GS Renovation creates open-plan spaces in Charlton's Victorian and Edwardian terraces, turning boxy front-and-back receptions into flowing kitchen-diners. With 30+ years in SE7 close to Greenwich Park and the Maritime Museum, we handle the knock-throughs, engineer-sized steels and broken-plan dividers that make period terraces work for modern family life.
Open-plan living in Charlton terraces
The classic Charlton layout, two separate reception rooms split by a load-bearing spine wall, was built for a different age. Knocking those rooms together into a single kitchen-diner is the most popular structural change we make in SE7, but the dividing wall is carrying floors and often a chimney breast, so it comes out under an engineer's design and onto a properly sized steel beam.
Not everyone wants a wide-open box. In these period houses a broken-plan approach often works better, keeping some structure or introducing a Crittall-style glazed divider that lets light run front to back while still zoning the space. We build supported openings to whatever width the engineer allows, so the finished room feels generous without losing the character of the original terrace.
Steel, party wall and sign-off in SE7
Opening up the ground floor of a Charlton terrace almost always means beams bearing into the party wall shared with the neighbour, which makes the work notifiable under the Party Wall Act. You serve notice on the adjoining owner and log the condition of both properties before demolition, then prop the floors above and take the wall down in controlled stages onto the padstones.
This is building regulations work, not planning, so the Royal Borough of Greenwich building control inspects the steelwork and issues the certificate. Only exterior changes in a conservation area or on a listed building would need planning consent. We run the whole conversion, engineer, notices, steel, first-fix and finishes, so your new kitchen-diner is delivered clean, certified and finished flush.
- Lighting, heating and electrical reconfiguration
- Broken-plan layouts and Crittall-style glazed dividers
- Radiator relocation and underfloor heating in the new layout
- Knock-throughs between front and rear reception rooms
- Openings formed in stages to keep the home usable
The GS Renovation Difference in Charlton
For open-plan conversions in Charlton, GS Renovation is one accountable team from first drawing to final coat. The engineer sizes the steel with a structural engineer, serve book Greenwich building control and manage safe propping and demolition ourselves. Thirty years in SE7's terraces means we open up your ground floor cleanly, on programme and fully certified.
- Fully insured, with cover in place on every site
- A written scope and programme agreed before work starts
- Founder-led team with 30+ years of hands-on experience
- Straight advice on what is and is not worth spending money on
- Lighting circuits zoned rather than one pendant in the middle
- Structure and finishes delivered by one team on one programme