Garden staircases in Hampstead and Highgate. From raised ground floors to lower gardens.

External staircases from raised ground floors

Many Hampstead and Highgate houses stand over a semi-basement, with the main rooms half a storey or more above the back garden. Reaching the lawn can mean a detour through the lower rooms or, for an upper flat, no way down at all. An external staircase in steel, built to the measurements taken at your house, joins a raised ground floor, rear terrace or upper level straight to the garden. Camden records semi-basements on many houses in Denning Road, Carlingford Road and Kemplay Road, off Willoughby Road, and in Highgate the south side of Northwood Road has lower ground floors too.

Which staircase suits the plot, and how we build it

A long, open garden suits a straight flight. In a short one, a quarter-turn around a landing keeps the stair compact, and a spiral fits between boundary walls where a terraced plot leaves little width. Steep Highgate gardens suit a split-level layout, with short runs joined by landings. Open sides get a balustrade and each flight a handrail; our guide to garden staircase designs compares them. Our process, refined over 18 years, runs like this: a free survey at the house (or on a video call if easier), then drawings for your approval and an agreed, fixed price before fabrication. Your staircase is welded in our workshop and professionally spray painted there, and it can be in place within a week of completion, put in by our own fitters.

Paint colours for red and gault brick

Houses in the Willoughby Road area are mostly red or gault brick, and in Highgate the streets around Milton Road are largely red brick. Black, deep green or a soft grey lets a new stair sit back against either. Where old front railings survive, as on Carlingford Road and Northwood Road, a rear balustrade of plain upright bars echoes their rhythm without copying their detail. Galvanising and powder coating can also be specified, as our guide to steel finishes explains.

Two hills, sand over clay

Hampstead sits on a sand- and pebble-capped hill that climbs from 60 metres above sea level at South End Green to 135 at Whitestone Pond. In Highgate the ground falls more than 26 metres across the Highgate Bowl, from the High Street to Cholmeley Crescent. Under the Heath, Bagshot sand lies over the Claygate Member and London Clay, and springs at the junction feed the Fleet and the Westbourne. At the free site survey we look at the soil and any groundwater before deciding how the staircase is supported.

Camden, Haringey and the planning position

Hampstead is in Camden. In Highgate the borough boundary runs along the High Street, and Camden and Haringey each have a Highgate conservation area, so your address decides which council is involved. Camden has Article 4 directions in parts of Hampstead that remove some permitted development rights, listed buildings may also require listed building consent, while a flat or maisonette does not have the permitted development rights that a house has. During the survey we flag any obvious planning or conservation constraints on your address before a drawing is prepared, and if an application is needed we can supply drawings to support it. The council makes the final decision.

Garden staircases around the Heath

We also build and fit stairs in Belsize Park, Gospel Oak, Dartmouth Park, Kentish Town, West Hampstead, Golders Green, Crouch End and Muswell Hill, and we cover all other areas. Elsewhere in London, our Greenwich and Blackheath page covers stairs from raised ground floors down to lower-ground gardens.

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