Journal

What Actually Governs a Period House Here

Reference pieces on altering period houses in Kensington and Chelsea, written from the borough’s own documents rather than summaries of them. The rules that decide what you can build, what you can touch, and what it costs.

Guide · 9 min read

Listed Building or Conservation Area, and Why the Difference Decides Everything

Two different legal protections that owners routinely confuse, and often both apply to the same house. One controls the street; the other controls the inside of your rooms, and getting it wrong is a criminal offence rather than a planning dispute.

Read the piece

Guide · 10 min readWhat a Basement Actually Costs in Kensington and Chelsea, and What Decides ItThe borough has the strictest basement policy in the country and the price to match. What drives the figure is rarely the floor area: it is the water table, the party walls, and the width of the street the spoil has to leave by.
Field notes · 8 min readWhere You Can and Cannot Alter a Period House, Street by StreetWe read all fourteen adopted conservation area appraisals for the north of the borough and Chelsea. The rules contradict each other by the street: paint a cornice white in one estate and it is a restoration, do it in the next and it is a fault.

Enquiries

Tell Us About the House.

Every introduction begins with a conversation about the house and what you have in mind. There is no charge for it and no obligation, and you appoint whom you choose.

By email

studio@hollandparkrenovations.co.uk