Renovations in Pimlico

White stucco gives Pimlico its character and gives its owners most of their maintenance. The Regency terraces running back from the river and around St George's Square were built with a rendered face over brick, and that render wants different treatment from the modern equivalent. A short walk away, the post war blocks at Churchill Gardens are a reminder that SW1 is not uniformly Georgian, and the renovation work inside them looks nothing like the work inside a stucco terrace. Between Pimlico station and Tate Britain you will find both, so we look at the actual building rather than at the postcode.

Stucco terraces and what lies behind them

The render on a Pimlico terrace is a sacrificial layer. It was designed to take the weather so the brick behind it does not, and to be repaired periodically rather than left alone for fifty years. Where it has been patched with a modern cement mortar, the patch is harder than the original, moisture gets trapped behind it, and the result shows as blown areas and staining beneath sills and cornices. Sorting that out matters before any internal renovation, because a wall still taking on water will ruin new plaster inside a single winter. Envelope first, finishes second, in that order.

Inside, these houses run over several storeys with a lower ground floor that began life as kitchen and service space. It is the floor most often reworked and it also carries the damp risk, sitting partly below external ground level with vaults under the pavement in front. Tanking, ventilation and where the new floor build-up sits relative to the damp proof course all have to be resolved together rather than piecemeal. Shutters, cornices and original joinery on the upper floors are worth repairing; replacing them tends to cost more in consent terms than it ever saves in labour.

Structure, consent and the practical street

Removing a wall in a Regency terrace is not the job it would be in a suburban semi. The walls are solid brick in lime mortar, floor joists frequently run into them from both sides, and a chimney stack may be carried on the very masonry you want opened. We appoint a structural engineer to assess the load path and design the support, then install to that design with the structure propped throughout. Building control applications and inspections are coordinated by us. Where a bearing lands in the wall shared with next door, notice under the Party Wall Act comes first.

On the street side, expect to plan around parking controls and a permit for anything occupying the kerb. Terraces of this age rarely have rear access worth the name, so scaffold, steel and waste all travel through the front door. That shapes a programme more than most owners expect. We stage deliveries, keep the pavement clear and board out the entrance hall and stair, because in a house where the hall is original that hall is part of what you are paying to preserve. Quotations are free and carry no obligation.

Where most Pimlico projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Pimlico, everything we cover across Westminster, renovations in Marylebone, renovations in Mayfair and renovation order of works.