A brick palace gateway
The surviving gateway facing Richmond Green is red brick, with a stone archway beneath royal arms.
Roofers in Richmond
Roofs round Richmond Green, once a Tudor palace's neighbours
Richmond lies below Richmond Hill, round a green beside a Tudor palace gateway, with hundreds of listed buildings. We survey each roof before any change is discussed.
Richmond Green, the palace gateway and Asgill House
Asgill House's Greek cross
Sir Robert Taylor built Asgill House in the mid 18th century, a stone house shaped as a Greek cross.
Maids of Honour Row
Numbers 1 to 4 Maids of Honour Row, with gates and railings, are listed Grade I.
Map of Richmond with Isleworth, Twickenham, Brentford, Barnes marked around it.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Loads only when you ask for it.
Richmond, on the Thames below Richmond Hill
Isleworth lies north-west of Richmond, Twickenham south-west, Brentford north, Barnes east, Hounslow west, Teddington south-west and Kingston upon Thames south.
About 25.9 road miles north-east of Farnborough · London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (unitary).
Where we can help in Richmond
Richmond, a heavily designated town
Richmond's roofs: checking what applies to yours
A three-step check of the designations on a Richmond roof, what the history records about the palace gateway, Asgill House and the old Sheen hamlet, and what Grade I neighbours and a Grade II* church mean for work.
| No. | Chapter | The figure it turns on |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Three checks before any Richmond roof is priced | 13 conservation areas touch the town |
| 02 | Sheen, a palace and the Green | Called Sheen before the Tudor reign |
| 03 | Grade I neighbours and a Grade II* church | 207 listed buildings within 900 m |
Chapter 01 of 03
Three checks before any Richmond roof is priced
| Check | Who answers | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Is the street in a conservation area? | London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, planning | Dormers need planning permission inside one |
| Is the house listed? | The national list, and the borough | Work affecting character needs consent |
| Does an Article 4 direction apply? | The borough's planning team | A direction can withdraw permitted development rights in a defined area |
| Which building control body? | The borough's own service, or a registered approver | A larger re-roof may need an application |
The national dataset names 13 conservation areas touching the 1.5 km area round the centre of Richmond: Central Richmond, Richmond Green, Richmond Hill, Richmond Riverside, Richmond Road in East Twickenham, Beresford Avenue, Kew Foot Road, Kew Road, Old Deer Park, Sheen Road, Sheendale Road, St Matthias and Twickenham Park. The national list adds 207 listed buildings within 900 m of the centre. With figures like these, a Richmond roof job starts with checking, and the survey and the quote come after.
Check one: the conservation area
The London borough covering Richmond, a unitary council, has one planning team that can say whether a street lies inside a conservation area. Within one, the planning order removes permitted development for dormers, and a visible change to the roof deserves a conversation with the council before it is priced. A name on that list does not prove that your house is covered, because some of the areas are named for places across the river and others touch only the margin of the area we tested.
Checks two and three: listing and Article 4
The national list shows whether your own house is listed, and the borough's planners say whether an Article 4 direction applies. Both matter on a roof. Listing brings listed building consent for work that affects character, and a direction withdraws specified permitted development rights across a defined area, so a small change can need an application. If you prefer, we put the questions to the council for you, and we pass the answers on in writing.
The figure13areasconservation areas touch the 1.5 km area round the centre of Richmond13 named in the datasetSource: planning.data.gov.uk conservation-area dataset, 1.5 km area query
Where building control is involved, an application can go to the borough's service or to a registered building control approver. The Planning Portal's re-roofing limits, under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof, show whether an application is likely, and our survey measures each slope against them.
A scaffold on a Richmond street comes under the highway authority's licensing power, as section 169 of the Highways Act 1980 provides. A house by the Green or on a busy road may have very little standing room, so we establish the applicant and the authority's turnaround, and we put the answer into the programme before a car has to be moved or a delivery booked.
Chapter 02 of 03
Sheen, a palace and the Green
Richmond in four published details
- Sheenthe hamlet's name before Henry Tudor's reign
- Red brickthe surviving palace gateway facing Richmond Green
- Mid 18th centurywhen Sir Robert Taylor built Asgill House
- 207listed buildings within 900 m of the centre
Surrey's Victoria County History, in its 1911 volume, says the original hamlet of Richmond was called Sheen before the reign of Henry Tudor, and lay in a hollow north-east of the royal palace, which stood between the river and the Green. The surviving palace gateway faces Richmond Green today. It is of red brick, with a large four-centred stone archway beneath a weathered panel bearing the king's arms.
