Kitchen / dining room extension - help!

[isitwinetimeyet16]

Hello all! We live in a lovely Victorian house in London with a pretty dark L-shaped kitchen next to a very big dining room - both open out onto the garden. We've decided to knock through the kitchen and the dining room to make one big open plan living area but I have no idea how to start to go about it! Do we have to hire an architect to plan it before looking at a builder? Would one company do everything? Thanks in advance for any help!

The builder did ours. We also have a long Victorian house. The Dining room is wider by a few feet, then narrows to the kitchen. So the adjoining wall isn't very wide (IYSWIM). The builder just widened the door and put a steel thing across and plastered over. It didn't need an RSJ. I was a bit unsure so asked a structural engineer at a wedding (He was bored and happy to talk). He said it should be fine. If it's not, it'll crack. It's been fine. The important bit is that it's not a really wide opening. But a lot bigger than a door. If I was taking out a whole wall I would contact a structural engineer for a site visit. We've done that before for a different project. He was very accommodating and can out very quickly.

...I was unsure after the builder had done it and wanted to check for piece of mind. The opening is 1.4m and then the units are pretty much flush to it. (So the kitchen is actually wider but visually it works).

Hi. I own a few Victorian terraced houses in Tooting and Wandsworth and have extended and refurbished them all. Get a really decent building company to come and have a look and advise you. It could be a very straightforward job. Are you able to private message and I could pass on my teams number if that would help?