Windows in Stoneleigh: aluminium and uPVC for the 1930s semis around the Broadway
Stoneleigh is almost entirely one generation of houses. Stoneleigh station opened in July 1932 on land bought from the Stoneleigh Park Estate, the first houses went up in 1933, and most of the suburb was finished by the start of the Second World War.
The houses
Nearly every 1930s home here is a semi-detached house. The usual pattern is a two-storey front with a bay, a recessed porch, casement windows and a long back garden. The first shops on Stoneleigh Broadway opened in November 1933, and there are smaller parades such as Cunliffe Parade on Vale Road and Kingston Parade. A small part of the Broadway was rebuilt in the 1960s, and the far north of the suburb was built up after the Worcester Park brickworks closed.
Because the houses were built so close together in time, a street of them looks best when replacement windows keep to the same pattern. A flush casement with the same split of opening and fixed lights as the original keeps a pair of semis looking like a pair even when only one half changes.
Planning
Stoneleigh is not among Epsom and Ewell's 21 conservation areas, so on most houses here there are no special controls on changing windows to aluminium or uPVC. The exceptions are flats, which do not have householder permitted development rights, and any house with its own listing. Ask the council if you are unsure.
What owners usually change
The front windows and bay, and the back of the house. Many Stoneleigh semis have a kitchen extension with an old patio door or a pair of French doors, and replacing it with a bifold or slider is often the first job. Gardens are long but narrow, so the space a bifold needs to stack is worth checking before choosing it over a slider.
Around Nonsuch Park
The eastern edge of Stoneleigh runs into Nonsuch Park, on the site of the Little Park of Nonsuch. Houses near the park on Stoneleigh Park Road and the streets off it are the same 1930s type, with the same choices.
A typical job in Stoneleigh
Illustrative example of a typical job
Three-pane aluminium bifold on a 1930s Stoneleigh semi
A 1930s semi-detached house of the type built after Stoneleigh station opened in 1932, with a later single-storey kitchen extension and a small window and door onto the garden.
One three-pane aluminium bifold door, about 2700 mm wide and 2100 mm high
Opening widened in the extension wall (lintel and structural work priced at survey)
A sliding door of the same width costs the same and is fitted at the same rate
Typically £6,250 to £10,350, supplied and fitted, including VAT
