Open-Plan Living in London: How to Create It and What It Costs

The first step in any open-plan project is identifying which walls are load-bearing and which are not. In a typical Victorian or Edwardian London terrace:

• **Definitely load-bearing (never remove without a structural engineer)**:
• •The front external wall (front elevation)
• •The rear external wall / rear addition wall
• •The party walls on each side (these can never be removed — they are shared with neighbours)
• •The chimney breast walls (loadbearing stack above)
• •The spine wall (running front-to-back through the centre of the house, where it exists)

• **May or may not be load-bearing (require structural engineer confirmation)**:
• •The wall between the front reception room and the rear dining room (often a stud partition in some conversions, but frequently a load-bearing solid brick wall in original Victorian terraces)
• •The wall between the rear dining room and the kitchen (in the Victorian back addition — often load-bearing)
• •Internal walls at right angles to the floor joists (usually load-bearing)

• **Generally not load-bearing**:
• •Stud partition walls running parallel to the joists
• •Walls in cupboards or under the stairs

Never assume a wall is non-load-bearing without confirmation from a structural engineer. Even walls that appear to be lightweight partitions may be providing lateral restraint to the floor structure.

Opening up the ground floor of a London Victorian terrace to create open-plan involves the following stages:

• **1. Structural engineer instruction**
• The structural engineer visits site, assesses the structure, and designs the steel beam (RSJ) to span the new opening. The engineer specifies:
• •The beam size and grade (typically 203UC60 to 305UC137 depending on span and load)
• •The bearing length on each side (typically 150–200mm)
• •The padstone specification (engineering brick or concrete padstone)
• •The temporary propping arrangement

**2. Building Regulations submission** Full Plans application submitted with structural calculations. Building Control reviews and approves. Allow 4–6 weeks.

**3. Temporary propping** Before any masonry is removed, temporary acrow props and needle beams are installed to carry the loads currently carried by the wall.

**4. Wall removal** The masonry is carefully removed within the propped section.

**5. Padstone installation** Padstones are installed on each side of the opening to the engineer's specification.

**6. Steel installation** The RSJ is lifted and positioned, bearing on the padstones on each side.

**7. Fire protection** The steel is fire-protected: intumescent paint or board encasement.

**8. Propping removed** Once the steel is in position and bearing correctly, temporary propping is removed.

**9. Building Control inspection** Building Control inspects before any plastering covers the work.

**10. Making good and plastering** The soffit of the beam is formed, walls are made good, plastering proceeds.

• **Cost by opening width (London 2026, all-in including SE fee)**:
• •2.0–2.5m: £5,000–£8,000
• •2.5–3.5m: £6,500–£11,000
• •3.5–4.5m (full-width): £9,000–£15,000

Creating a good open-plan living space requires thinking about the design before committing to the structural works. Key design decisions:

**Where does the cooking smoke go?** An open-plan kitchen-diner means the kitchen extraction must work harder — cooking odours, steam, and heat from the hob spread through a much larger space. Specify a high-extraction kitchen hood (at least 600m³/hour for a standard hob; 900m³/hour+ for a range or island hob). Ducted extraction (to the exterior) is essential — recirculating hoods are inadequate for open-plan.

**Kitchen island or peninsula?** In an open-plan space, the island or peninsula is typically both a cooking/prep surface and the visual divider between the kitchen zone and the dining/living zone. Designing the island position determines the traffic flow and the sense of zone definition. Allow at least 1.0m clearance on all sides of the island for comfortable movement.

• **Structural post or flush beam soffit?**
• Where a beam is exposed (below ceiling level), there are two options:
• •Expose the beam and make a feature of it (popular in industrial/contemporary styles)
• •Box in the beam below the ceiling line to create a flush soffit
• Boxing in requires the beam to be fire-protected and wrapped — and the boxing depth adds to the reduced ceiling height in the new opening zone. Allow for this in the kitchen design (upper cabinets may conflict with a boxed soffit).

**Flooring continuity**: In a truly open-plan space, continuous flooring creates unity. This means all three previous rooms (front reception, dining room, kitchen) should ideally receive the same floor covering. In practice this is easier in a new extension than in an existing terrace (where different floor heights and subfloor conditions can complicate matters).

**Heating**: Removing walls and creating a large open-plan volume changes the heating load. The existing radiator circuit was designed for separate rooms. When rooms are combined, the radiator in one former room may be too small for the combined space. Underfloor heating (particularly in the kitchen area) is an opportunity during any structural opening works.

A full ground floor open-plan transformation in a typical 3-bed London Victorian terrace — combining front reception, rear dining room, and kitchen into a single space — involves:

• **Works typically required**:
• •Remove wall between front and rear reception rooms (structural opening, RSJ)
• •Remove wall between rear reception and kitchen (structural opening, RSJ or lintel)
• •Extend kitchen into new open-plan space (kitchen renovation — works only)
• •Install underfloor heating throughout ground floor (if desired)
• •New continuous flooring throughout
• •Full replaster and redecoration
• •New electrical circuits (sockets to suit new layout, lighting design for different zones)
• •New kitchen (client-supplied units; rcbGroup installs)
• •Structural opening to rear extension (if part of the scheme)

• **All-in cost range (existing footprint only, no extension, London 2026)**:
• •2 structural openings, replaster, new kitchen circuits, redecoration: £25,000–£50,000
• •With underfloor heating throughout: add £8,000–£15,000
• •With new kitchen install (buildings works only): add £8,000–£18,000

**Programme**: 6–12 weeks on site for a pure internal open-plan transformation. If combined with a rear extension, programme is 16–22 weeks.

**With a rear extension**: the combination of an open-plan ground floor transformation plus a rear extension that adds a kitchen-diner creates the single most impactful ground floor project in a London Victorian terrace. Budget: £70,000–£145,000 for a wraparound + open-plan internal transformation.