HEREFORD SQUARE
Kensington, London
Refurbishment | Residential
Client: Private
Size: 100sqm
Heritage: Grade II Listed
Team: Banda Property, Lengineering
At Sketch Design, we help our clients navigate the planning system and negotiate the scope of works with the planners with the aim of achieving the client’s vision and requirements while preserving and enhancing the historic character of their property.
On our latest project in South Kensington, we secured Planning and Listed Building consent for our client’s home. While the main elements of the original plan-form, historic features and historic building fabric had to be retained, we were able to successfully negotiate a number of alterations based on practical and health and safety considerations and current Building Regulations.
Historic homes often offer an excellent location and a lot of period charm. However, securing statutory approvals for works to Listed Buildings can be challenging. Apart from the changes to the building’s exterior, which will require Planning Consent, most of the interior alternations and alterations to the building curtilage will need a Listed Building Consent.
Depending on the building’s history and previous alterations, the scope to reconfigure the original layouts and remove historic features or historic building fabric might be very restricted. What will be allowed will depend on the listing category, more restrictions will apply Grade I and Grade II* buildings than to Grade II, which includes the vast majority of the Listed Buildings.
Negotiating the scope and design for the alterations with the local council can become quite a protracted process. When considering a listed property, prospective buyers should be aware that they might not be able to achieve their vision for their house fully. In practice, they often will have to allow six months (and sometime significantly longer, depending on the scope of alterations) to jump through the statutory hurdles before they can even start construction. Acquiring a listed property, they effectively become temporary custodians entrusted with protecting the historic significance of the building, so alterations they make are subject to greater scrutiny.
However challenging obtaining the consent might appear, you should never undertake work on a listed building without permission. Unauthorised works might not only harm the historic charm and character of the property and therefore affect its market value but could also constitute a criminal offence resulting in a fine and imprisonment.
