Renovation in Islington

GS Renovation provides the full range of home renovation and building services across Islington, one of North London's most sought-after areas. Known for Georgian and Victorian terraces, garden squares and warehouse conversions, Islington covers N1, N5, N7, N19 and EC1 and includes Angel, Highbury, Holloway, Clerkenwell and Old Street. With over 30 years of hands-on experience we handle everything from kitchens and bathrooms to structural alterations and extensions, all to building control standard.

Whether you live near Upper Street, the Angel and Highbury Fields or elsewhere in the borough, our local team delivers high-quality workmanship with one point of contact, transparent pricing and full insurance. Choose a service below to learn more about what we offer in Islington.

Islington packs Georgian terraces, garden squares, Victorian streets and converted industrial buildings into a very small area covering N1, N5, N7, N19 and EC1. Angel and Highbury are dominated by handsome period terraces; Clerkenwell and Old Street by warehouse and workshop conversions. The two building types could not be more different to work on, and the borough is compact enough that we often move between them in the same week.

Georgian Stock and What Lies Beneath

The terraces around Angel and Barnsbury are older than most of London's housing, built with lime mortar, lath and plaster ceilings, timber sash windows and coal vaults running out under the pavement. Modern cement renders and impermeable paints trap moisture in walls that were designed to breathe, so damp complaints here are frequently a materials problem rather than a rising damp problem.

Renovation work on these houses usually means replastering in a compatible mix, repairing rather than replacing joinery, upgrading the electrical installation to Part P, and reworking a cramped rear kitchen. Where two reception rooms are joined, the spine wall is load bearing and a structural engineer designs the beam and its bearings. We install it exactly to that design and never produce the structural calculations ourselves.

Warehouse Conversions in Clerkenwell and EC1

Converted workshops and print buildings around Clerkenwell and Old Street behave nothing like a house. Floors may be timber on cast iron columns or concrete on steel, ceilings are high enough to tempt a mezzanine, and services run in shared risers. Adding a sleeping platform brings Part K stair geometry, Part B fire separation and escape, and Part F ventilation into play straight away.

These are almost always leasehold, so freeholder consent comes before anything else, and the lease often sets working hours and lift access. Islington Council building control inspects the work at defined stages and we arrange those visits, keep the records, and hand over certification at completion. Sound insulation between units is worth doing properly while the floor is open, not afterwards.

Popular starting points in Islington: full home renovations in Islington, House extensions across Islington, what to check before hiring a builder in Islington and renovation order of works.