GS Renovation designs and fits kitchens across Kennington, from the elegant Georgian townhouses of SE11 to the Victorian terraces near Brixton and Vauxhall. With over 30 years in Lambeth, we handle the cabinetry, worktops, plumbing, electrics and any structural knock-through as a single, coordinated project in your period home.
Open-plan kitchen-diners in Kennington homes
The classic Kennington kitchen project opens the rear of the house, knocking the kitchen through to the adjoining room or into a side-return to create a bright, sociable kitchen-diner. Because that dividing wall is usually load-bearing in these solid-walled townhouses, we install a steel beam sized by a structural engineer and signed off by Lambeth building control. Where the wall is shared with a neighbour, the Party Wall Act applies and we coordinate the notices.
With the structure in, we fit the kitchen to suit the reconfigured space, running quartz, granite or composite worktops, integrated appliances and considered task and mood lighting. Kitchen and bathroom electrics are notifiable under building regulations, so the wiring is certified as part of the sign-off. We plan the drainage and extraction carefully, because rerouting services through a period Kennington floor structure needs thought, not guesswork.
Bespoke kitchens for period Kennington proportions
Georgian and Regency rooms in SE11 come with tall ceilings, chimney breasts, alcoves and generous window reveals, and these suit made-to-measure, in-frame cabinetry far better than off-the-shelf units. We design around the existing features rather than boxing them in, using full-height cabinetry where the ceiling height allows and keeping sightlines to shutters and cornicing clear so the room still feels like part of a period house.
In lower-ground kitchens, common beneath these Kennington townhouses, we plan the layout, lighting and ventilation around reduced head height and limited natural light, often adding rooflights or a light well where structurally possible. From handleless contemporary schemes to classic Shaker joinery, we build to match the age of the house, with plumbing, electrics, tiling and decoration all finished in-house to one standard.
Draining a lower-ground kitchen in SE11
Putting a kitchen in the lower-ground floor of a Kennington townhouse raises a question that never comes up on the ground floor. The public sewer in these streets sits at a level set for the original house, and a sink, dishwasher and washing machine below it cannot drain by gravity. Water will not run uphill, and no amount of clever pipework changes that.
The answer is a packaged pumping station or a small sump with a pump, sized for the appliances and sited where it can be serviced rather than buried under a run of units. It needs a power supply, an alarm, and a non-return valve so nothing can back up when the main sewer is full. Where the room is below the level of the street, building control will also want to see how the floor is protected against flooding from the drain. We plan all of it before the layout is fixed.
- New circuits, sockets and dedicated appliance supplies
- Open-plan kitchen-diner conversions with steel support
- Plastering, decorating and second fix carpentry
- Old kitchen strip-out, disposal and making good
- Island units and bespoke cabinetry
Trusted Kitchen Renovation in Kennington
Kennington kitchens often combine a steel beam knock-through with bespoke joinery in a listed or conservation-area home, and GS Renovation handles both sides under one roof. With 30+ years in SE11, we manage the structure, services, worktops and finish together, keeping the work tidy in an occupied house and the result true to the period proportions.
- Site left safe and secure at the end of every day
- A temporary sink arranged where the kitchen is out for weeks
- Suppliers used across every budget, with options priced
- Dust screens and floor protection in occupied homes
- A dedicated project manager from first survey to handover
- Paperwork and certificates handed over for when you sell