Open-Plan Conversions Peckham
Open-plan kitchen, diner and living conversions in Peckham, steel, floors, heating and finishes as one job.
- Rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder
- London guide: £3,000 to £8,000+
- Free site survey, itemised quote
GS Renovation creates open-plan spaces throughout Peckham, turning compartmented Victorian and Edwardian terraces near Peckham Rye into flowing kitchen-diners and knock-through receptions. We handle the steelwork behind every knock-through, whether you want a full open plan, a broken-plan layout or a Crittall divider marking the zones.
In Peckham, 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 Peckham: the structural engineer we appoint designs the steel, we install it, and building control signs it off.
Price guide
| Work | Indicative London range |
|---|---|
| Open-plan conversion, steel beam and finishing | £3,000 to £8,000+ |
Indicative London ranges (MyBuilder and Checkatrade, 2026), not a quotation. Prices checked September 2026. Full breakdown: Open-Plan Kitchen-Diner Ideas.
How the job runs
- Free site survey at your Peckham address, covering the walls, services and floor levels, and an itemised quote.
- The engineer we appoint sizes the beam, and the work is registered with Southwark Council building control or an approved inspector. On a shared wall you serve the party wall notice as building owner; we supply the drawings.
- Props in, opening cut, beam on padstones; then floors, heating and electrics are joined up.
- Building control inspects the steel before it is covered. We finish the room, and the completion certificate follows.
Opening up Peckham's terraced homes
The typical SE15 terrace was built as a string of small rooms, with the kitchen tucked into the rear closet wing and a wall dividing the two receptions. Opening these up is popular around Peckham because it brings light through from the bay window to the garden, but the dividing wall and the wall onto the closet wing are usually load-bearing, so a steel beam has to take over their work.
We design each conversion around how you actually live. A full knock-through between the receptions needs one sized steel on padstones; a kitchen-diner into the side return often wants a second beam along the closet wing. For broken-plan layouts we keep a low structural upstand or a Crittall screen to define kitchen from dining while the space still reads as one, which suits these period proportions well.
Housing in Peckham
The stock in Peckham runs to roughly 26,680 dwellings, 74% of them flats and 26% houses, built 36% before 1919, 2% between 1919 and 1939 and 56% after 1945. Where most homes are flats, opening up a flat in Peckham changes its fire escape route, which building control checks.
Planning a Peckham through lounge before the application goes in
Terraced houses are 22% of homes in Peckham, and the first open plan job in one of them is usually the through lounge: front and back reception joined on a single beam. Southwark's final fees and charges schedule sets a building control charge for a through lounge as its own item, so the cost of approval is known before any design is paid for. That only holds if the job stays a through lounge. Moving the kitchen into the back room, adding a second beam into the side return or taking the hall wall out as well makes it a larger scheme, so describe all of it when asking which charge applies.
Then decide where the beam's ends will sit. 36% of Peckham homes were built before 1919, and where the front and back rooms of those houses still have cornices and picture rails, the ends of the beam matter. Leaving a short nib of the old wall at each side gives the steel a solid bearing in the spine wall, lets the cornice return neatly, and can keep the bearing out of the party wall altogether. A party wall surveyor confirms whether that removes the need for notice. A full-width opening gains a little floor, but it cuts both cornices and puts one end of the steel into the party wall.
Engineered and certified in SE15
Every open-plan conversion in your Peckham home rests on a structural engineer's calculations, with the steel sized to span, propped during removal and bedded onto padstones. Where the new beam bears into the wall you share with the neighbour, the Party Wall Act applies and you serve notice before starting, as building owner, using the drawings we supply; on the tightly packed streets running towards Dulwich and Camberwell that shared wall is nearly always involved.
The steelwork is signed off by Southwark Council's building control under the Building Regulations, which certifies the beam and its bearings. Internal open-plan work like this needs building control, not planning permission; planning is a question for external changes, and listed homes need listed building consent inside too. We coordinate the engineer, the staged demolition and the finishing so you get an unbroken space from one accountable team.
- Level flooring and threshold removal across the whole space
- Knock-throughs between front and rear reception rooms
- Making good, plastering and decorating the finished space
VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 6 statistical areas in Peckham. Counts rounded by the VOA.