A Greek cross on the palace corner
Asgill House, on the site of the palace's north-west corner, is a stone building in the form of a Greek cross, built in the mid 18th century by Sir Robert Taylor for Sir Charles Asgill. A cross-shaped plan means roofs that meet at several angles, with hips, valleys and abutments where the arms join, and each junction needs its own flashing. The covering on a building like that is confirmed on site, slope by slope.
The same lesson applies to Richmond's houses of later periods. Wherever a roof has several pitches, a projecting bay or a mansard, there are more places for water to enter and more lead to check. Our lead roofing and lead work page explains how valleys, flashings and parapet gutters are renewed, and the survey records each lead detail with a picture.
The history gives the top soil as gravel, sand or clay on a subsoil of London Clay. No roofing conclusion follows from soil. What matters to a roof is how it was built and what has happened to it since, and the only way to learn that is to look closely at the slopes, the timbers and the junctions, which is what the survey does.
A Richmond house may sit close to a neighbour or to a tree. We look at overhanging branches, shared stacks and gutters that discharge onto a neighbour's wall, and report what we see with pictures, so that any talk with a neighbour starts from shared evidence.
Roofs age at different rates within a few metres. A house re-roofed recently can stand beside a neighbour whose roof has been untouched for far longer, and we judge each by its own evidence, never by the street's reputation.
Chapter 03 of 03
Grade I neighbours and a Grade II* church
| Listing | In Richmond | Consent route for roof work |
|---|---|---|
| Grade I listed | 1 to 4 Maids of Honour Row, with gates and railings (NHLE 1065317) | Listed building consent where character is affected |
| Grade I listed | Asgill House (NHLE 1180412) | Listed building consent where character is affected |
| Grade I listed | The Trumpeters' House (NHLE 1357749) | Listed building consent where character is affected |
| Grade II* listed church in use | Church of St Mary Magdalene (NHLE 1180602) | Church of England faculty |
Maids of Honour Row, Asgill House and The Trumpeters' House all hold Grade I listings, the highest grade, within a total of 207 listed buildings on the national list within 900 m of the town centre. Work that would affect a listed building's character needs listed building consent, and the borough's planning team is the body that decides. The borough gets our question before any price, and the survey supplies the evidence: pictures of ridge, verges, chimneys and lead, with measurements alongside.
The church
The Church of St Mary Magdalene is a Grade II* church where Anglican worship continues, which places its roof repairs under the ecclesiastical exemption and the faculty system and outside the borough's consent. If you look after a church or a chapel in Richmond, say so when you first ring. We survey with that in mind and set out the report in the form a parochial committee needs, with a plain account of each defect and a picture beside it.
Repairs on an unlisted street
A house that is not listed still sits in a street where roofs are seen together. Under section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, an alteration that leaves the outer look of a building materially as it was falls outside development, which makes a repair that reproduces the roof the plain case. A change of covering, a raised stack or an added rooflight is where the discussion with the council starts, and our pictures show what exists now.
Chimneys are a feature of Richmond's skyline. Our chimney repairs page sets out stack work from pointing to full rebuilds, and where a stack is shared with a neighbour, it falls to a party wall surveyor to settle who does what between you, and building control does not. We flag a shared stack at the survey so that the neighbour is told in good time.
Richmond's listings
207listed buildings within 900 m of the centre
Grade IMaids of Honour Row, Asgill House and The Trumpeters' House
The density of listings means a request for consent is more likely here than in most places, and the council's officers see many. A clear application, with sharp pictures and honest measurements, is easier to decide than a vague one, which is the reason we prepare the evidence before the question is asked.
Richmond roof questions, from listing to leadwork
My Richmond house has a hipped roof with several valleys: why are valleys a common leak point?
Two slopes drain into every valley, so a split lead lining, a blocked outlet or a lifted tile edge can let in more water than an open slope ever would. We clear and check each valley and note the condition of the lead. A small repair at the valley is sometimes enough.
Which of Richmond's conservation areas takes in my street?
The national dataset names thirteen for the area round the town, including Central Richmond, Richmond Green, Richmond Hill and Richmond Riverside, though a name is no proof that your own street lies within one. The borough's planning team holds the maps, and can confirm your address and whether any Article 4 direction applies to it.
Is listed building consent needed for roof work on St Mary Magdalene church?
Not for the church. St Mary Magdalene is a Grade II* church still in Anglican use, so its roof repairs follow the faculty system under the ecclesiastical exemption. For a listed house, the borough's consent is needed instead, and we raise that with the planning team first.
Can a Richmond scaffold stand on the pavement beside the Green?
Not without the highway authority's licence, which section 169 of the Highways Act 1980 requires for any scaffold that obstructs a pavement. We establish the applicant and the authority's turnaround, then fix the dates in the schedule. A front garden or side passage may let the survey find a layout that avoids the pavement.
From Richmond to Isleworth and Twickenham
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