Steel Staircases in Biggin Hill

Staircase jobs in Biggin Hill's housing

Biggin Hill began as a plotland of self-built weekend homes on the former Aperfield Court estate, and between 1961 and 1981 its dwellings rose by 161 per cent as worn-out plotland bungalows gave way to estates such as Valley View, Springholm, Bankside, the Filey, Bridlington and Flamborough Closes, Magnolia Drive and Rushdene Walk. The stock today is mostly 1960s and 1970s detached and semi-detached houses, with chalet bungalows, 1930s semis and terraces, town houses and purpose-built flats; the 2021 census puts detached homes at 38.8 per cent.

Housing spreads across the valley and the ridge along and behind Main Road, and many houses are split-level with steep, terraced gardens. Those levels set the work: an external steel stair from a raised ground floor or rear extension down to the garden, a galvanised flight cut into the bank between terraces, a replacement for worn timber or concrete steps, and fire escapes or balconies on the flats.

Planning and conservation points in Biggin Hill

Addresses read Westerham, Kent, but the planning authority is the London Borough of Bromley, and the built-up town is inset from the Metropolitan Green Belt, so ordinary householder rules apply. Balconies, raised platforms and verandas are excluded from permitted development; an external staircase to an upper floor therefore normally needs a planning application, and we prepare the scaled drawings and structural calculations Building Control asks for.

The edges differ. Westerham Hill, Leaves Green, Cudham, Downe and the airport are Green Belt, where Policy 51 caps extensions at a ten per cent floor-area gain over the original dwelling, so an external stair there wants careful design. Cudham Village and Downe are conservation areas; the town centre is not. At Vincent Square, the Grade II listed 1929 RAF married quarters in the Biggin Hill RAF Station conservation area, a 2000 Article 4 direction covers any gate, wall or fence fronting the square, and listed-building consent applies to metalwork on the houses.

Access and site conditions on the hill

The town stands at over 210 metres on the chalk of the North Downs, with the Saltbox Hill downland on the valley sides. Height means weather, so every mild steel stair we make for Biggin Hill is hot-dip galvanised before it is powder coated to the RAL colour you choose, or made in stainless steel. The ground has been plotted, built on, cleared and rebuilt since the 1890s, so we check it at the free site survey and design the fixings from what we find.

Split-level plots decide the route in. The garden often sits well below the house, reached by a side path or a run of terraces, so a stair is measured against that route as well as the drop. Some streets were tracks until the 1964 Biggin Hill Town Map made them roads, so where a van can stand is settled at the survey and the flight is made in sections to suit.

From Westerham Hill to Biggin Hill

Our workshop at 4 Fort Cottages stands on Westerham Hill, where the A233 climbs the Downs escarpment. From the door the road rises to Westerham Heights, the 245 metre county boundary and highest point in Greater London, then runs down into the town as Main Road: 1.8 miles, about five minutes. The A233 is the only main road, there is no railway, and the M25 passes close by without a local exit; the nearest junctions are 5 at Sundridge, 6.9 miles, 6 at Godstone, 8.2 miles, and 4, 8.3 miles. Everything, a steel staircase included, arrives by that one road.

That short hop changes how a job runs. A free site survey is a few minutes each way, a second look at the levels before fabrication costs nothing in travel, and a return visit after fitting is a five-minute drive. Our own team carries the finished stair from the workshop and installs it.

Where we work around Biggin Hill

The whole TN16 3 sector is covered: Biggin Hill Valley, Aperfield, the Main Road parade with its two supermarkets, library and swimming pool, Biggin Hill Green, Jail Lane by Charles Darwin School and the war memorial, and the streets around St George's RAF Chapel of Remembrance, the Memorial Museum and St Mark's Church. The Darwin ward hamlets around the town are ours too: Westerham Hill, Leaves Green beside the airport, Downe, Cudham, Berry's Green, Single Street, Luxted and South Street. Tatsfield, the salient of Surrey immediately south-west, and Keston to the north are the same short run.

Westerham is about four miles south of the town, Knockholt and Halstead lie east in Kent, New Addington is north-west, and Orpington and Bromley are each about nine miles off. Chelsham and Warlingham are 7.3 miles by road to the west, which puts Biggin Hill well inside the ten-mile circle around Warlingham that we cover.

Balustrades, gates and railings in Biggin Hill

Balustrades and gates take second place to the staircases, but they come from the same workshop. A glass balustrade on a split-level house keeps the view down the valley open from a raised terrace; steel bar or timber infill suits a garden flight. Juliet balconies fit the town houses and newer flats. Driveway gates and front railings under one metre beside the road are usually permitted development in the town, need a planning application and listed-building consent at Vincent Square, and are kept plain in the Green Belt hamlets so they do not harm the rural character Bromley protects. All of it is galvanised and finished to match the staircase it sits beside.

Questions from Biggin Hill customers