Kitchen Renovation in Islington

Most of Islington's Victorian terraces, especially the ones along Canonbury and Barnsbury, came with a poky galley kitchen at the back. That layout doesn't suit how families actually live now. We open those narrow rear rooms up into bright kitchen diners that still sit right with the age of the house.

Live in a four storey townhouse on Thornhill Square? A two bed terrace near Chapel Market? Either way the structural options and the listed building rules are different, and our design team knows the difference. We deal with Islington Council's planning department regularly, so side return extensions and internal changes get signed off against the local conservation area rules.

Cabinetry gets made to match your original cornicing. Underfloor heating goes in beneath reclaimed parquet. The detail matters. On the deep, narrow plots you find along Liverpool Road and Offord Road, we usually put large format glazing across the back to pull light into those north facing rear additions, which otherwise sit in shadow.

We take on the full mechanical and electrical side too. That means moving boilers out of the old Victorian cupboards, upgrading the gas and water mains, and fitting extraction that meets Part F without wrecking your roofline.

Islington is packed tight, and the housing is nearly all Victorian terrace. Most of it is party wall construction, so pulling out an internal wall takes proper structural engineering, not guesswork. The council holds a firm line on conservation across much of Canonbury, Barnsbury and Angel, which means rear extensions often have to use sympathetic materials, London stock brick and timber framed glazing being the usual answer.

The payoff is worth it though. Knock through the side return and you can gain 30 to 40 square feet of floor space. The open plan kitchen diner you end up with is about the biggest single thing you can do to add value to a property round here.