Steel staircases in Bromley

Steel staircase jobs on Bromley's houses and flats

Rear extensions, side extensions and loft conversions on the interwar semis are the staple householder projects in Bromley, and the ones that most often call for an external steel staircase. When a new first-floor room in Bromley South, Shortlands, Bickley, Hayes or Bromley Common opens on to a flat roof, or a loft needs a second way out, a galvanised stair down to the garden is the answer. The generous gardens and large driveways of those 1920s and 1930s houses leave room for a straight flight with a half landing; where the plot is tighter a spiral takes less ground.

The Victorian houses around Bromley North station and Sundridge Avenue have tall ceilings, so a stair from a first-floor window or balcony has a greater rise and more treads, and its fixings go into older red brick with decorative lintels that we check before drilling. The town centre flats bring fire escape stairs and balcony balustrades instead.

Planning and conservation rules that affect a stair in Bromley

The Bromley Town Centre Conservation Area covers the High Street, Market Square, lower London Road, Church Road, Martins Hill and parts of Widmore Road, Tweedy Road and Valley Road. Its appraisal, adopted on 25 June 2025, notes that some permitted development rights are restricted there, names doors, windows, roofs and boundary treatments such as fences and gates as proposals that may be caught, and expects alterations to reflect the materials and finishes of the host building. Bromley College, Bromley North station and the Old Town Hall are listed, and listed buildings have no permitted development rights at all.

Across the borough a balcony or raised platform above 0.3 m needs planning permission, and most external stairs to a first floor land on one. The council will not say informally whether a proposal is permitted development, so we prepare drawings for a Lawful Development Certificate or a householder application, and Building Regulations apply to the stair whatever the planning position.

Access and site conditions on Bromley streets

The 1920s and 1930s semis and detached houses of Shortlands, Bickley and Hayes have large driveways, so a straight flight arrives in two or three bolted sections and is carried round to the garden. The terraces of Plaistow and Downham near Grove Park station, Hastings Road in Bromley Common and the Victorian cottages of Chatterton Village have no such room, and there the stair is made in pieces sized to go through the hall or over the rear fence. Deliveries to flats above the High Street are timed around the Friday and Saturday market in Market Square.

The finish follows the wall behind it. On pebble-dashed and tile-hung houses the fixings are taken back to the brick, and hot-dip galvanising under a powder coat in a RAL colour matched to the render, tile or mock-Tudor timbering sits more quietly than bare zinc. For the town centre flats, stainless steel with glass infill suits the modern elevations.

Getting to Bromley from Westerham Hill

From 4 Fort Cottages on Westerham Hill the run to Bromley town centre is 10.4 miles, about 25 minutes when the roads are clear. We take the A233 north through Biggin Hill and Keston, across the Green Belt that covers nearly all the borough south of the A232 and A21, and pick up the A21 for the last stretch into town. The A21 slows at peak times, so surveys and fitting days are booked with that in mind. From Warlingham the distance is 8.8 miles, around 21 minutes, which brings Bromley inside the ten-mile radius we cover from there as well as from the Kent side.

The people who survey the site also draw the stair, fabricate it at the workshop and fit it, and a same-day written estimate from a phone photo is available before any survey is booked.

Where we work in and around Bromley

Our Bromley work centres on BR1 and BR2: Bromley, Bickley, Downham, Sundridge and Plaistow in BR1, and Hayes, Shortlands, Bickley and Bromley Common in BR2, together with Widmore and Park Langley. Sundridge Park, where Victorian and Edwardian houses stand near the park and the Grade I mansion has been divided into apartments, the roads around Norman Park and the terraces near Grove Park station are covered on the same terms. Further out we serve the rest of the borough, including Beckenham, West Wickham, Chislehurst, Petts Wood and Orpington, and Keston and Biggin Hill lie on the A233 between Bromley and our workshop. A fire escape for a block off the High Street, a garden stair on a large Bickley plot and a replacement flight behind a Shortlands semi are all surveyed, drawn, made and fitted by our own team.

Balustrades, balconies, gates and railings in Bromley

We also make the metalwork that goes with a stair. A Juliet balcony on a Victorian house near Bromley North has no platform and is normally permitted development, though inside the conservation area the change from sash window to doors may need consent, because alterations to doors and windows are among the rights restricted there. Steel or glass balustrades suit the balconies of the town centre flats; at Sundridge Park Mansion, which is Grade I listed, any new balustrade needs Listed Building Consent. Front gates and railings are kept to 1 m beside a road used by vehicles and 2 m elsewhere, the permitted development limits, and taking down a wall or fence of 1 m or more beside a highway in the conservation area may itself need permission. The Grade II iron gates and piers at Queens Gardens on Kentish Way and the locally listed cast-iron pump in Market Square are the reference points for new railings.

Questions from Bromley customers