Oxshott · Elmbridge · Surrey
Refurbishment, extensions, kitchens and basements for Oxshott houses, with the design work and the building handled by the same people from our Hampstead base on Finchley Road.
In Oxshott the plot matters as much as the house. Before we draw anything we look at the trees, how the garden slopes, the road the house stands on and the council papers that apply to that address, because each of them can change what is buildable.
Serving Oxshott from our Hampstead studio · NW3 6DN
020 7101 3168
Services in Oxshott
01 Whole house
A full refurbishment of an Oxshott house, from strip-out, rewiring and insulation through to new joinery and finishes. It begins with a measured survey and an agreed record of what is kept.
02 More space
Rear, side and two-storey additions shaped around the house, its neighbours and the trees on the plot. Much of the route turns on whether the plot lies in the Green Belt.
03 Kitchens
New kitchens in Oxshott houses, including those joined to a dining or family room. Duct routes, waste pipes and wiring go on the drawings before any cabinet is ordered.
04 Below ground
New basements under or beside an existing house. Groundwater, nearby trees and any Green Belt status are assessed before a design is offered.
Oxshott homes
Oxshott is mostly a village of detached houses. Residents' comments gathered for the 2024 Elmbridge Design Code describe most of the settlement as detached houses on large plots in private residential roads, with a green character and a high incidence of trees and hedging.
Census figures need a caveat here. The ward figures below are for the Oxshott and Stoke D'Abernon ward, which the village shares with its neighbour. At the 2021 Census, 2,528 of that combined ward's 3,411 households occupied detached homes, 474 semi-detached ones and 108 terraced ones, so the numbers describe two villages together and not Oxshott by itself.
How the village grew still shows in its street plan. The council's 2012 character guide for Cobham, Oxshott, Stoke D'Abernon and Downside, which the 2024 Design Code superseded for applications lodged after 6 January 2025, traces development around the stations opened by the London and South-Western Railway, Oxshott's among them, from the turn of the last century. It records that land around Oxshott station, and particularly to its south, was often developed by demolishing a large house and building a small estate in its grounds.
The result is a pattern of separate crescents and cul-de-sacs that rarely join up. The same guide names Danes Way, Knott Park and the Waverley Road estate among these mini estates, finds most houses medium to large and detached, mostly two storeys with some single-storey homes on Waverley Road, and observes that buildings seldom go beyond two and a half storeys.
Gardens do much of the work in the street scene. The guide describes houses set back in mature gardens, often behind soft, planted boundaries, and tree cover that defines the longer views along streets and lanes, often half hiding the houses themselves.
Sources: Elmbridge Borough Council: Elmbridge Design Code 2024 (SPD); Office for National Statistics (Nomis): Census 2021 TS044 Accommodation type, Oxshott and Stoke D'Abernon ward (E05011083); Elmbridge Borough Council: Design Code SPD page; Elmbridge Borough Council: Companion guide - Cobham, Oxshott, Stoke d'Abernon and Downside
Approvals
Planning decisions for Oxshott addresses are made by Elmbridge Borough Council until 31 March 2027; East Surrey Council from 1 April 2027. Borough-wide policy, such as the Green Belt extension test and the position of the local plan, is explained on our Elmbridge page; this section deals with how it affects a house in Oxshott.
The council adopted the Elmbridge Design Code on 17 April 2024. Under the council's validation rules, householder applications must include a completed Design Code Checklist, and the Code replaces the Design and Character guidance of 2012 for applications submitted after 6 January 2025.
Building close to a tree means supplying information to BS 5837:2012, and the council's guidance reaches trees growing next door and in the street, not just those within the site boundary. Even permitted development requires permission where it may affect a protected tree or its roots.
For building control, Oxshott addresses are served by 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. A homeowner may prefer a private registered building control approver, in which case the approver informs the council by giving an initial notice.
The Core Strategy describes broad areas of Green Belt around the settlement area that takes in Oxshott, and the Design Code shows Green Belt land encircling the village. A house on the fringe may fall within it, and an extension is then judged by reference to the house's size on 1 July 1948, or when first built if that came later.
We confirm the deciding council, the building control route and every designation for the specific address before design starts, from the council's own records rather than from the postcode.
Sources: Surrey councils (Future Surrey hub, linked from Elmbridge home page): East Surrey Council (Future Surrey LGR hub); Elmbridge Borough Council: Design Code SPD page; Elmbridge Borough Council: Building near a tree; Elmbridge Borough Council: Building control; GOV.UK: Building regulations approval (printable guide); Elmbridge Borough Council: Elmbridge Core Strategy; Elmbridge Borough Council: Elmbridge Design Code 2024 (SPD); Elmbridge Borough Council: Development Management Plan (April 2015)
Local policy
No conservation area carries Oxshott's name. The Core Strategy lists five for the wider settlement area (The Tilt, Downside Village, Stoke D'Abernon, Cobham and Plough Corner), and the council's index of conservation areas has no separate Oxshott entry. Its My Neighbourhood map will confirm the position for any one property.
