Commercial Fit-Out Lewisham

Commercial fit-out in Lewisham follows the borough's shopping streets. The Local Plan names Lewisham and Catford as Major Centres and Deptford as a District Centre, all three treated as Regeneration Nodes. Beyond them, the customer-facing units are smaller: shops on New Cross Road, parade units, cafes, salons and clinics with flats above. We strip out, build the counters, service areas and WCs, bring the fire safety and access up to what the new use needs, and hand the unit back ready to trade.

For Lewisham, 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 Lewisham: 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.

Fitting out a shop in Lewisham, Catford or Deptford centres

The Lewisham Local Plan names Lewisham and Catford Major Centres and Deptford District Centre as Regeneration Nodes, and Major and District are the larger tiers of the London Plan's town centre network. A fit out in one of these centres usually means a unit on a busy frontage with deliveries from the street or a rear service road. That shapes the programme: materials arrive early in the morning, strip out waste leaves in small loads, and any hoarding on the pavement needs a licence. Lewisham asks for that request at least five days ahead.

Outside those centres, commercial work in Lewisham is smaller and closer to homes: a salon on a parade, a GP or dental room, a cafe with a flat above. In a mixed building the flat above changes the specification. Fire separation between the shop and the residential floors, sound insulation in the ceiling, and a kitchen extract that does not vent under someone's window all need resolving in the design before the shop layout is final. An external flue usually needs planning permission as well.

Shopfronts and shutters under Lewisham's shopfront guidance

A new shopfront in Lewisham is judged against two documents. Policy QD11 on shopfronts says any necessary security should use internally located, open mesh security shutters and boxes, so a solid external roller shutter is the wrong starting point. Behind the glass, an open mesh grille keeps the display visible at night and the frontage looking occupied. The shutter box sits inside the fascia line, so the joiner and the shutter supplier need to agree the head detail early.

The second document is Lewisham's Shopfront design guide SPD, adopted on 27 September 2006, which your designer uses for proportions, fascia depth and materials. A new shopfront that changes the look of the building needs planning permission, and many illuminated signs need advertisement consent. Those applications sit with the owner or the tenant's designer. We build to the approved drawings and programme the shopfront last, so the glazing is not damaged while the inside of the Lewisham unit is still being fitted out.

Hatcham, Deptford and conservation area frontages in Lewisham

Some of Lewisham's commercial streets are in conservation areas. The Hatcham conservation area, designated in 1990, is made up of commercial buildings on New Cross Road with terrace housing behind, and the Deptford High Street and St Paul's Church conservation areas were designated in 1976 and 1975 respectively. A shopfront change on one of these frontages is judged against the area's character, which in a Victorian commercial street tends to favour timber shopfronts, painted fascias and stall risers over plain aluminium framing.

Lewisham requires a heritage statement for all planning applications affecting buildings in conservation areas and listed buildings, including locally listed ones. So where the shopfront or external plant needs planning permission, the application carries that statement. If the building is nationally listed, internal works that affect its character need listed building consent as well, which the owner obtains. In any case, original features such as cornices, cast iron columns or old shop joinery are recorded before strip out and kept where the consent asks for it.

Use classes, kitchens and customer WCs in a Lewisham unit

Check the use class before signing the lease. Shops, cafes, restaurants, clinics, gyms and offices all sit in Class E, so moving between them does not need planning permission for the use itself, unless a condition on the unit's permission restricts it. Hot food takeaways, pubs and bars are sui generis, and changing a Lewisham unit to one of them needs planning permission. Pubs can carry extra protection too: Lewisham's list of Article 4 directions includes a Catford Bridge Tavern article 4 direction, so a pub building's history is worth checking early.

Food and customer use then set the building work. A cooking kitchen needs extraction and odour control that the planning consent may specify, and drainage from sinks and dishwashers needs a grease trap before it reaches the sewer. Part M asks for an accessible entrance and, where customer toilets are provided, an accessible WC, and Lewisham says a building control inspection is needed wherever a WC is installed or moved. Part B sets the escape routes for customers and staff, and because a shop or cafe falls under the Fire Safety Order, the work goes in as full plans rather than a building notice.

• Stripping out the last trader's counters, signs and fittings
• Decoration and making good to a customer-ready finish
• Gym and fitness studio fit-outs with hard-wearing floors

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 37 statistical areas in Lewisham. Counts rounded by the VOA.

For the wider picture around commercial fit-out in Lewisham, see office fit-out in Lewisham, our Lewisham area guide, builders in London, what a snagging list covers, commercial fit-out across London and Tiling Cost.

The GS Renovation Difference in Lewisham

A shop, cafe or salon fit-out in Lewisham runs against a fixed opening date, so the programme has to hold. We give a written quotation after visiting the unit, then a programme that shows the strip out, first fix, inspections, counter and shopfront installation and handover. Our founder, Abdelaaziz Saaid, has more than three decades on site, and you deal with one founder-led firm. We build to your designer's drawings and the consents the owner or tenant holds, and we coordinate the extract installer, electrician and shopfitter on one timetable.

• Step-free entrance and accessible WC planned from the first drawing
• Counter, display and back of house built by our own trades
• Site left safe and secure at the end of every day

Reviewed jobs near Lewisham

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).