Victorian terrace kitchen

[fufulina]

We are just starting to think about doing up our kitchen.

We have a big standard Victorian terrace in north London. Layout as you'd expect - two rooms at the front - current sitting and play rooms and the five steps down to the rear extension - long kitchen.

I am thinking about moving the kitchen diner into the front two rooms. Knocking through totally (currently knocked through with double sliding doors), opening up the chimney breasts - one for a range cooker in the front and one for a wood burner in the back where the diner would be. It's better proportions and higher ceilings. Has anyone done this or have their kitchen diner in the front? And could you share photos?

DH is having trouble imagining it - in particular how a long narrow sitting room in the current kitchen would work.

This is identical to the one we had! But we had a conventional window to the side. As you have no down stairs WC I'd consider making one, putting it in the space before the side bay window. Couldn't do it with a side return though.

Yep - bog standard Victorian terrace! The uk is covered with them!

I do prefer living rooms at the back but on Victorian houses it just looks weird to have the kitchen in the front room. But if you're staying there it doesn't matter what I think. Your floorplan is like ours and side return nowhere near that cost. We're very near you. I would find some cheaper builders and get quotes for both ways.

Thanks Halfcarrot - what is the cost of a side return in your experience?

We paid 40k for a package from a company which included just the basic room with electrics, plumbing, plastering, rads, Velux windows, tiles and gutters etc. Plus obviously wall removal and RSJs.

It didn't include floor tiling, painting, bifolds, or the kitchen.

It was just a standard service, not massively bespoke, and I think we paid extra for the convenience and project management. I would have thought architect plus builder quotes would save money?

Sorry that included the "design" too, and drawings, we paid the council fees though.

I rented a victorian house like yours when i first moved back to London and the owner had kept the kitchen at the back, but had opened out the whole space knocking down internal walls, so that it was one large kitchen (a tiny utility and toilet put just by cellar door near stairs) and had replaced the back wall of the kitchen with one large wall of glass with veranda doors, with an oblong patio and table and chairs beyond that, same level as the kitchen, so that when you came in through the front door you looked down the hallway through to the kitchen and could see the garden (and the patio and table and chairs) from the front door. It was lovely.

When the back doors were open in the kitchen you could walk in and out without a step up or down.

The original side doors had become windows so the kitchen was large and bright and airy.

I copied it when i bought my first house, also a victorian semi!

They hadn't done the side extension.

As long as your current kitchen would be a decent sized living room I would LOVE the layout you are describing.

Nice living room at the back, with sliding doors straight out onto the garden. Totally separate from the rest of the house.

Kitchen / diner / family room in the two front reception room. Patio doors out onto the side return area. Lovely high ceilings. Nice big room (two rooms knocked through).

My ground floor is almost the same as yours OP with the exception that your dining room is my kitchen and your kitchen is my sun lounge/ garden room.
We have big patio doors at the end of the sun lounge which open out onto the garden.
My kitchen sink is under the window (normal window, not a bay)even though the depth of the window is in reality, lower than the sink unit.
Previous owners had this work done and got round it by putting in some sort of panel at the bottom of the window to make a sort of false wall bit to butt the sink unit up to.
A window sill then covers the gap between the false panel/wall and the top of the sink unit.
On the outside, there is a deep, decorative panel of UPVC so it doesn't look odd from either inside or outside.
Whether it would pass building regs etc these day, I have no idea but given that we'll never move, I don't care.
We too have a step down from the kitchen to the sun lounge.
Just sharing this in case it helps.

Thanks halfcarrot - appreciate the info. And I agree that if we aren't moving I can largely do the house how we want to live!

Mogonfoxnight - we have that view from front door to garden - but marred by the five steps between hallway and kitchen - and then another step. But thank you all for the input.

I know a few houses on my street in NW London which have moved the kitchen to the front of the house - its quite a big job with the plumbing/drainage so definitely worth checking how the cost stacks up against a side return kitchen extension. Those houses have units against one or both side walls with dead space under the windows at the front (as they are quite low). Radiators have been removed to help with flow and underfloor heating installed. I think in the house in the photo storage may be an issue.

One has an island unit in the centre which delineates the break up into the dining room area which is abit darker (as not much natural light in that back room of two).