★★★★★
Top-floor flat with direct responsibility for the mansard above. Kensington Roofers explained the options clearly (partial repair vs full re-slate), we went with the full replacement, and the job was immaculate. Highly recommend.
West Brompton roofers — mansion blocks on Old Brompton Road, Finborough Road, Ifield Road. Mansard & flat roof specialists. Free quotes.
West Brompton sits on the boundary between Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham, in the area roughly bounded by the Old Brompton Road to the north, the West London Line to the west, and the Fulham Road to the south. It takes its name from the village of Brompton, which in turn derives from the Old English broom-tun, "the broom-plant settlement" — indicating the scrubby, flower-covered heath that covered the area until the eighteenth century.
Until the 1830s West Brompton was genuinely open country — home to the Brompton Market Gardens, one of the most productive commercial nurseries supplying London with fruit, flowers and vegetables. Development came in the 1840s with the construction of Brompton Cemetery, which necessitated surrounding urbanisation, and accelerated through the 1870s and 1880s as the West London Line opened and demand for mansion-block accommodation grew. The area as it stands now is largely the product of the 1870–1910 period, with distinctive tall red-brick and cream-stucco mansion blocks along the main roads and purpose-built apartment blocks filling the secondary streets.
West Brompton has historically been quieter and slightly less fashionable than Earls Court or South Kensington, which has preserved more of its original fabric. The core mansion-block stock — Finborough Road, Ifield Road, Old Brompton Road around the cemetery — remains substantially as built, making the area a specific specialism of ours for coordinated heritage mansion-block roofing work.
West Brompton's housing is predominantly purpose-built Victorian and Edwardian mansion blocks of four to six storeys, with mansard slate roofs, lead-lined box gutters, and shared chimneys on the party walls. Old Brompton Road, Finborough Road, Ifield Road and Coleherne Road all have extensive mansion-block stock. Terraced Victorian houses are also present, particularly off Redcliffe Gardens and around the cemetery — typically three storeys with basements, slate roofs and individual chimneys. Twentieth-century infill includes a handful of 1930s blocks and some post-war rebuild, particularly around the Empress State Building.
A general roofer from outside West Brompton can, in theory, do the work. In practice, roofing decisions in West Brompton are constantly shaped by local factors that an outsider doesn't know: which streets are in conservation areas, which properties are listed, which managing agents handle which blocks, which local scaffolders will or won't take on narrow-street jobs, which conservation officer handles which zone of the borough, which materials merchants actually stock what they claim to.
We've been working in this patch for thirty years. That institutional knowledge — dozens of small pieces of information that we don't even think about any more — is what lets us quote realistic timescales, realistic prices, and deliver to those estimates. It's also why our warranty-work rate is so low: when you know a street, you know what the roof is likely to be hiding before you get up there.
Practically, that means fewer surprises, quicker turnarounds, and more straightforward conservation approvals. Every West Brompton client gets the same attention regardless of job size.
We serve every street in the SW5, SW10 postcode area. Emergency callouts typically arrive within 60–90 minutes.
A small sample of feedback from recent jobs in the area.
Top-floor flat with direct responsibility for the mansard above. Kensington Roofers explained the options clearly (partial repair vs full re-slate), we went with the full replacement, and the job was immaculate. Highly recommend.
Our mansion block had been patching the same section of box gutter for fifteen years. KR finally did it properly — full replacement in Code 5 lead, new tilt fillets, new abutment flashings. Dry ever since.
Rear flat-roof replacement on our ground-floor flat. The managing agent had been delaying — KR talked them through the options and costs, got sign-off, and finished the job in four days. Brilliantly handled.
Emergency tarpaulin and make-safe after the March storms brought down a chimney pot. On site in 90 minutes, safe within two hours, proper rebuild booked for the following week. Honest pricing.
1. The phone call or email. You ring us on 0330 223 7665 or drop a line to info@kensingtonroofers.co.uk. We'll ask a handful of diagnostic questions — property type, roof age if known, specific issues, whether you've had other quotes — and book a site visit.
2. The site visit. A senior tradesman attends at a time that suits you, typically within 3–5 working days. We'll go up on the roof if safe (often via a loft hatch and ladder, sometimes needing a tower), photograph everything, and discuss options with you on the spot.
3. The written quote. You'll receive a detailed written quote within a further 3–5 working days. It itemises materials by brand and spec, scaffold by duration, labour by day rate and crew size, and waste removal by skip. You can compare it line-by-line against other quotes.
4. Acceptance and scheduling. If you accept, we agree a start date. For smaller repairs, typically 1–2 weeks out; for re-roofs, 3–6 weeks depending on scaffold and material lead times. Deposit schedules are clear and capped.
5. The work. Scaffold goes up on day one, strip and work proceeds through the following days, and scaffold comes down on the last day. You get a daily update from the site foreman; end-of-day tidying and overnight weather protection are standard.
6. Handover. Final walk-around with you, guarantee certificate, manufacturer warranties, photographic record of the finished work, and waste transfer notes. Final invoice issued after your sign-off.
Questions specific to working in West Brompton. For general questions see our main FAQ page.
Almost certainly yes. We work with most West London managing agents regularly — Savills, Knight Frank, Ringley, Pembertons, Pennycuick Collins, Rendall & Rittner, Harwood Homes. If your block uses a different agent, we can still engage with them directly — it's routine work.
Almost always the freeholder, and it's their responsibility to maintain. Top-floor leaseholders sometimes have specific responsibilities via their lease — worth checking. Either way, we quote the owner of the roof (usually freeholder via managing agent) and they're responsible for payment, typically recovering through service charges.
Section 20 consultation adds a minimum of 60 days to the overall project timeline — 30 days for the notice of intention, then 30 days for the notice of proposal. So from initial enquiry to start on site, plan for four to five months total. For emergencies, there are consultation exemptions we can help document.
Yes. For storm-damage claims we provide itemised written reports with photographs, quote in a format compatible with standard insurer requirements, and can liaise directly with loss adjusters where the policyholder authorises us. Most West Brompton mansion blocks have block-wide insurance — we're used to that arrangement.
Yes. We cover the whole of SW10 and SW5 including the streets around the Empress State Building. The commercial buildings there have different characteristics (larger roofs, often commercial single-ply systems) but we handle commercial work alongside domestic.
We cover all of SW5, SW10 with free site visits, written quotes and 24/7 emergency callouts.
0330 223 7665