Building work in Kensington: area guide

This is our area guide to building work in Kensington (W8, Kensington and Chelsea): the housing, the council rules that apply (the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for planning) and every service we offer here. For whole-house refurbishment go to Home renovation in Kensington.

White stucco fronts, plans that run over five or six storeys, and mansion flats set back behind railings make Kensington one of the more demanding parts of London to build in. We work throughout W8, on houses in the streets off Kensington High Street and on flats a short walk from Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace. On VOA figures, most homes here are flats, much of the fabric is protected in some form, and the order in which consents are obtained decides which job can start. Our founder Abdelaaziz Saaid has 30+ years on the tools.

Kensington's housing, as the Council Tax list records it, is about 9,000 homes: 15% houses, 85% flats, with 75% pre-1919, 6% interwar and 19% built since 1945. VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Kensington Abingdon and Kensington Gardens. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Tall houses, narrow plots and the load path inside decide the wall job

In the townhouses that exist here, the weight comes down a spine wall that runs the depth of the building, with the staircase pushed to one side and the floor joists spanning between that spine and the flank walls. Open up the ground floor and you interrupt a load path that continues for four or five storeys above your head. So load-bearing wall removal here differs from the same opening in a two storey house, which is why we instruct a structural engineer at survey rather than after the first section of wall has come down.

Getting the steel in is the other half of the problem, and it is part of the RSJ installation work. There is rarely room to bring a long beam through the front door in one piece, so the design has to account for how it will arrive: a spliced section bolted together in the room, or a shorter span with an additional support. Bearings are cut into solid masonry, padstones are set, and needles and props hold the structure until the new steel is loaded and packed tight. Lath and plaster ceilings anywhere near the work need protecting or they will crack.

Mansion flats, leases and the licence to alter come before a kitchen or bathroom

Flats are the norm in W8 and they are leasehold, and a lease almost always requires the freeholder's written consent before structural or layout changes go ahead. That consent is the licence to alter, and it usually involves the managing agent appointing a surveyor to review your drawings at your cost. Permitted development rights do not apply to flats at all, so there is no shortcut around it. Blocks also set working hours, restrict the lift for materials and expect protection to communal carpets and stairs, and we build those conditions into the quote rather than discovering them in the first week.

Within those limits a great deal is still possible. Non structural partitions can be moved, a kitchen relocated, a bathroom stripped out and reformed as a bathroom renovation, and service runs patched for decades replaced properly. Waterproofing under a new shower and acoustic separation to the flat below both matter far more in a block than in a house, and both fall under building regulations rather than the lease alone. We coordinate the building control application and inspections, keep one point of contact on the job throughout, and every installation we carry out is covered by a five year guarantee.

Where to go next for work in Kensington: kitchen renovation in Kensington, house extensions in Kensington, the Kensington and Chelsea area guide, building work in Holland Park, building work in South Kensington and Renovation Order of Works.