Furzedown House Renovation
Van Peake takes on house renovations in Furzedown and the surrounding streets of Tooting Bec, Tooting Broadway and Streatham, from a single room reworked at around £40,000 through to a Victorian terrace taken back and rebuilt around a better plan. This page covers what a renovation involves, what one costs in SW17, how long it runs, when you need permission from Wandsworth, and the parts that catch people out.
The photographs are from a house on Parklands Road. The side return was infilled under a glass roof, the loft converted, and the work ran across two years. The bathroom that came out of it was featured in Kitchens, Bedrooms & Bathrooms in January 2022.
What the project involved
The side return was infilled first, which is what changed the ground floor. A pitched glass roof runs the length of the new part, and the old external wall was left as exposed London stock brick rather than plastered over, so the line where the house used to end is still readable from inside.
The kitchen sits along that wall. Dark green in-frame cabinetry with brass cup handles, a butler sink, and a marble-topped island with open shelving and the hob set into it. Black steel shelving is fixed straight onto the brick above the run. Full-height sliders open the back of the house onto a paved terrace and the lawn beyond.
The original rooms kept their herringbone parquet, with a painted step marking the change in level between the old house and the new part.
Upstairs, a dormer conversion added a bedroom and ensuite in the roof. The bathroom is where the project ended up in print. Navy joinery is cut to follow the roof slope, a reeded glass screen encloses the shower, and a rooflight sits over the vanity. A freestanding slipper bath stands against a deep blue wall on blue hexagonal tiles with white stars set into them, and the tiled area breaks up as it meets the pale boards rather than stopping at a straight edge.
Renovating a Victorian terrace in Furzedown
What the houses here are like
Furzedown sits between Tooting and Streatham, and the stock is mostly late Victorian terraces built to the same handful of patterns. Two reception rooms, a rear projection, and a narrow side return running alongside it that does nothing except hold a bin.
That side return is the reason most renovations here look similar in plan and different in execution. Infilling it squares off the ground floor and turns a galley kitchen and a dark back room into one space. It adds less floor area than a rear extension and changes how the house works more.
The other thing worth knowing is that the services are usually original. Rewiring and replumbing a Victorian house takes a bigger share of the budget than people expect, and none of it is visible when the job is done.
Permission in Wandsworth
Furzedown falls under Wandsworth Council. Internal work to a house that is not listed needs no planning permission, though building regulations apply and structural changes need sign-off.
A single-storey rear extension of up to three metres on a terraced house is usually permitted development, and between three and six metres there is a prior approval route where neighbours get 21 days to comment. Side returns are less predictable. Many fall under permitted development and plenty do not, and it turns on whether you extend beyond the side elevation and how the roof is formed.
Loft dormers at the rear are often permitted development outside a conservation area and rarely inside one. Wandsworth has around 45 conservation areas and nine carry Article 4 directions that remove those rights entirely.
Check which applies to your address before anything is drawn.
Party wall
On a terrace you are building against a neighbour on both sides, so the Party Wall etc. Act applies to the side return, the loft and any structural opening. Notices go to each adjoining owner and a dissent means surveyors and an award before work starts.
Serve them early. It takes weeks, and on a mid-terrace you are dealing with two sets of neighbours rather than one.
What a house renovation costs in Furzedown
Renovation work in Furzedown starts at around £40,000 for a single room or a kitchen replaced without moving structure. A floor reworked runs £60,000 to £120,000. A full renovation of a Victorian terrace in SW17 sits between £120,000 and £350,000, or roughly £2,000 to £3,500 per square metre.
Most houses here are done somewhere in the middle of that, and plenty are done in stages rather than all at once.
Where a project lands:
- Side return infill: £40,000 to £70,000, and more per square metre than a rear extension because the footprint is small and the flank wall has to come out.
- Loft conversion with a rear dormer: £55,000 to £85,000.
- Period fabric: rewiring, replumbing and replastering. On a Victorian house this runs 20 to 40 per cent above the same work on a modern one and none of it shows.
- Kitchen: £25,000 to £90,000, depending on whether the cabinetry is made for the room or ordered from a range.
- Bathrooms: £12,000 to £45,000 each.
- Glazing: a structural glass roof and full-height sliders cost several times a plasterboard ceiling and a set of French doors, and are usually why two identical footprints come in tens of thousands apart.
Add 10 to 15 per cent for contingency. On a house of this age that covers what appears once the floors are up.
Ranges here are for budgeting. A real figure needs someone to look at the house.
How long a renovation takes in Furzedown
A side return and a loft together run six to nine months on site. A full renovation including both, with the internal work that connects them, is closer to nine to twelve. A single floor or a kitchen is a matter of weeks rather than months.
This project ran across two years rather than as one push. Staging the work spreads the cost and lets a family stay in the house for parts of it, though it costs more in total because a site has to be set up and stood down more than once.
Consent comes first either way. Permitted development you can start on quickly, though a lawful development certificate is worth having and takes around eight weeks. A full application to Wandsworth works to an eight-week target from validation, which is not the day you submit.
How we work
On a terrace the constraints are not design ones. The site is a front door and a hallway. Everything in and out goes through the house, there is nowhere to store materials, and two sets of neighbours are living against the wall you are working on.
That decides more about how a job runs than any drawing does. Sequencing, deliveries and what gets done in which order have to be planned around it, and firms that work mainly on detached sites tend to find it out the hard way.
Each trade is one Van Peake has used on job after job and manages directly, so the work runs as one programme from strip out to the last coat of paint, and James Peake is on it from the first visit to the final snag.
We take on residential projects right across London, from a single room to a whole house. Our house renovation page covers how we approach them. We build across Wandsworth, including Putney house extensions
Common questions
What does a house renovation cost in Furzedown?
From around £40,000 for a single room or a kitchen without structural change, £60,000 to £120,000 for a floor, and £120,000 to £350,000 for a full renovation of a Victorian terrace. That works out at roughly £2,000 to £3,500 per square metre on a whole-house project.
Do I need planning permission to renovate a house in Furzedown?
Not for internal work to a house that is not listed, though building regulations apply. A single-storey rear extension up to three metres on a terrace is usually permitted development. Side returns vary depending on the roof and how far you extend, and rear dormers are often permitted development outside a conservation area and rarely inside one. Wandsworth has around 45 conservation areas, nine with Article 4 directions.
How long does a house renovation take in Furzedown?
Weeks for a single room or a kitchen. Six to nine months on site for a side return and loft together, and nine to twelve for a full renovation including the internal work. Consent adds around eight weeks in front of that.
Is a side return worth it on a Victorian terrace?
Usually, yes. It adds less floor area than a rear extension but changes the ground floor more, because it squares off a plan that was a galley kitchen and a dark back room. It also costs you no garden, which on a terrace is often the deciding factor.
Can a renovation be done in stages?
Yes, and it is common. Splitting a house into phases spreads the cost and lets you stay in it for parts of the work. It costs more in total than doing everything at once, because a site has to be set up and stood down more than once, but it makes a larger project possible on a normal budget.
Do you only work in Furzedown?
No. We work on residential projects across London, and regularly in Tooting, Streatham and Balham. Furzedown is one of many areas we have completed projects in.
Start your project
We take on residential projects of all sizes across London, from a single room to a full house renovation. Whether you are still working out what is possible or you know exactly what you want, please get in touch and we would be more than happy to talk it through with you.
Call 020 3503 1158 or email hello@vanpeake.co.uk
Contact Us