Rooflights or skylights for Buckingham's Georgian streets
A market town sitting inside a loop of the Great Ouse, with Georgian streets, listed landmarks and newer estates on its edges. The old town and the new estates call for different glass, and this page sorts out which goes where.
Georgian streets in the centre, newer estates around them
Buckingham is a market town on a loop of the River Great Ouse, 14.4 road miles west of Milton Keynes, and it answers to Buckinghamshire Council. People have lived here a very long time. Romans settled along the river, Saxons and Danes passed the town back and forth, and the Domesday survey names it first among the places of its county. What stands in the streets now is mostly the work of a later chapter, and it shapes how a rooflight should be chosen.
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Georgian frontages, stone and brick, close to listed landmarks
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Estates such as Lace Hill and Linden Village, and the rooms added to their houses
A fire in the town left behind the Georgian streetscapes that visitors admire today. Castle House on West Street is Grade I listed, the Town Hall is Grade II* and the old church, chapel and gaol add to a setting where the roofline counts. A house in the centre may sit under a protected skyline, so the first job is to find out what the roof is subject to. A conservation rooflight is slim, sits low in the slope and carries a central glazing bar, which suits a pitched roof that has to look right from the street. It brings daylight into an attic that has spent two centuries on borrowed light.
Around the old town are suburbs and estates, among them Lace Hill, Linden Village, Castle Fields and Page Hill. Their houses are a different matter from the centre, with ordinary pitched roofs and gardens that can take an extension. A roof window turns a loft into a bedroom or office, and the rear extension gets its light from a lantern or a flat rooflight. Your own deeds and the council still decide what is allowed, so the same checks apply.
Under Buckingham roofs, three rooms and the sky above them
An extension that looks at a wall
Everything new, except the view from its side window.
Sideways
A single-storey extension on an estate house takes up most of the garden width. The side window faces a brick wall, either the neighbour's or your own, and the glass shows brickwork and a gutter. The doors at the back give light to the garden end of the room, and the part nearest the house is dim.
People see this after the builders leave. The plans looked fine on paper. In daily use the lights go on before the kettle does, and the room that was meant to feel open feels deep and narrow.
Straight up
A roof lantern puts glass above the room, where nothing stands in the way. The sky is clear straight up, and a lantern catches it from four sloping faces, so the light moves across the floor as the day goes round. It suits an extension with enough height to carry the frame and enough width for the shape to look right.
Where the roof is too low for a lantern, a flat rooflight does the same work with a lower profile. We measure the height of the build-up at the survey and tell you which one the roof can take.
Light from above also changes the room at night. A glazed roof can feel exposed, so the survey includes a talk about blinds and glass that cuts glare, and about how the roof will look from the bedroom windows next door. A lantern can be a handsome object, and it should be placed where it adds to the garden elevation, not where it competes with it.
The roof structure under a lantern needs to carry it. We work with the engineer or the builder's drawings where they exist and note any steel in the extension that sets the opening's edges.
If the extension is still being built, the best moment to decide is before the roof goes on, because the upstand and the structural opening are simpler to form as the roof is made than to cut later. If it is finished already, a rooflight can still be added, and the survey shows how.
Worth settling before the extension roof is done
- Where will the table or the worktop stand?
- How tall is the build-up from ceiling to roof covering?
- Which way does the room face?
- Do you want the rooflight to open for air?
A kitchen with its back to the neighbours
A galley kitchen needs light where the knife meets the board.
Sideways
The kitchen at the back of a terraced or semi-detached house can get its light from one end. The window above the sink looks over a yard or a narrow garden, and the wall opposite it is the next house. The room is useful, but the far side of the worktop sits in shadow.
You can paint the walls pale and add spotlights, which helps for a while. The shadow is still there on a grey afternoon, because the light has only one way to enter.
Straight up
A rooflight set over the worktop lights the work itself. On a flat roof it sits on an upstand with the glass at a slight fall, and on a pitched roof a roof window sits in the slope. In both cases the opening gets its light from overhead, where the wall next door cannot reach it.
Before choosing, we look at what the kitchen needs. A fixed unit does the basic job. An opening unit adds ventilation, which a kitchen values, and an electric one closes with a button or a sensor when the weather turns.
The choice between ways of opening the roof is easier when the options are laid side by side. The table below sets out how the main kinds compare for a town kitchen, and the links beside each one lead to the full guide.
