Open-Plan Conversions Old Street

GS Renovation creates open-plan spaces across Old Street's post-war blocks, new apartments and converted warehouses, from knock-throughs in ex-council flats around St Luke's to broken-plan kitchen-diners in the towers by the roundabout. We open up these flats intelligently, respecting which walls are structural and which are simply partitions, so the new layout is both open and sound.

In Old Street, a knock-through finished as one room typically costs £3,000 to £8,000 or more, including the steel beam (indicative London ranges, MyBuilder and Checkatrade, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Old Street: the structural engineer we appoint designs the steel, we install it, and building control signs it off.

How the job runs

1. Free site survey at your Old Street address, covering the walls, services and floor levels, and an itemised quote.
2. The engineer we appoint sizes the beam, and the work is registered with Islington Council building control or an approved inspector. On a shared wall you serve the party wall notice as building owner; we supply the drawings.
3. Props in, opening cut, beam on padstones; then floors, heating and electrics are joined up.
4. Building control inspects the steel before it is covered. We finish the room, and the completion certificate follows.

Opening up Old Street apartments

The appeal of an Old Street flat is often its light, and opening the plan can make the most of it. Some of the walls between your kitchen and living space are non-structural studwork that came in with the original fit-out and can be removed easily; others are loadbearing brick or part of the retained frame. We have a structural engineer determine which is which before we design your kitchen-diner or knock-through.

Where a structural wall stands in the way, a steel beam sized by the engineer replaces it, bearing onto padstones and installed with temporary propping and staged demolition. For a softer division we fit Crittall-style glazed screens or broken-plan joinery that keeps sightlines open while zoning cooking from living. The result suits the way people live in EC1 flats: generous, connected space that still lets each area do its job.

Housing in Old Street

Old Street has around 6,800 homes on the Council Tax list: 76% post-war, 5% interwar and 16% predate 1919, with 99% flats and 1% houses. Most homes here are flats, and opening up a flat in Old Street changes its fire escape route, which building control checks.

Opening up an Old Street flat inside the St Luke's conservation area

The St Luke's conservation area straddles Whitecross Street and Old Street, and the council describes it as an important surviving part of historic Finsbury. Inside a flat there, an open-plan conversion is still a building control and lease matter, because conservation area controls do not reach internal walls. What changes is the edge of the scheme. If opening up the plan also means new doors to a balcony or a changed window, the outside of the building is being altered, and that is where planning comes in.

Islington Council has removed permitted development rights in 40 of its 42 conservation areas by issuing an article 4 direction to prevent some minor alterations, and in those areas you may need planning permission for changing external doors and windows. A flat has no householder permitted development rights to begin with, so an external change that alters its appearance needs permission in any case. We split an Old Street open-plan job into the internal works, which can proceed under building control, and the external change, which waits for its planning decision.

Leasehold rules and sign-off in EC1

Because Old Street apartments are leasehold, an open-plan conversion needs the freeholder's licence to alter wherever it touches structure, and your managing agent will expect the engineer's drawings before approving. We coordinate that consent and work within building-management rules on noise, dust and use of the lift, which matter in a busy EC1 block where neighbours are close on every side.

Removing a structural wall is controlled under the Building Regulations, so Islington Council's building control inspects and certifies the beam; no planning permission is needed for this internal work. We also protect the sound insulation between flats, so your open new space does not carry noise to neighbours below or beside you. Non-structural partitions can simply come out, but we still confirm each one with the engineer first.

• Zoned lighting circuits and dimming for a multi-use room
• Level flooring and threshold removal across the whole space
• Openings formed in stages to keep the home usable

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

Once the open-plan conversion work in Old Street is scoped, people usually go on to read home renovation in Old Street, open-plan conversion across Islington, builders in Islington, converting a garage into living space, our London open-plan conversion page and Maximising Natural Light.

Trusted Open-Plan Conversions in Old Street

Old Street clients choose GS Renovation because an open-plan conversion should be handled by one accountable team. We identify structural from partition walls, install steel designed by the engineer we appoint, help you with the freeholder's licence to alter, coordinate the managing agent, protect sound insulation between flats and see Islington building control through to sign-off, all delivered tidily with our founder's 30+ years of 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.