Builders in Barnet

High Barnet has Georgian and Victorian houses along Wood Street and the High Street (the Wood Street conservation area) and Victorian and Edwardian terraces near the station. Monken Hadley, north of the town, is a conservation area with an Article 4 direction and some of the borough's finest Georgian houses. New Barnet and East Barnet are largely Victorian and Edwardian terraces and semis with 1930s streets between; Arkley and Hadley Wood (EN4) have large detached houses on big plots, many rebuilt.

Barnet town is in the London Borough of Barnet. Outside the Wood Street and Monken Hadley conservation areas, permitted development applies to houses in the usual way. Within them, and especially under Monken Hadley's Article 4 direction, external alterations need planning permission and the council protects the historic character closely; listed buildings need listed building consent for internal as well as external work. Hadley Wood's large plots see regular replacement-dwelling applications. Green-belt land around Arkley and Hadley restricts extensions to modest additions to existing buildings.

Side-return and rear kitchen extensions on New Barnet and East Barnet terraces; L-shaped and rear dormer lofts; whole-house renovations of Victorian houses in High Barnet; and large extensions, basements and new builds in Hadley Wood and Arkley. Period-property care — lime plaster, sash windows, original joinery — is a large part of the work in the conservation areas.

Terraced streets near High Barnet and New Barnet stations have controlled parking and narrow access, so skips and scaffold need permits and careful scheduling; the larger plots in Hadley Wood and Arkley are straightforward. The town sits on a hill with clay soils and mature trees. Party wall notices apply to nearly every terrace project.