Windows in Leatherhead: the conservation area, the Edwardian streets and the post-war north
Leatherhead sits where the River Mole cuts through the North Downs, and grew up around the crossing. It is in Mole Valley, so planning questions go to Mole Valley District Council.
The town centre conservation area
The Leatherhead Conservation Area covers the old centre, including the High Street, North Street, Church Street and Bridge Street, and was extended in 1998. It has 38 listed buildings, among them the Church of St Mary and St Nicholas and The Running Horse, both Grade II*. Mole Valley has made an Article 4 direction over parts of this conservation area, which adds controls to protect features that give its streets their character. The council publishes the streets covered and maps on its conservation pages. If your house is in the centre, check those before changing any window you can see from the road.
The Edwardian streets
Leatherhead's first suburbs went up between 1900 and 1905 in Fairfield, Highlands, Kingston and Queen Anne's Garden, with more streets added later in that decade. These are mostly brick houses with sash windows and some bays. Outside the conservation area, uPVC sashes in a heritage finish are the common replacement.
Inter-war and post-war houses
Givons Grove, south of the town, was laid out for housing in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The council's first houses went up on Poplar Road in 1921 and Kingston Road in 1925. After the Second World War, new houses were built north of the centre along Cleeve, Kingston and Copthorne Roads, to replace homes damaged by bombing. These post-war houses usually have plain casements and a single back door, and are well suited to aluminium or uPVC casements and a pair of aluminium French doors to the garden.
Near the river
Houses close to the Mole and the River Mole nature reserve, between Young Street and Waterway Road, sit low in the valley, and many are shaded by trees. Frames that need no painting make sense here.
A typical job in Leatherhead
Illustrative example of a typical job
Aluminium French doors on a post-war house north of Leatherhead town centre
A late-1940s or 1950s brick house of the kind built along Cleeve, Kingston and Copthorne Roads after the war, with a single pair of tired timber doors from the back room to the garden.
One pair of aluminium French doors, about 1500 mm wide and 2100 mm high
Powder-coated anthracite grey outside, white inside, double glazed
Ground floor only, so no scaffold
Typically £3,550 to £6,050, supplied and fitted, including VAT