A kitchen also asks for a rooflight that copes with steam and grease. Frames and seals are chosen for that, and the glass can be fitted with a coating that keeps the room comfortable on bright days. If the kitchen is part of a wider open-plan space, the rooflight can sit at the join between cooking and sitting so both halves share it.
| Option | Suits | Know |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed flat rooflight | Flat-roofed rear kitchens | Simple and clear; no ventilation |
| Opening flat rooflight | Cooking spaces needing air | Opens by hand or by motor |
| Roof window | Pitched kitchen roofs | Sits in the slope between rafters |
| Roof lantern | Wider rooms with height | Needs a taller build-up and a larger opening |
A cottage loft that has never had a window worth the name
Old roofs are quiet about what lives underneath them.
Sideways
In the old town, a cottage or a terrace house has a roof space tucked under the tiles. There may be one small gable window, or a dormer from some earlier owner. It faces a wall, close to the next building, and the window is more of a gesture than a source of daylight.
The room is dry, the proportions are charming and the floor is solid. All it lacks is somewhere for the day to come in, and nobody wants to alter the street front of a Georgian house to get it.
Straight up
A conservation rooflight is made for this. The frame is slim, the glass sits low in the slope and a central glazing bar echoes the old patterns, so from the street it reads as part of the roof. Straight up is clear above the neighbouring walls, and that single opening can change the room from a store to a place you want to be in.
We position it on the slope that is least visible from the road, high enough to light the room and low enough to see out when you stand. The survey checks timbers, insulation and the ceiling below before anything is marked.
Buckingham has a conservation area that carries the town's name, and the council lists it among those in the county. Inside a conservation area, permitted development is not removed by the designation alone, but a direction can remove it, and listed buildings need consent of their own. Check with the council first, using the council's conservation area pages, and read the planning guide for the permitted development conditions.
Buckinghamshire Council, the conservation area and the listed buildings
Planning in Buckingham is dealt with by Buckinghamshire Council. Its planning pages are the place to look up an address, and its building regulations pages explain the second route that runs alongside it.
On the council's list, the town's conservation area appears under the name Buckingham. The map on the council's pages shows its boundary, and it is worth ten minutes before you order anything. Listed buildings in the town, from the Grade I house on West Street to the Grade II* Town Hall, follow a separate listed building consent route.
Our planning guide lays out the permitted development conditions in full. Bring the council's answer to the survey and the quote will reflect it.
From Milton Keynes to Buckingham by road
Buckingham lies west of Milton Keynes, 14.4 road miles off, a drive of 19 minutes. The old railway through the town closed to passengers in 1964, and a new east-west line is planned to stop at nearby Winslow. Milton Keynes Central and Wolverton, on the West Coast Main Line, are the stations people use now.
For a survey the distance is short. We are at the house in under half an hour and have the whole of the morning to measure the room, climb into the roof space and talk through the options. Winslow, Deanshanger and Steeple Claydon are close neighbours, each with its own page.
Matching the rooflight to the Buckingham roof
The town's roofs divide into a few clear kinds, and each has a natural partner.
- Old stone or tile slopes in the centre suit a conservation rooflight.
- Standard pitched roofs on estate houses suit a roof window or a VELUX window.
- On flat roofs over extensions, choose a roof lantern where the build-up is deep enough, and a flat rooflight where it is not.
- A landing or bathroom under a pitched roof, with no space for a window, suits a sun tunnel.
The survey confirms it by looking at the actual roof, because two houses of the same kind can differ in the detail that decides the answer.
Buckingham also has industrial estates and technology parks, and small commercial roofs such as a workshop or an office unit can take a rooflight on the same principles. Residential work comes first for us, and a small commercial job is welcome.
The free survey and what follows
The survey is free. At the survey we stand in the room, look up, check the roof and take measurements. What you are quoted is fixed and in writing, and the figure holds on the day. The work is installed to current Building Regulations, and where it is notifiable we handle the Building Control notification.
Allow a day or two for a single rooflight, and the room inside is left finished and tidy. A 10-year workmanship guarantee is given in writing. Use the quote form, or WhatsApp a photograph of the room to 07880 284133, or email it to info@vertexskylightsmiltonkeynes.co.uk.
Buckingham questions, answered straight
Does Buckingham have a conservation area?
Yes. Buckinghamshire Council lists one for the town under the name Buckingham. Living inside it does not by itself remove permitted development, but a direction can, and a listed building has its own consent route. Before ordering, check the council's map for your street; the conditions are in our planning guide.
Which rooflight suits a Georgian house in the centre?
A conservation rooflight is the natural choice. It is slim, sits low in the slope and has a central glazing bar, so the roof still looks traditional from the street. The survey checks the timbers, the insulation and the position, and we advise you to confirm the planning position with the council first.
Can an estate house get a loft room or extension rooflight?
Yes. A roof window lights a loft room from the slope, and glass in the flat roof lights a rear extension from above. Both take light from the open sky, so the neighbouring wall does not matter. We confirm the details at the free survey and give a fixed written quote.
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