Railings, estate fencing, bow top, vertical bar, driveway gates and side gates across Camden and NW1, NW3.
We supply and fit metal fencing and gates across Camden and the NW1, NW3, NW5, N7, WC1 postcodes: railings, estate fencing, bow top, vertical bar, driveway gates and side gates, all galvanised and powder coated. Georgian and Victorian townhouses in Primrose Hill and Hampstead, plus dense terraces around Kentish Town and Gospel Oak set the pattern locally, and listed-building and conservation constraints across most postcodes — timber and painted profiles only at the front.
Small walled courtyards behind period houses; several conservation areas restrict visible materials, which decides how the posts are set and where a gate can swing to. We set out levels and hinge heights on site rather than working to a standard drawing.
Camden High Street and Kentish Town Road and Hampstead High Street covers the commercial side of Camden, where heavier vertical bar railings and full steel gates with commercial ironmongery are the usual specification.
Access is planned around Camden Town, Kentish Town, Belsize Park (Northern line) and A400 Kentish Town Road / A502 Haverstock Hill, with M1 J1 (10 min) / A406 (15 min) for deliveries of longer steel sections.
Camden covers a wide range of housing, from Georgian and Victorian townhouses in Primrose Hill and Hampstead to dense terraces around Kentish Town and Gospel Oak.
Hampstead Heath borders the borough's northern edge, and several streets run close to the Heath or the Regent's Canal.
Mansfield Road and Camden Road are the sort of frontages where a low railing run with a matching pedestrian gate reads better than anything tall and solid.
Almost everything we fit here is residential: front boundary railings, steps and light wells, a pedestrian gate to match, and double gates across a drive where the opening takes them. Camden Council is the authority to check with if a frontage sits in a conservation area.
The borough contains a large number of conservation areas, and much of its historic housing stock is subject to planning controls on visible boundary materials.
Streets we work on regularly: Prince of Wales Road, Camden Road, Fortess Road, Malden Road, Chetwynd Road, Mansfield Road.
What suits Georgian and Victorian townhouses in Primrose Hill and Hampstead, plus dense terraces around Kentish Town and Gospel Oak best, with the frontage patterns first and the heavier specifications further down.
Metal gates fitted into timber fence runs, and railings run either side of a metal gate, so the boundary matches from end to end.
Dropped, sticking, rusting or storm-damaged metal gates put right: new hinge pins, new posts, welded repairs where the frame has failed.
Traditional low estate fencing for open frontages, paddock edges, verges and long garden boundaries where a solid panel would block a view.
A security fence is only as strong as its weakest gate junction — commercial-grade hinges, drop bolts and hasps matched to the fence spec close the gap that a domestic-grade fitting would leave open.
Where a client wants electronic access control we fit the mechanical hardware to the same spec and refer the electronic side to a specialist, rather than mixing a heavy-duty fence with a light-duty latch.
A hanging post that's rotted at ground level usually needs full replacement rather than repair, and because the gate is bolted directly to that post, the gate itself often has to come off and be reassessed for damage during the process even if the gate was previously sound.
This is worth explaining clearly to a client who's expecting a simple post swap, since the gate's own hinges and fixings may need attention at the same time.
A dated photographic record of the existing boundary condition, taken before work starts, protects both parties if a dispute later arises over what state a shared fence or wall was in beforehand.
This is particularly useful on a party boundary or where neighbouring property could be affected by access during the works, and costs nothing beyond the time to take and keep the photos.
Under permitted development rights, a new or replacement fence, wall or gate can generally reach up to 2 metres in height without planning permission, away from a road used by vehicles.
That height is measured from the natural ground level on the lower side where there's a change in level, which can make a fence look and function as taller than 2m when viewed from the raised side.
These are general rights and can be restricted or removed on individual properties, so checking with the local planning authority before installing anything close to the limit is sensible.
Traditional estate or hoop-top railings suit period properties and low-maintenance open boundaries, but steel needs a rust-inhibiting primer and topcoat maintained over time, unlike galvanised or powder-coated modern equivalents.
