Commercial Fit-Out Brent

Commercial fit-out in Brent means customer-facing units: a shop on a high street, a cafe, a salon, a clinic or a small gym studio in a parade. Brent's town centre policies decide what can open where, and its shopfront guidance governs the front you put on the street. Some shopping streets also sit in conservation areas, such as Wembley High Street. We strip out, form the layout, run the services and finish the unit ready to trade.

For Brent, published UK guides put refurbishing a retail space at £1,500 to £3,000 per m² and a restaurant or cafe at £2,000 to £4,500 per m², and London units usually cost more (MyBuilder, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Brent: our own trades do the strip-out, back of house, counter fitting and finishes, and we coordinate the shopfront, extraction, electrical and fire specialists the unit needs.

What a Brent high street unit can become

Brent's planning policy decides the use before the fit-out design starts. Policy BE4 permits no further drinking establishments or takeaway uses within the defined Primary Shopping Frontage of the borough's town centres. If you are taking a lease on a unit in one of those frontages, a hot food takeaway or a bar is not a use to plan around, and that should be settled before you sign. Otherwise a fit-out built for a refused use is money spent twice.

Beyond that frontage rule, Class E covers shops, cafes, restaurants, clinics, gyms and offices, so moving between them needs no change of use. Hot food takeaways, pubs and bars are sui generis, and a change to one needs planning permission wherever the unit is. In Brent's town centres Class MA rights are removed at ground floor level, so a shop cannot become a flat without planning permission, and the ground floor is fitted out for trading.

Shop fronts, shutters and signs in Brent

A new shop front in Brent usually needs planning permission. The Shopfronts SPD3 states that most alterations to a shop front need planning permission, and advertisement consent may also be needed for the sign. Policy BE7 asks that shop fronts of architectural or historic merit are kept and that new proposals show high quality design. An old timber front with pilasters and a console is the kind of front that policy is likely to want kept and repaired rather than ripped out.

Security shutters need care on paper. The Shopfronts SPD3 says solid or pin-hole roller shutters should be avoided in favour of other measures. Internally fitted open type shutters do not need planning permission unless the building is listed, where listed building consent also comes into it. We fit the shutter type that matches your consent, set the fascia and sign to the approved drawing, and leave the external face as it was approved.

Shopfronts in Brent conservation areas

A unit inside a Brent conservation area faces an extra layer of control on the frontage. Brent's Wembley High Street Conservation Area was designated on 19 March 1990 and has an article 4 direction, and the Harlesden Conservation Area was designated in March 1994. Brent's Willesden Green Conservation Area, designated in January 1993, carries a non-immediate article 4 direction. For a unit inside one of them, materials, fascia depth, lettering and lighting are agreed in the planning drawings before anything is made.

That changes the order of the job. We order joinery and glazing only after consent is granted, because shopfront lead times are long and a front made to an unapproved drawing may have to be remade. Inside, the fit-out can often start while the front is in manufacture, so the internal works and the shopfront finish together. If the building is listed, listed building consent covers the inside as well as the front.

Kitchens, access and trading next door in Brent

A food unit in Brent is built around its kitchen extraction and drainage. The extract duct route to roof level, the odour control and the fan noise are planning matters as well as building ones, and they are fixed before the counter is drawn. Where food is served, a grease trap or separator on the drainage protects the sewer. Part M sets the accessible entrance and WC, and Part B sets the escape route through the unit.

A unit in a Brent parade can have flats above it and neighbours trading either side. Brent's conventional construction noise hours of 8am to 6pm on weekdays and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays frame the noisy strip-out, and deliveries are timed to avoid blocking neighbouring shop doors. Separating the unit from any flat above with fire-rated construction is part of the building control drawings. Before the strip-out starts you need the landlord's written consent, and as the client under the CDM Regulations you hold duties of your own.

• Programmes worked back from your opening date
• Slip-resistant trading floors, tiling and sheet vinyl
• Service counters, display walls and shelving

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 35 statistical areas in Brent. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Useful next reading for a commercial fit-out project in Brent: office fit-out in Brent, our Brent area guide, builders in London, what a snagging list covers, our London commercial fit-out page and Conservation Area Renovation.

The GS Renovation Difference in Brent

A shop, cafe or clinic is judged on the day it opens its doors, so the programme is built backwards from that date. We agree the scope from your designer's drawings and the consents, then sequence strip-out, services, extraction, counters, floors and finishes, and hand over a unit ready for your own equipment. You get a written programme and quotation after a site visit. A registered electrician certifies the new circuits, an engineer on the Gas Safe Register connects any gas cooking, and any new structural opening is built to a structural engineer's design.

• Handover file with the certificates your insurer and landlord will ask for
• Materials priced at options, so you choose the finish
• Noisy work and deliveries booked around the neighbouring shops' trading hours

Reviewed jobs near Brent

1 MyBuilder review from Wembley, with each customer's own job title:

• Install new worktop, Wembley, 10 Jul 2024 (5 out of 5)

Read all 31 on our reviews page.

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254).