Sash window repairs and restoration in Marylebone
We restore, repair and draught-proof timber sash windows in Marylebone and in Portman Square, Harley Street and the streets around Marylebone High Street. The housing is Georgian terraces and squares, with Victorian and Edwardian mansion blocks and mews behind. Nearly all of it lies in Westminster conservation areas, and much belongs to the Portman and Howard de Walden estates.
Marylebone's windows
Marylebone was laid out in the eighteenth century as a grid of terraces and squares: Portman, Manchester and Montagu Squares, Harley Street, Wimpole Street, Gloucester Place. The Georgian houses have six-over-six sashes on the principal floors and shorter three-over-three sashes above, with a good deal of original crown glass, faintly rippled when the light catches it. The mansion blocks built later have large two-over-two sashes, heavy to lift and often out of balance. Mews houses behind have smaller sashes, many altered over the years. Many of the houses are now flats or consulting rooms, so we often work around people who are using the building. Many of the Georgian houses keep their folding internal shutters.
What matters most in Marylebone
Marylebone's Georgian terraces still hold a good deal of original crown glass, the faintly rippled kind, in their six-over-six and three-over-three sashes. Keeping it is the first concern, so glass and glazing leads: old panes removed whole, cleaned and reset rather than swapped for flat modern glass.
The later mansion blocks pose the opposite problem. Their large two-over-two sashes are heavy and often out of balance, and restoration puts that right with correct weights and new cords so they lift easily again. With so many buildings now flats or consulting rooms, the work is often done around people going about their day. In a district this heavily listed and held by the great estates, draught-proofing is usually the sensible place to begin, because it changes nothing externally.
What we do in Marylebone
Conservation in Marylebone
Most of Marylebone lies within Westminster conservation areas, including Portman Estate and Harley Street, many of its buildings are listed, and much of it belongs to the Portman and Howard de Walden estates, whose own consent may also be needed. Our guide to conservation areas and Article 4 directions explains how it works. Check your own address on Westminster City Council's conservation area and Article 4 map, and we will go through what your windows need at the survey. Where an application does need drawings, we can prepare them. That is separate work and we quote for it.
Common questions
Can you keep the original crown glass in my sashes?01
Yes, where it is sound. We take the sashes out, cut the old putty back by hand and reset the panes. Where a pane is cracked we match it with crown or cylinder glass, so the window keeps the soft distortion that modern float glass lacks. See glass and glazing.
We are in a mansion block. Can you work across the whole building?02
Yes. We survey every window, set out the condition flat by flat, and quote in phases so the managing agent and leaseholders can plan the work. Sash window work is done from inside, which matters on the upper floors. We can also set out a longer programme, so the windows are repaired and repainted in turn rather than all at once.
Do you cover all of Marylebone?03
Yes: Marylebone Village, Portman Square, Manchester Square, Montagu Square, Harley Street, Wimpole Street, Dorset Square, Lisson Grove and the mews behind Gloucester Place, and east into Fitzrovia. Send photographs first for a free digital survey.
Book a survey
Send us photographs of your windows and we'll tell you what needs doing and what doesn't, with a written quotation. The digital survey is free.
Free digital survey with written quotation