At a maisonette on Malden Road in Kentish Town, the opportunity was to improve the rooms already there. A bathroom beside the first-floor kitchen limited the space available for cooking and eating, while the bedrooms occupied the floor above. Our design moves the shower room upstairs, enlarges the kitchen and improves its connection to the existing roof terrace.
Camden Council granted full planning permission on 16 April 2026, under application 2026/0696/P, for the associated rear door and window alterations and relocation of a rooflight. The maisonette occupies the first and second floors of a terraced building within the West Kentish Town Conservation Area.
Giving the kitchen room to become a social space
Removing the partition between the kitchen and the old bathroom creates a wider room without extending the building. The proposed layout places an island with a hob and seats at its centre, giving someone cooking a place to talk with others rather than facing away from the room throughout meal preparation.
Moving the kitchen entrance also helps organise the route from the landing. The front living room remains separate, so the maisonette retains somewhere to relax away from the kitchen. This balance between shared and quieter spaces was a central part of the architectural design and layout work.
At the rear, aluminium bifolding doors replace the narrower terrace access. The wider opening is intended to bring more light into the kitchen and make the existing outside space feel more closely connected to daily life indoors. The proposal improves access to a terrace already in place; it does not create a new roof terrace.
Fitting a shower room and study area upstairs
Moving a bathroom between floors affects more than the room it leaves behind. Upstairs, the bedroom entrances and landing are reconfigured to accommodate a shower room, while a small study area is formed within the front bedroom. A low dividing wall separates the desk space without enclosing it as another small room.
The shower room has a vaulted ceiling and a rooflight above. Relocating the rooflight allows daylight to serve the new layout, while the widened rear window brings a double sash arrangement to the rear bedroom.
The section drawings also consider the practical consequences below: lowered ceiling areas provide space for drainage from the shower room and extraction from the kitchen hob. Coordinating these routes with the existing structure is part of the subsequent technical design and building regulations work.
Keeping the alterations appropriate to the conservation area
The external changes are concentrated at the rear and within the roof, retaining the street-facing frontage. Camden’s decision specifically considered the modest widening of the openings, the use of aluminium terrace doors and the retention of timber framing for the new two-over-two sash windows.
The relocated rooflight uses a conservation-style design concealed behind the front parapet. These details helped the proposal respond to its setting, rather than treating every new opening in the same way. Our conservation area planning service considers this relationship between a homeowner’s brief and the character of the building.
For another example of rear door changes to a Camden flat, see our Belsize Park approval. If your own flat could benefit from a better layout and more useful openings, book a call to discuss the possibilities.
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