The housing stock in Hampstead
Georgian village houses, Victorian and Arts and Crafts villas, and apartments in converted houses.
Hampstead is one of London's most protected conservation landscapes. Church Row, Downshire Hill, Well Walk and the Redington-Frognal conservation area all sit under strict Camden controls, and the ground behind most of these houses is unforgiving for basement work. We work here regularly, delivering full refurbishments and carefully engineered extensions that read as part of the original house, not tacked on.
Most of our Hampstead instructions come from owners of georgian townhouses on church row and flask walk, redington and frognal arts and crafts houses, well walk and downshire hill villas, and from clients moving between Belsize Park, Primrose Hill, Highgate, Swiss Cottage who already know the type of building they are buying into.
Planning and consent with the London Borough of Camden
The Hampstead Conservation Area covers the village and the streets running down from the Heath, with a large number of listed houses within it.
Camden applies strict basement policy limiting depth and requiring a basement impact assessment, and slopes around the Heath make ground conditions a genuine engineering question.
Our approach is the same every time: establish the constraints before anything is designed, agree the route to consent with the client, and price the job against the scheme that will actually be approved rather than the one that looks best on a first sketch.
The work we carry out in Hampstead
The bulk of our Hampstead work is listed refurbishment, basement construction, roof and chimney restoration, and bespoke joinery.
Georgian refurbishment. Sash windows, cornicing, lime plaster and original joinery restored alongside a modern services strip-out and re-wire.
Basement excavation. Underpinning and lightwell excavation under Camden's basement code, coordinated with structural engineer and party-wall surveyor from concept.
Arts and Crafts refurbishment. Redington and Frognal houses refurbished with the correct timber, glazing and roof detailing that Camden conservation officers expect.
Access, neighbours and running a tidy site
The village lanes are tight and often one way, so material sizes and delivery vehicles are planned around them.
Every trade on a Hampstead project is directly employed by Ushii. There is no chain of outside firms to chase, no pricing surprises when a trade turns up, and one team responsible for the work from strip-out to snagging.
Realistic programmes in Hampstead
Ten to sixteen months for a village house, longer if the basement is deep.
Those figures assume consent is in place and decisions are made when they are asked for. The single biggest cause of delay on prime London projects is not construction, it is a client decision waiting on a specification that was never finalised. We front-load those choices into the programme so they are made calmly rather than under pressure.
Talk to us about your Hampstead project
If you are planning work on a property in Hampstead or nearby in Belsize Park, Primrose Hill, Highgate, Swiss Cottage, the useful first step is a site visit. We will walk the building, tell you what the council is likely to want, and give you an honest view of cost and programme before you commit to drawings.
Get in touch through the contact page and a director will arrange to meet you at the property.