Commercial Fit-Out Catford

Commercial fit-out in Catford means the shops, cafes, salons, clinics and food units along Catford Broadway and around Catford Bridge station, in a place the Lewisham Local Plan names as a Major Centre and a Regeneration Node. Expect small units behind a shopfront, sometimes with flats above. We strip the unit, build the counters, services and finishes, fit the shopfront to the approved drawings and hand it over ready to trade, working to Lewisham's shopfront guidance and building control.

For Catford, 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 Catford: 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 Catford's Major Centre status means for a shop fit-out

Catford's standing as a Major Centre puts a unit here inside a centre the Local Plan designates, and that changes what an owner can do with it. The London Plan classifies its larger town centres as International, Metropolitan, Major and District centres, and the Lewisham Local Plan names Lewisham and Catford Major Centres, with Deptford District Centre, as Regeneration Nodes. That marks the Catford centre for regeneration, so the centre around a unit may change during the life of a lease.

Within Class E the use can still change without planning permission: a shop can become a clinic, a cafe or a gym studio, because moving within one use class is not development, unless a planning condition on the unit restricts it. A hot food takeaway, a pub or a bar sits outside Class E and needs permission. Individual buildings can carry their own controls too, and Lewisham's list of Article 4 directions includes one for the Catford Bridge Tavern. We fit out to the use you have settled.

If the building is listed, the works themselves are a separate question: anything that affects its character, inside or out, needs listed building consent from Lewisham Council, and carrying it out without consent is a criminal offence.

Shopfronts and shutters on a Catford unit

A new shopfront in Catford is judged against Lewisham's Shopfront design guide SPD, adopted by the council on 27 September 2006, and Policy QD11 on shopfronts. The policy says that where security is necessary, proposals should seek to use internally located, open mesh security shutters and boxes. That weighs against the solid external roller shutter that turns a parade into a row of blank metal after closing time. A lit window behind open mesh keeps the street looking occupied at night.

In practice that changes the order of work. An internal shutter needs depth behind the glazing and a box hidden in the ceiling or the fascia zone, so the shutter is chosen before the shopfront frame is made. The fascia, signage and stallriser are drawn by the owner's designer with the guide in hand, and an illuminated sign may also need advertisement consent. We build the frame, fit the internal shutter and make good the fascia once the consents for your Catford unit are in hand.

Food, access and fire in a Catford cafe or clinic

The trade you run decides the services a Catford unit needs, so settle it before the drawings are finished. A cafe or restaurant with cooking brings kitchen extraction, odour control and a flue route past the flats above, plus a grease trap on the drainage where food is served. A clinic or salon needs more basins and water, and a gym studio needs a floor that takes impact. Lewisham's building control inspectors check the fire safety, energy and access aspects of that work.

Access and escape come next. Part M asks for an accessible entrance and, where customer toilets are provided, an accessible WC, so a stepped Catford doorway may need a level threshold or a ramp inside the line of the shopfront. Part B sets the escape route from the back of the unit and the fire separation between the shop and any flat above. We keep fire stopping and ceiling voids open until they have been inspected, then close up quickly.

Trading, deliveries and the flats above a Catford shop

Where a Catford unit has homes above it, the fit-out is planned around neighbours as well as the opening date. Lewisham keeps noisy building work to Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and Saturday 8am to 1pm, never on a Sunday or bank holiday. Breaking out floors, cutting in drainage and fixing shopfront steel are booked inside those hours, and quieter work such as decoration and shelving follows in the later weeks of the programme.

Deliveries on a busy parade need planning. A skip on a Catford road inside a controlled parking zone needs a temporary parking suspension as well as a skip licence, so where there is no rear yard we use bagged waste and timed collections instead. Next door traders stay open throughout, so dust screens, protected pavements and a tidy frontage matter. If you are taking over a trading business, we can phase the work so part of the unit keeps selling behind a screen.

• Grease traps and kitchen drainage where food is served
• Service counters, display walls and shelving
• Fascia and sign installation to the approved consent

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Catford East & Mountsfield Park and Catford Bridge. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Once you know the scope of the commercial fit-out in Catford, it helps to read office fit-out in Catford, commercial fit-out across Lewisham, what a main building contractor does, building control in London, commercial fit-out anywhere in London and Listed Building Renovation.

The GS Renovation Difference in Catford

A shop fit-out is judged by the day the doors open. We fix the long lead items first, such as the shopfront, shutter, extraction and flooring, then run strip out, services, counters, ceilings and decoration as one sequence with our own trades. A registered electrician certifies the wiring and a registered gas engineer handles any gas cooking. You get a written quotation after a survey of the unit, one named point of contact, and the completion certificate, electrical certificates and extract commissioning records gathered before you trade.

• Clean, tidy and reliable tradespeople
• Programme worked back from the date you want to open to customers
• Kitchen extraction and grease trap coordinated with their specialists

Reviewed jobs near Catford

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

• Replace small section of wooden worktop, sink, tap and gas hob, Crofton Park, 17 Apr 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).