Home Renovation Old Street

GS Renovation refurbishes whole homes across Old Street and EC1, from ex-council flats around St Luke's to tired new-build apartments by the roundabout and the odd converted warehouse. We manage rewiring, replumbing, replastering, layout changes and finishing as one sequenced project, run by a single team that respects the block rules these Islington buildings run on.

In Old Street, a full house refurbishment typically costs £40,000 to £150,000 or more (indicative London ranges, MyBuilder and Checkatrade, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Old Street: we carry the structure, services and finishes as one contract.

The two rooms that cost the most have their own pages, with prices: kitchen renovation in Old Street and bathroom renovation in Old Street. With 99% of homes in Old Street flats, the soil stack usually fixes where a bathroom can go, and the lease may need the freeholder's consent for either room.

Whole-home refurbishment in Old Street

An Old Street flat often arrives with a dated fit-out: worn services, awkward stud partitions and finishes that no longer suit the space. We strip back, rewire and replumb to current standards, then replaster and reconfigure the layout to make the most of the light and space. Notifiable electrical work is certified by a registered electrician and every stage is sequenced so trades never work over one another.

Running a full refurbishment inside a managed block takes coordination most builders underestimate. We book service isolations with the managing agent, protect lifts and common parts, and schedule the loud work within permitted hours so neighbouring leaseholders are not driven out. One project manager holds the programme, so the kitchen, bathrooms, joinery and decoration all land in the right order and the flat comes together as a whole.

Housing in Old Street

Around 6,800 homes make up Old Street on the valuation list; 99% are flats and 1% houses, and 16% date from before 1919, 5% from between the wars and 76% from after 1945. Refurbishing a flat in Old Street starts with the freeholder's licence for alterations, which matters here because most homes are flats.

Outside work on an Old Street renovation can need planning

Inside an Old Street flat, a renovation answers to the lease and to building control. The outside is different, and it is where a refurbishment often ends: new windows, a new front door, cleaned or painted brickwork. Across all but two of Islington's 42 conservation areas, an article 4 direction has taken away the permitted development rights that would otherwise cover some of these small changes. Painting brickwork on the outside of a property or changing external doors and windows can therefore need a planning application of its own there.

The St Luke's conservation area straddles Whitecross Street and Old Street, so this applies to real Old Street addresses, houses and flats alike. For a house, Islington Council says a house covered by an Article 4 direction needs householder planning permission to install or replace windows or doors on the front of the house. We list the external items at the start, put them into one application early, and let the interior run while it is decided. That way new windows are not made before they are allowed, and the scaffold goes up once.

Reconfiguring layouts near Old Street

Many EC1 apartments were carved up in ways that waste their best feature: space. We reopen these plans where the structure allows, removing non-loadbearing partitions or installing an engineered beam where a wall carries load, always confirmed before demolition. In a warehouse conversion that might mean freeing a kitchen into the living volume; in a new-build it might mean a cleaner en-suite and storage arrangement the original developer never bothered with.

Where one of the rare period buildings survives on the older EC1 streets, renovation shifts toward restoration: repairing cornices, salvaging original joinery and pairing them with modern services hidden behind fresh plaster. We match the approach to the building rather than imposing one style. Sound insulation between flats, a real concern in these blocks, is upgraded as we go, so the finished home is quieter as well as better organised.

• Kitchen and bathroom design, supply and installation
• Structural alterations and load-bearing wall removal
• Complete property refurbishments and whole-house renovations

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Old Street & St Luke's. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Alongside home renovation in Old Street, the pages that usually help next are load-bearing wall removal in Old Street, home renovation across Islington, builders in Islington, renovations across London, our London home renovation page and Renovation Budget & Contingency.

The GS Renovation Difference in Old Street

Renovating a home in a managed EC1 block rewards planning over improvisation. GS Renovation sequences structure, services and finishes into one programme, deals with the managing agent and building control, and keeps a single point of contact throughout. Our founder's 30+ years on the tools means we anticipate the block rules and access constraints that catch out less experienced firms.

• Wiring, pipework and boiler condition surveyed before we price
• Room by room handover so you can move back in stages
• Founder with 30+ years of hands-on experience

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254). Structural design is by the consulting engineer appointed to your project.