Islington is mostly Georgian and Victorian terraced housing, much of it inside conservation areas. Most projects here are about making a narrow, deep house work better: opening up the ground floor to the garden, adding a loft room, or lowering a basement, without losing the character that makes the street worth living on.
Building in Islington
- Conservation areas cover much of the borough, including Barnsbury, Canonbury, Highbury Fields and the streets along the Regent’s Canal. Rear extensions are usually acceptable, but materials, roof forms and anything visible from the street are looked at closely.
- Listed terraces need listed building consent for internal as well as external changes, such as removing walls, replacing joinery or altering staircases.
- Basements are restricted. Islington generally limits new basements to a single storey and expects a structural method statement and careful protection of neighbouring houses.
- Party walls affect almost every terrace project. Steel beams bearing into a shared wall, and any excavation near the neighbours’ foundations, need notices served in good time.
Work we carry out in Islington
- Rear and side-return extensions to Victorian and Georgian terraces
- Loft conversions, including mansards where the street already has them
- Basement conversions and cellar lowering
- Full refurbishments of period houses and flats, including structural alterations
- Bespoke joinerysash windows, shutters, staircases and built-in storage
LACD projects nearby
- Shepherdess Walk: a garden extension to a Grade II-listed townhouse in the Regent’s Canal Conservation Area, N1, built on screw piles with a Douglas fir frame and a green roof