Where an old cast or wrought iron railing run is being repaired rather than replaced, matching profiles can mean sourcing reclaimed sections or having new sections cast to match, since standard modern stock rarely matches historic patterns exactly.
Concrete plinth walls under railings are a common point of failure — cracked or spalling concrete at the base undermines the railing fixings even when the metalwork itself is sound.
Properties without mains drainage, more common on the rural fringes of Hertfordshire, often have a septic tank or soakaway drainage field with pipework running across the garden that a fence line can unknowingly cross.
A collapsed or compressed drainage pipe under a post base is a common cause of a fence settling unevenly a season or two after installation.
Where a septic system's layout isn't documented, a damp or lush strip of grass running away from the tank is often the visible sign of a soakaway field that needs avoiding when setting posts.
Signage warning of CCTV, guard dogs or electric fencing has to be truthful and visible from the approach it's warning about — a sign for a feature that doesn't exist, or one hidden from view, offers no legal protection and can mislead.
Where a boundary carries a genuine hazard such as an electrified topping, specific warning signage at defined intervals is generally a legal requirement, not an optional extra.
Where a timber post has rotted at ground level but the panels and the rest of the run remain sound, bolting a concrete spur alongside the rotten section rather than replacing the whole post is a common and effective partial repair.
The spur takes over the structural role at ground level while the timber above the rot line, which is usually still sound, continues to carry the panel fixings.
This repair only works while enough sound timber remains above the rotten section to bolt through; once rot has progressed too far up the post, spurring no longer gives a reliable fix and full post replacement is the honest answer.
A gate across a driveway shared by more than one property needs the agreement of everyone with a right to use it, since restricting access — even with a key provided to all parties — changes how that access can practically be used, especially for larger vehicles or emergency access.
Automated gates on a shared drive raise additional questions about who controls the opening mechanism, who pays for maintenance, and what happens if the power or motor fails, all of which are worth agreeing in writing before installation.
Where the shared drive is used by refuse collection or emergency services, checking minimum clear widths and turning circles with the council or fire service before fitting a gate avoids a structure that later has to be removed.
Replacing a fence exactly where the old one stood is generally the lowest-risk approach from a boundary perspective, since it maintains a position both neighbours have already implicitly accepted for years.
It's still worth flagging the planned replacement to a neighbour beforehand, particularly if the new fence will be a different height, material or style to what's there now.
Where the old fence's exact line is unclear because it has leant or shifted over time, marking out the intended new line and briefly confirming it with the neighbour avoids later disagreement.
Hot-dip galvanised fixings are the standard for most timber fence repairs and resist corrosion well in normal ground and weather conditions at a lower cost than stainless.
Stainless fixings are worth specifying near the coast or where treated timber with a high copper content accelerates corrosion of standard galvanised fittings, since that combination corrodes noticeably faster than inland, untreated timber.
Fencing, gates and decking all involve moving bulky, heavy material — concrete posts, gravel boards, decking joists — from a van to the working area, and how far that has to be carried has a real effect on labour time.
On streets with permit parking, no off-street loading bay, or restricted delivery hours, we plan the drop-off around those restrictions rather than assuming a van can sit outside all day.
Where a plot has a driveway or side gate wide enough for a barrow run, that alone can shave a meaningful amount of time off a job compared with hand-carrying everything round the front.
Where a full repair can't happen immediately, a leaning panel or post can be temporarily propped or strapped to stop it falling further, which reduces risk without committing to the final repair method on the spot.
Temporary propping is treated as exactly that — a stopgap — since a prop left in place over a wet season can itself start to sink or shift in soft ground.
Padlocks are commonly rated to a recognised standard covering resistance to cutting, drilling and picking, and a high-security hasp is only as good as the padlock fitted to it — pairing a budget padlock with a heavy-duty hasp undermines the whole fitting.
