Replacement windows
Tall sliding sashes for the classical villas and terraces. White-painted timber casements, often leaded, for the English Revival houses of around 1900. Aluminium or uPVC for the inter-war and post-war suburbs.
Double glazing, sash windows and doors in Tunbridge Wells
Sash, timber and aluminium windows, doors and conservatories for a town where much of the centre is a conservation area.
- Sash, timber, aluminium and uPVC
- Tunbridge Wells, Southborough, Rusthall and Pembury
- Our own fitters and a 10 year guarantee
East Grinstead showroom · covering Sussex, Surrey and Kent
10/10 on Checkatrade
From 149 verified customer reviews
Certass registered
Fully insured and SafeContractor approved
10 year guarantee
On every product we supply and install
Family run since 2007
Our own fitters — never subcontracted out
Holtye Windows in Tunbridge Wells
Four centuries of building, most of it protected
Tunbridge Wells began with a spring discovered in 1606. The Pantiles followed in the seventeenth century and Decimus Burton’s Calverley Park in the 1820s, and after the railway came in 1845 the population rose from 10,000 to more than 33,000 by 1901. A large part of the town is now a single conservation area.
We are twelve miles to the west in East Grinstead. In a town like this the first conversation is about what the house was built with, and the second about what the council will accept.
What we fit
Windows, doors and conservatories for Tunbridge Wells homes
Supplied, fitted and guaranteed for 10 years by our own team. Nothing is subcontracted.
New doors
Moulded, panelled front doors belong to the town’s classical fronts, and leaded glass to the later ones. We supply both in timber or composite, and bifolds for the garden side.
Conservatories and extensions
The High Weald National Landscape comes hard up against the town and in places washes over its south-eastern streets. A house inside it has the tighter permitted development limits even outside a conservation area, so establish that before a conservatory or an extension is designed.
Home improvements
Tile-hanging, weatherboarding and sandstone are the Wealden details here. Roofline and cladding should be chosen to sit with them.
Homes in Tunbridge Wells
Burton’s villas, Victorian parks and tile-hung gables
The council’s own appraisal says that if one form had to stand for Tunbridge Wells, it would be Decimus Burton’s park developments.
The early town is vernacular: red brick, white-painted weatherboarding, tile-hanging and some sandstone, with small timber casements. Then came the classical town of sandstone and stucco, with tall, carefully proportioned sash windows and panelled doors. Calverley Park, begun in 1827, survives intact.
The mid-Victorian decades added the parks, Camden Park, Nevill Park and Hungershall Park, and the villas of St James’s. Around 1900 the fashion turned to an English Revival style in red brick and tile-hanging, with sash and casement windows that were always white-painted timber, often with leaded or stained glass.
Madeira Park and Warwick Park, built largely between 1898 and the 1930s, have mullioned and transomed timber windows with square leaded lights. In houses like these the pattern of the window is the character of the house, and a replacement has to reproduce it.
Our work
The kind of work Tunbridge Wells asks us for
All our own installations, photographed on site across Sussex, Surrey and Kent. Select a photo to see it full size.
Local planning
The conservation area and planning permission in Tunbridge Wells
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council is the planning authority. The Royal Tunbridge Wells conservation area, first designated in 1969 and enlarged since, covers a large part of the town in a dozen character areas, from The Pantiles and Mount Sion to Calverley Park, Camden Park, St James’s, Nevill Park, Broadwater Down and Molyneux Park. Madeira Park and Warwick Park, and Rusthall, are conservation areas of their own.
The Article 4 directions the council describes on its website do not restrict windows or doors. The St James direction, for instance, covers hard surfacing, gates, fences and walls. But directions made before 2021 are available only on request, so ask the council about your address before assuming a house in the conservation area is free to change its windows.
The council’s Alterations and Extensions guidance says new windows and doorways should match those of the original house in type, proportions, sub-divisions and materials. It is also explicit that flats and maisonettes have no permitted development rights, so most external work on them needs planning permission. The borough has around 3,000 listed buildings, all of which need listed building consent.
The High Weald National Landscape surrounds the town and covers some of its south-eastern streets. Where it does not reach the urban edge, to the west and north, the land is Green Belt.
The national rules, briefly
- Replacing the windows and doors of a house does not normally need planning permission, as long as the new ones look similar to the old.
- Flats and maisonettes do not have that right, and a listed building needs listed building consent. Check with the council before changing either.
- Every replacement window and external door has to meet Building Regulations. We’re Certass registered, so we certify the work ourselves and you receive the certificate within eight weeks.
- A conservatory or single-storey rear extension is often permitted development too, within size limits that tighten in conservation areas and protected landscapes.
Projects
Recent projects near Tunbridge Wells
The nearest jobs we have written up in full, with photos and the detail of what was done.
Conference room to hotel suites
A conference room at Dale Hill Golf and Country Club, converted into three hotel suites and two offices.
View project8 miles from Tunbridge Wells
Summer house windows and doors
Tired timber windows and double doors on a garden summer house, replaced with white PVCu frames and Georgian bars.
View project12 miles from Tunbridge Wells
Whole-house renovation
Windows, doors, a Supalite warm roof extension, kitchen, cloakroom, flooring and decorating — all handled by one team from start to finish.
View project12 miles from Tunbridge Wells
Customer reviews
What our customers say
Rated 10/10 from 149 reviews on Checkatrade, where we’ve been a vetted member since 2014.
Where we work
Tunbridge Wells and the places around it
We cover the whole of Tunbridge Wells, and we don’t stop at the edge of town.
- Southborough
- Rusthall
- Langton Green
- Pembury
- High Brooms
- Hawkenbury
- Sherwood
- Ramslye
- Speldhurst
- Bidborough
- Frant
- Bells Yew Green
- Eridge Green
- Groombridge
Nearby areas: Tonbridge, Crowborough, Sevenoaks, Edenbridge, East Grinstead. See everywhere we cover.
Questions
Tunbridge Wells: your questions
Can’t see what you need? Call 01342 410079 and we’ll answer it properly.
Do I need planning permission for new windows in Tunbridge Wells?
For a house outside the conservation areas, not normally. Inside one, a house can usually still replace windows with ones of similar appearance, but check with the borough council first, because its older Article 4 directions are not published. Flats, maisonettes and listed buildings need consent.
Can I replace timber sash windows with uPVC in the conservation area?
The council’s guidance asks for new windows to match the originals in type, proportions, sub-divisions and materials, which on a house built with timber sashes means timber. Outside the conservation area a uPVC sliding sash is a common and sensible choice.
Is my house in the High Weald National Landscape?
It may be, even in town. The designation wraps round Tunbridge Wells and covers parts of the south-east of the built-up area and the edge of North Farm. It does not affect replacement windows, but it tightens the rules for extensions, conservatories and cladding.
Do you cover Southborough, Rusthall and the villages?
Yes: Southborough, Rusthall, Langton Green, Pembury, Speldhurst and Bidborough in Kent, and Frant, Bells Yew Green, Eridge and Groombridge over the border in East Sussex. A different council decides planning there, but that does not change whether we come.
Free quotations
Ready for a quote in Tunbridge Wells?
Book a free, no-obligation survey at your home in Tunbridge Wells, or come and see us at the East Grinstead showroom.