The Crown Estate has its own line in policy. Core Strategy policy CS17 sets a minimum density for new housing and names the Crown Estate, Oxshott among three places where that minimum does not apply. The 2012 guide, used here only as a description of the place, identified the Birds Hill Estate and Bevendean as parts of the Crown Estate, with houses in very large plots often screened completely by mature beech hedges and trees.
On flooding, Oxshott starts from high ground. The council's Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment of April 2024 puts Fairmile and Oxshott on high land of roughly 45-75m AOD, with the ground dropping west to around 20m AOD at Cobham. The River Rythe has its source near Oxshott in the Prince's Coverts woodland, and the functional floodplain mapped along it takes in land to the south of the A3 at Oxshott.
Height does not remove surface water. In its section on surface water flooding, the assessment cites county records of Sheath Lane and neighbouring roads in Oxshott flooding in August 2016 and 2023, and it notes that no defences are present along the Rythe. It also judges the main built-up part of Cobham and Oxshott likely to suit infiltration drainage well, which matters when a new roof or terrace needs a soakaway.
The landscape around the village is protected too. Parts of Oxshott Heath lie within the Esher Common SSSI named in the Core Strategy, and the view of the Dorking Gap from Oxshott Heath is one of the borough's seven strategic views, described in the Development Management Plan as a foreground of open heath and woodland in which Oxshott's houses are barely seen.
Sources: Elmbridge Borough Council: Elmbridge Core Strategy; Elmbridge Borough Council: Conservation areas (index); Elmbridge Borough Council: About conservation areas; Elmbridge Borough Council: Companion guide - Cobham, Oxshott, Stoke d'Abernon and Downside; Elmbridge Borough Council: Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment, April 2024 (AECOM); Elmbridge Borough Council: Development Management Plan (April 2015)
Building fabric
The kinds of house below each set a different first question for the survey. The descriptions draw on the council's 2012 character guide, which the 2024 Design Code replaced for applications submitted after 6 January 2025.
Many houses stand on parcels cut from the grounds of earlier large houses, arranged around crescents and closes such as Oxdowne Close. Plot sizes vary, so the first survey records boundaries, levels and the windows of the houses next door, well ahead of any extension sketch.
The 2012 guide found Birds Hill Estate houses of two to three storeys placed at varying angles within their plots, and much recent replacement with considerably larger houses, garaging and outbuildings. A newer house may come with its own construction drawings and certificates, and finding them first saves opening up.
The same guide records Pinewoods, between the Birds Hill Estate and Bevendean, as a much extended late 19th century Grade II listed house. Listing covers interiors as well as exteriors, so the status of any older house is looked up on Explore Elmbridge or the national list before a scope is written.
The guide notes significant changes in level, with steeper sections often wooded, and fine specimen trees in front gardens such as one in Fernhill. Level changes drive foundation depths, drainage falls and thresholds; roots decide where a foundation can go at all.
Sources: Elmbridge Borough Council: Design Code SPD page; Elmbridge Borough Council: Companion guide - Cobham, Oxshott, Stoke d'Abernon and Downside; Elmbridge Borough Council: Listed and locally listed buildings
On site
Getting a skip, scaffold and deliveries to an Oxshott house takes some arranging. The Design Code's residents' summary describes private residential roads across most of the village, and the council's superseded 2012 character guide describes the Birds Hill Estate as a private estate with limited access and no through public access.
Residents also told the Design Code that through-traffic on the A244 from the M25 and A3 is very heavy at times, on top of school-run traffic. Where the A244 is the way in, deliveries and skip swaps are timed to miss those peaks.
Forming a new or wider driveway entrance over a public pavement or verge means an authorised vehicle crossover, the formal name for a dropped kerb, applied for to Surrey County Council until 31 March 2027; East Surrey Council from 1 April 2027. Its guidance says the application needs sign-off from the county and from the local borough council alike. The crossover itself must be built by a contractor on the county's approved list, and any work on the footway without the county's express permission is an offence.
Two parts of that guidance suit a village of hedges and slopes. Owners are told not to take out hedging, walls or trees to make room for a crossover until approval is confirmed, and applicants are asked to think about whether planting, bends or sloping ground would spoil a driver's sightlines. Where the crossover is part of a wider scheme of works, the county asks applicants to contact its Transport Development Planning Team.
On a private road we find out who manages the road surface and verges before we plan deliveries, parking or any change to the entrance.
Sources: Elmbridge Borough Council: Elmbridge Design Code 2024 (SPD); Elmbridge Borough Council: Companion guide - Cobham, Oxshott, Stoke d'Abernon and Downside; Elmbridge Borough Council: Design Code SPD page; Surrey County Council: Vehicle crossovers or dropped kerbs (Surrey County Council); Surrey councils (Future Surrey hub, linked from Elmbridge home page): East Surrey Council (Future Surrey LGR hub)
Scope
We give a price once the work is defined, not before. For an Oxshott house that means a survey of the building and the ground around it, a record of trees and boundaries, and a list of the consents the work will need.
