Builders in Totteridge & Whetstone

Totteridge is one of the most expensive villages in North London: large detached houses on big plots along Totteridge Lane, Totteridge Common and the private roads off them, many rebuilt or heavily extended, together with older village properties around St Andrew's church. Much of it is in the Totteridge conservation area, which has an Article 4 direction, and the green belt surrounds it. Whetstone, between the High Road and Oakleigh Park, is mostly 1920s–30s semis and detached houses, with Victorian and Edwardian houses near the High Road and Oakleigh Park station.

Totteridge and Whetstone are in the London Borough of Barnet. In Whetstone, houses outside conservation areas retain permitted development for rear extensions and roof enlargements. In the Totteridge conservation area the Article 4 direction removes permitted development for many external alterations, so extensions, roof changes, front boundary works and even some windows and doors need planning permission judged against the area's character appraisal; the council resists development that erodes the rural, spacious character. Replacement dwellings are common on Totteridge's larger plots and Barnet assesses them on scale, spacing, landscape and trees. Green-belt plots are limited to modest extensions of existing houses. Pre-application advice is normal practice here.

Whole-house renovations of large detached houses with new kitchens, bathrooms and joinery; double-storey and wraparound extensions; basements and lower-ground floors on the sloping plots off Totteridge Lane; replacement dwellings; and, in Whetstone, rear kitchen extensions and hip-to-gable lofts on the 1930s houses. Budgets here are typically at the upper end of our ranges — £300,000 to £1m+ for whole-house projects.

Large plots make site set-up easy, but private roads and long driveways need care for deliveries; protected trees and the green belt shape foundation design and what can be built where. Totteridge & Whetstone station on the Northern line is a ten-minute walk from Hill Crescent. Whetstone's semis have the usual side-passage access and party wall requirements.