Village Georgian, Victorian terraces and the Estate rules.
Dulwich is one of the areas I am asked to travel to most often, and it is easy to see why. Between Dulwich Village, East Dulwich and West Dulwich there is an unusually complete run of period housing, and almost all of it was built with timber sash windows.
The picture changes street by street. Dulwich Village itself has elegant Georgian houses with tall, finely proportioned sashes and slim glazing bars. East Dulwich is largely late Victorian terraces, bay fronted, with heavier sashes and often coloured or etched glass in the upper lights. West Dulwich adds substantial Edwardian villas with large windows that have a lot of weight to carry.
Those differences are not cosmetic. A slim Georgian glazing bar and a chunky Victorian bay sash need different repairs, different timber sections and different weights. Getting that wrong is how you end up with a window that looks almost right, which on a house like this is worse than leaving it alone.
Book A Free Survey
Georgian houses, Dulwich Village. Photo by Marathon, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The most common Dulwich job is a bay. Victorian and Edwardian bay windows carry a lot of glass and a lot of weight on a structure that projects out into the weather on three sides, so they take water at every joint. Sills, bottom rails and the corner posts are where decay starts, and by the time it is visible from inside it has usually been going a while.
The second is coloured and etched glass. A lot of Dulwich terraces still have their original decorative upper lights, and they are irreplaceable. Any sash carrying that glass gets taken apart carefully and rebuilt around it rather than the other way round.
Every job in Dulwich starts the same way: a free survey, an honest conversation about what your windows actually need, and a written quote with no pressure attached.
Complete restoration of original timber sashes, done the traditional way.
Find out moreDecayed sections cut out and matching new timber spliced in.
Find out moreSnapped cords and unbalanced sashes put right so windows glide again.
Find out moreCracked panes, failed putty and slimline double glazed upgrades.
Find out moreA great many houses in Dulwich are covered by the Dulwich Estate Scheme of Management, which means external alterations, including changes to windows, need the Estate's consent as well as anything the council requires. Plenty of owners only discover this after they have paid a deposit to a replacement window company.
Restoration sidesteps most of that difficulty. Repairing and redecorating what is already there, in the same materials and the same profile, is the least contentious route available and usually the cheapest. If you are on an Estate property I will always recommend checking before work starts, and I am happy to supply a clear written specification of exactly what is proposed so you have something to submit.
Yes, all of SE21 and SE22 and the surrounding streets, including Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, Herne Hill, Sydenham Hill and across towards Forest Hill and Peckham Rye.
Yes. Mouldings and glazing bar profiles are matched to the originals rather than to a standard section, which is the whole point of having the work done by a joiner instead of a window fitter.
Very rarely. In most cases the decayed sections are cut out and new timber spliced in, and as a Timbabuild approved installer I can also use their resin repair system for lasting, invisible repairs. Replacing a whole bay is a last resort, not a starting point.
I do not submit applications on your behalf, but I will give you a clear written specification of the proposed work, with materials and profiles set out, which is normally what is needed to support a submission.
Based between Blackheath and the Medway towns, covering South East London, Kent and Essex. Not on the list? Get in touch anyway, I can often help with specific projects.