Renovating a Victorian house in London — what to expect
London has an enormous amount of Victorian housing stock, and most of it has been altered several times over. The aim of a good renovation is not to make a Victorian house look like a new-build. It is to keep what makes the house worth living in, and give it the infrastructure, comfort and functionality expected of a modern home.
The services are usually the real project
The visible work is what people plan for. In a Victorian property, the work behind the walls is normally what determines the budget.
Why we deal with all of this before the finishes: why we recommend doing things properly.
Uneven surfaces and a century of alterations
Nothing is quite straight
Walls in a Victorian house are rarely flat and floors are rarely level, and after a hundred and something years that is normal rather than alarming. It does have practical consequences: modular kitchens, large-format tiling and long runs of joinery all assume flat, square surfaces, so either the surfaces are prepared to suit or the units are made to suit the surfaces.
That is one of the main reasons a bespoke kitchen often makes more sense in a period house than a range kitchen with a wall of filler panels.
Historic alterations
Almost every Victorian house in London has been changed before — rooms subdivided, chimney breasts altered, bathrooms added where a bedroom used to be, extensions built at the back. Some of that work was done well and some of it was not.
Strip-out is when you find out which. Where we uncover something, we explain it and agree what to do before proceeding — the approach set out under what happens if we find something unexpected.
Making a Victorian plan work now
Victorian houses were planned around a set of small, separate rooms, with the kitchen tucked at the back as a service space. It is not how most households live now.
Kitchen and dining layout changes
The most common change by a wide margin is reorganising the back of the house so the kitchen and dining space work as one and open onto the garden. What is possible varies from house to house and depends on the structure, so it is assessed on site rather than assumed — we will tell you what we can see and where a structural engineer needs to be involved.
Improving natural light
Deep, narrow plans leave the middle of the house dark. Rethinking how the plan is divided, where glazing sits, and how much of the depth is corridor usually does more for the light than any fitting. The Marylebone refurbishment is a good example of that principle applied to a corridor-dominated plan.
Comfort: heating, insulation and ventilation
Underfloor heating suits many ground floors, where the floor is coming up anyway and the build-up allows it. Insulation is worth improving where the construction and the areas being opened up make it appropriate — while the floors are up and the walls are open is the moment it is affordable. And ventilation matters more, not less, as a house is made better sealed: bathrooms and kitchens need to be able to clear moisture properly.
We assess all three on the specific property rather than applying a standard package, and we will tell you where a specialist needs to advise.
Keeping what makes the house worth having
The objective is not a new-build with old bones
Cornices, ceiling heights, original doors, architraves, fireplaces, staircases, floorboards and sash windows are the reason people buy these houses. Where they are still there, they are worth retaining and restoring rather than stripping out to make a project simpler.
The renovation that works is the one that separates the two questions. Period character is kept and repaired. Infrastructure — wiring, pipework, heating, data, insulation, ventilation — is brought up to a modern standard, out of sight, while the walls and floors are open.
Retain the character. Replace the infrastructure. The house then works like a modern home without looking like one.
If you are planning a project like this, full property renovations covers how we run it, how we work sets out the eleven stages, and the bathroom and kitchen guides go into detail on the two rooms that take the most work.
Renovating a period property in London?
Get an indicative ballpark from the estimator, then we will walk the property before anything is confirmed.