Send the address and a few lines on what you want to change. The address lets us look up designations, flood mapping and tree records before we arrive.
We go round the inside and the grounds together, judge how the road and the nearby trees affect access, and set out the options with what each one would involve.
Floor plans, elevations and levels across the plot, with the existing drains, services and any outbuildings drawn in.
Drawings, then the consent route (planning application or permitted development), the Design Code checklist if an application goes in, the engineer's calculations and the building control submission.
A specification and a drawing set, with every item costed separately, so nothing in the total is hidden.
Protection for trees and verges goes in first; then the building work, and finally a handover pack of certificates and manuals.
Our Hampstead base, serving Oxshott
Our studio is in Hampstead on Finchley Road, at NW3 6DN. We serve Oxshott from this office. Bring us the practical questions about your house, flat or bathroom and the result you want to achieve.
Contact the studio to discuss your brief and arrange the next step. If you already have drawings, a lease or planning correspondence, tell us what is available.
Book a free feasibility visitOxshott in the plan
The Core Strategy groups Oxshott with Cobham, Stoke D'Abernon and Downside under policy CS10, which commits the council to support initiatives that help sustain the individual communities of Oxshott, Stoke D'Abernon and Downside.
In the shopping hierarchy Oxshott is a Local Centre, listed with Claygate, Hinchley Wood and Thames Ditton among others. The strategy notes that shopping is provided more locally in Oxshott, that Oxshott station offers fast trains to Waterloo, and that the village is among the more rural areas expected to provide for a limited quantum of development.
For the wider settlement area the strategy describes a narrow range of house types, with a significant majority detached or semi-detached and very few terraced houses or flats.
The residents' views recorded in the Design Code fill in the rest. They describe a centre of largely independent shops, value the views across Oxshott from the Heath, and list gated houses and paved-over front gardens among the changes they see as out of keeping or as adding to flood worries.
We take that as a design brief in its own right: the front garden, the boundary and the trees are drawn on the first survey, so a proposal for an Oxshott house answers to them from the start.
Outside Oxshott, 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: Elmbridge Borough Council: Elmbridge Core Strategy; Elmbridge Borough Council: Elmbridge Design Code 2024 (SPD); Hampstead Renovations: Holland Avenue, Wimbledon SW20 case study
Oxshott questions
None of the council's conservation areas is named after Oxshott. The Core Strategy lists five in the wider Cobham, Oxshott, Stoke D'Abernon and Downside area: The Tilt, Downside Village, Stoke D'Abernon, Cobham and Plough Corner. The council's My Neighbourhood map settles the question for an individual property, and we consult it for each Oxshott address at the outset.
The Design Code shows Green Belt land around the village, so a house on its edge may sit inside the boundary. If yours does, the council applies policy DM18 of its Development Management Plan and compares the proposal with the original house, taken as its size on 1 July 1948 or when first built if later. We quote that test word for word on our Elmbridge page, and we check where the boundary runs for your address before drawing.
Policy CS17 fixes 30 dwellings per hectare as the lowest density for new housing, but names the Crown Estate, Oxshott as one of three exceptions. The council's 2012 character guide, now superseded for new applications, identified the Birds Hill Estate and Bevendean as parts of the Crown Estate, noted that CS17 recognises the Crown Estate as an area of special low density residential development, and found houses in very large plots behind beech hedges and trees.
Elmbridge Borough Council until 31 March 2027; East Surrey Council from 1 April 2027. On vesting day every local council service passes to the new authority, and until that date the present county, borough and district councils keep working as usual, so the drawings and forms name whichever authority is in place on the day they are submitted.
Most of the village is on high land, which the council's April 2024 flood study places at roughly 45-75m AOD. The River Rythe rises near Oxshott, and its functional floodplain includes land south of the A3 at Oxshott, while the study's surface water section records flooding on Sheath Lane and nearby roads. For one specific property, the Environment Agency's planning flood map shows the zone and whether a flood risk assessment would be required; we check it before the feasibility visit.
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. A private registered approver can be appointed in its place, and for jobs carried out by a tradesperson who belongs to a competent person scheme, no application of your own is needed.
Yes. One room is surveyed, drawn and protected with the same care as a whole house, because the extract, the drainage and any structural opening have to be right whatever the size of the job. Our Oxshott kitchen page goes into those points, and a bathroom follows the same sequence.
The address, photographs of the rooms and garden areas involved, any existing drawings or past planning and building control documents, and, for a private road, the name of whoever looks after it. A copy of the title is useful too.
We have a single studio, in Hampstead on Finchley Road, NW3. Our designers and project managers travel out for the feasibility visit, the survey and each site meeting, and once building starts the team is based at your house.
Every service page we publish for Oxshott.