Home Improvements · South LondonAreas we cover
We work across South London and the areas either side of the river closest to it. Each area below has its own page covering the housing stock, the planning constraints and the questions that come up most often there.
Where we work
Eight areas, each with a page of its own. If you are just outside them, ask — we cover most of South London and travel is usually not the deciding factor.
Bermondsey, SE1 & SE16
Warehouse conversions, Victorian terraces and new riverside blocks, with conservation areas over much of the older stock.
Renovations in Bermondsey →Rotherhithe, SE16
Docklands-era flats and riverside developments, where most work runs through a managing agent and a licence to alter.
Renovations in Rotherhithe →Southwark, SE1 & SE17
Georgian and Victorian terraces alongside new-build apartments, and the tightest access conditions we work in.
Renovations in Southwark →Peckham, SE15
Substantial late-Victorian terraces, side-return infills, and the Bellenden Article 4 direction.
Renovations in Peckham →Greenwich, SE10
Conservation-area terraces and the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site buffer zone.
Renovations in Greenwich →Lambeth, SW2, SW4, SW9 & SE24
Terraces, flats above shops, and Rush Common land where even a front garden wall is restricted.
Renovations in Lambeth →Dulwich, SE21 & SE22
Larger family houses, most of them subject to the Dulwich Estate scheme of management as well as planning.
Renovations in Dulwich →Battersea, SW8 & SW11
Mansion blocks, Victorian terraces and the Nine Elms new-builds, with warranties and MVHR to work around.
Renovations in Battersea →Why the area changes the job
The housing stock decides the method
A Bermondsey warehouse conversion, a Peckham late-Victorian terrace and a Nine Elms new-build are three different construction types with three different sets of problems. Solid brick walls behave differently from timber-frame partitions; a concrete slab takes a wet room in a way a suspended timber floor does not; and a 2018 block has mechanical ventilation and a warranty that a 1890s terrace does not. Knowing which you are in before quoting is the difference between a fixed price and a moving one.
The designations decide the timescale
Conservation areas, Article 4 directions, listed buildings, the Dulwich Estate scheme of management and Rush Common land all sit on top of ordinary planning rules, and several of them apply to things owners assume are free to change — front windows, front doors, boundary walls, rooflights. Where one applies, the constraint is usually calendar time for an application rather than build cost. It is worth knowing at the start, not at the point of ordering windows.
Leasehold adds a second approval
Across a lot of South London the property is a flat, which means a freeholder or managing agent has to grant a licence to alter before anything structural, anything affecting soil stacks or anything touching the building fabric can go ahead. Blocks also set their own working hours, lift booking and delivery rules. None of that is planning, and all of it affects the programme.
Access is a real cost, not a footnote
Parking suspensions, skip permits, controlled parking zones, communal stairs, goods lifts and restricted delivery windows are the difference between a van at the door and a day of carrying. On a London job this is a line in the quote rather than something absorbed quietly.
What it costs, wherever you are
Our pricing does not change by postcode
The bands are the same across every area we cover. What varies is the property: its construction, its condition, and the access conditions on the street. Those are priced from what we find on the walkthrough, not from where the house is.
The published bands are on kitchen renovation costs, bathroom renovation costs and full house renovation costs, and the estimator gives you a ballpark in four questions.
Renovating in South London?
Tell us the property and the postcode and we will tell you what the local constraints are before you commit to anything.