition; Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (gov.uk): Ventilation: Approved Document F; Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (gov.uk): Approved Document P: Electrical safety, dwellings (2013 edition); Elmbridge Borough Council: Building control; GOV.UK: Building regulations approval; GOV.UK: Party walls and building work (printable guide); Elmbridge Borough Council: Listed and locally listed buildings; Elmbridge Borough Council: Esher Conservation Area Character Appraisal & Management Proposals (endorsed February 2008)
How we plan and fit an Esher kitchen
We measure the kitchen together with its neighbouring rooms, lift a floorboard to find which way the joists span and where the drain runs, and locate the incoming water, the gas meter and the fuse board before drawing anything.
The drawings set the units against the windows and chimney breasts, with the extract duct, waste falls and every gas and electrical point marked, so the worktop, sink and hob positions are fixed before a cabinet is ordered.
Family life carries on elsewhere in the house while the room is stripped. We seal the kitchen behind dust screens, rig a stand-in sink and hob in another room if you want one, and board the hall and stair along the route builders use.
Outside Esher, and in London rather than Surrey: Holland Avenue, Wimbledon SW20. That completed project of ours combined a loft conversion, a double-storey extension to the rear and side, and a whole-home refurbishment, as its case study describes.
Sources: Hampstead Renovations: Holland Avenue, Wimbledon SW20 case study
Kitchen Renovation in Esher: Questions
Will an Esher kitchen refit need any consent?
Planning permission is not needed for the kitchen itself, as interior alterations fall outside the definition of development. Listed building consent applies if the house is listed and the work touches its character, structural changes go through building control, and a new circuit or consumer unit is notifiable electrical work.
Could my Esher kitchen and dining room become one space?
It can, once an engineer has established whether the dividing wall is load-bearing and how the new opening will be held up. Taking out a load-bearing wall is a structural alteration, which may need building control approval, and in a semi or terrace a beam set into the shared wall triggers the Party Wall Act. At Lakeside Drive we also make sure the new layout keeps the views through the house to the lake.
Which extract and wiring rules govern a new Esher kitchen?
Under the 2021 edition of Approved Document F, which still applies to buildings under the earlier standards, extraction that already vents to the open air should stay or be renewed, and be tested, and a hood that merely recirculates cannot meet Part F on its own. On the electrical side, a fresh circuit, for instance for a new cooker, or a new consumer unit, is notifiable, and a registered electrician can certify it.
How is an Esher kitchen priced before work starts?
We survey the room and its services, agree the layout and appliances with you, and then price against drawings that show the units, extract, drainage and electrical points. Building work, services, joinery and your chosen appliances each sit on their own lines.
Which parts of an Esher kitchen job go to building control?
Structural work goes to Elmbridge Building Control Services (EBCS), for Elmbridge Borough Council, until 31 March 2027, and from 1 April 2027 the provider named by East Surrey Council, or to a private-sector registered approver. Notifiable electrics are certified by a registered electrician, and a hood or fan replaced on its existing cabling needs no notification at all.
What helps us most when we first visit about your Esher kitchen?
Pictures of the existing kitchen and the spaces next to it, any plans of the house, where the boiler, gas meter and fuse board are, the appliances on your list, and completion certificates from earlier building work.
Book a free feasibility visit
Request a visit
Completed renovation project example