Trusted Open-Plan Conversions in Peckham
For open-plan conversions in Peckham, GS Renovation delivers the whole job under one roof: steels designed by the engineer we appoint, the drawings for any party wall notice you serve, Southwark building control sign-off, safe staged demolition and clean plastered finishes. Our founder's 30+ years on the tools means we know how to keep a period home flowing without losing its structural integrity.
George was brilliant. Lovely bloke, very reasonably priced and a perfectionist to boot. He completed our small kitchen renovation with care and great…
George always kept to commitments and arrived on time. He offered helpful suggestions during his initial visit and promptly provided a reasonably…
Giorgio is an excellent and intelligent workman, and with very reasonable prices! He installed a kitchen extractor fan in a complicated situation…
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions about Open-Plan Conversions Peckham
What happens to the open-plan conversion price if the scope changes in Peckham?
A scope change on open-plan conversion in Peckham is costed and agreed in writing before it is carried out. If you add to the work at SE15, or the structure of the post-war estate home needs more than the survey suggested, GS Renovation sets out the effect on price and programme against the original figure within £3,000 to £8,000 or more (indicative). Even a change keeps to the sequence of work: the heating is resized before the space is decorated.
Can I knock my two Peckham receptions into one open-plan room without planning permission?
Yes. Combining reception rooms is internal structural work, so it needs Building Regulations approval and Southwark building control sign-off, not planning permission; a listed home needs listed building consent as well. The dividing wall is usually load-bearing, so an engineer sizes a steel beam, and where it bears into the party wall you serve notice on your neighbour.
Can a post-war Peckham flat be converted to open-plan living?
Often, if the walls are not structural and the escape route is kept. Many post-war layouts have a hall that protects the bedrooms from the kitchen, and removing it changes the fire strategy that building control will need to agree. Where a wall is concrete or carries the flat above, an engineer and the freeholder's consent come first.
Why might a Peckham kitchen-diner knock-through need two steel beams?
Because in a house it removes two walls at once. Where the back reception opens into a closet wing kitchen, that wall needs one beam, and where the side return beside it is infilled, the old outside wall needs another. The two beams often meet at a post or a shared padstone, so the engineer designs them together, and Southwark building control inspects them together.
Will there be a bulkhead across the ceiling after my Peckham knock-through?
That depends on whether the beam sits under the joists or within them. A downstand beam leaves a visible band across the ceiling, while a flush beam is hidden, with the joists hung off the steel. Which is possible depends on joist direction and the depth of steel the engineer needs. In Peckham rooms with lower ceilings, a flush beam keeps the head height.
Should a Peckham home be checked for asbestos before opening up?
Yes, if it was built before 2000, which covers almost all of the Peckham stock. Opening up disturbs ceilings, walls and old boxing, all places where asbestos can be. A survey before strip-out means any material found is dealt with properly before the structural work starts, rather than halting the job.
Does a Peckham knock-through need anything from Southwark planning?
Not for the inside of an unlisted house, where joining two rooms is a building regulations matter. Two cases change that. If the house is listed, the plan form is protected and listed building consent is needed. Southwark's schedule sets a pre-application fee for householder listed building development, extensions or internal alterations, which is the place to test the idea. A flat is the other case. Where the scheme reaches outside, Southwark's Householder SPD says the single storey rear extension that needs no planning permission is not available to flats or maisonettes, so new garden doors or an extension can need planning.
Can a Peckham flat built since 2000 be opened up further?
Often physically, but the fire strategy decides. 24% of homes in Peckham were built in 2000 or later, and a flat that recent was designed to a specific fire strategy, perhaps a protected hall to the bedrooms, perhaps sprinklers that allow an open layout. Removing a hall wall changes that strategy. Ask the managing agent for the building's fire strategy document before any design, since the freeholder's consent and the building control approval will both be judged against it.
Does opening up the ground floor of a three storey Peckham terrace affect fire escape?
Yes, more than in a two storey house. Terraced houses are 22% of Peckham homes, and in a taller one the stair usually has to stay a protected route to the front door, because the top floor windows are too high to escape from. Taking out the hall wall so the stair rises through the living room removes that route. The options are to keep the hall enclosed with a glazed screen, add fire doors upstairs, or agree an alternative such as sprinklers with building control before design.
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