A closed-shackle or shrouded hasp design protects the padlock body from bolt-croppers, which is the more common attack on an exposed gate than picking.
Band-and-gudgeon hinges, tee hinges, plain butt hinges and adjustable bolt-on hinges each suit a different gate weight and post material, and fitting the wrong type for the gate's weight is a common cause of early hinge failure.
A heavy timber gate needs a band-and-gudgeon or heavy-duty tee hinge rather than a light butt hinge sized for an internal door.
The gap at the centre where two gate leaves meet needs to be tight enough to look intentional and resist being forced apart, but not so tight that seasonal swelling causes the two leaves to bind against each other in wet weather.
A drop bolt or cane bolt on one leaf, engaged before the other leaf is latched, helps keep this centre gap consistent over repeated use rather than relying on the latch alone.
Decking oil is formulated to cope with foot traffic and standing water in a way that a vertical fence stain isn't, and typically needs reapplying annually on a well-used deck compared with the two-to-three year cycle for a fence.
The horizontal surface of a deck also collects standing water and UV exposure differently to a vertical panel face, wearing unevenly in high-traffic paths compared with less-used corners.
Clients used to a fence's maintenance rhythm sometimes underestimate how much more frequently a deck's finish needs attention, which is worth setting expectations on at the time of installation.
Capped composite boards have a thin outer polymer shell bonded over the wood-polymer core, giving better resistance to moisture ingress, staining and UV fade than an uncapped board with the core material exposed directly to weather.
Uncapped composite is generally cheaper and machines more like traditional timber, since the surface can be cut, drilled or profiled without exposing a different material underneath, but it's more prone to surface fading and moisture absorption over time.
A capped board's protective shell is only on the finished faces, so a cut end on site exposes the uncapped core underneath, which some manufacturers address with an end-cap trim while others leave it exposed.
New timber fitted into an older run will weather at a different rate to the surrounding boards for the first year or two, simply because the existing timber has already taken its first few seasons of treatment and UV exposure.
This settles down over time and isn't a sign of a poor repair — we explain this at the point of quoting so it isn't a surprise later.
Profile boards — a horizontal board fixed between two pegs set back from the actual corner — let a string line be set, removed and reinstated at the exact same point throughout a job without disturbing the corner itself.
They're most useful where a run turns through an angle, since the intersecting lines from two boards mark the true corner point independently of any post already dug.
Leaving the boards in place until the last post is set and checked avoids the common error of the line creeping slightly as pegs get knocked or the string is re-tied.
Not every commercial boundary needs the same specification — a compound holding cash or controlled substances warrants a different height, mesh and topping to a low-value storage yard, and starting a quote from a fixed catalogue spec rather than the specific threat can lead to over- or under-specifying the job.
A short threat assessment covering what's inside the boundary, who has legitimate access, and what's happened on similar sites nearby gives a more defensible basis for the chosen spec than a generic default.
Perimeter fencing around a sports pitch or playing field often runs over ground with an engineered drainage or irrigation system just below the surface, including sand-slit drains or pop-up sprinkler lines that aren't always accurately recorded.
Damaging a drainage lateral while setting posts can cause localised waterlogging on the pitch itself long after the fencing work is finished, which is a far more costly problem to fix than the original fence job.
Liaising with the groundskeeper or facilities manager over exact drain and irrigation layout before digging is standard practice on this type of site, rather than relying on a general services scan alone.
Plenty of Camden jobs turn out smaller than people expect, and if a rehang and new galvanised ironmongery will sort the gate we will say so instead of quoting for a replacement. Call 07885907880 or use the form.
Houses, gardens and communal grounds around Camden all end up with a different specification, which is why we quote after looking rather than off a price list. Listed-building and conservation constraints across most postcodes — timber and painted profiles only at the front, and that changes the post spec before it changes anything else.
Full detail on galvanising, powder coating and how metal compares with timber on lifespan is on the metal fencing and gates page.
Wooden and metal gates · Garden fencing · Decking · Commercial fencing
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