SE21 · SE22

Painters and Decorators in Dulwich

Georgian and Victorian houses on the Dulwich Estate, where exterior colours are genuinely regulated.

Dulwich is the one part of London where we check the paperwork before we check the paint. Much of the area sits within the Dulwich Estate's Scheme of Management, and that changes how an exterior job has to be approached.

The houses in Dulwich

The housing runs from Georgian frontages along Dulwich Village through substantial Victorian and Edwardian family houses to the mid-century estates around the college. The older stock has the features you would expect — deep cornice, shutters in the front rooms, sash windows in varying states of repair. The larger houses tend to be owner-occupied and redecorated whole rather than room by room, and there is more exterior work here as a share of the total than anywhere else we go, because the frontages are visible, valued and maintained.

Parking, permits and access

Southwark borough. Controlled parking is lighter here than in the inner areas and on many Dulwich streets we can park normally, which keeps costs down. Where a permit is needed we arrange it. The Village itself is the exception at school run times, and we will plan deliveries around them.

Conservation areas and consents

This is the important one. The Dulwich Estate operates a Scheme of Management covering a large number of properties in the area, and it requires consent for external alterations — which expressly includes repainting exterior woodwork and render in a different colour. It sits on top of conservation area rules and applies whether or not the building is listed. Before we quote exterior work in Dulwich we establish whether your property is within the Scheme, and if it is, the colour is agreed before anything is ordered. Getting this wrong is expensive, and it is entirely avoidable.

If you are getting exterior quotes in Dulwich and a decorator has not mentioned the Scheme of Management, they either do not work here often or they are not thinking past the paint. It is the first question, not a footnote.

Local work

Jobs we have done in Dulwich

Dulwich

Whole-house interior, Dulwich Village

Georgian townhouse · 5 bedrooms, 3 receptions, hall, stairs and landing

Dulwich questions

Do I really need permission to repaint the outside of my house?

If your property is within the Dulwich Estate Scheme of Management, then for a colour change, yes. Repainting in the same colour is usually treated differently from changing it. The Estate publishes guidance and the managers will confirm your property's status — we will point you at it before quoting rather than after.

How do I find out if the Scheme applies to us?

Your deeds will say, and the Dulwich Estate can confirm from the address. It is worth knowing regardless, since it covers more than paint.

Our sash windows have not been painted in fifteen years. Is that a problem?

It depends what the bottom rails are like. Fifteen years of London weather on a south-facing elevation will usually mean some timber repair as well as redecoration. We will tell you at survey what can be filled and what needs splicing.

Do you do whole-house interiors?

Most of our Dulwich work is whole-house. It is more efficient to price and to run than doing one room at a time, and the colours stay consistent between rooms.

Painting or decorating in Dulwich?

Tell us what needs doing and we will come and look. Surveys are free, and the written price we send is the price you pay.

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