Contract planning in Southgate
Documented building context
Enfield's Southgate Circus appraisal, approved in June 2015 following its 2014 review, describes The Broadway in paragraph 2.4.12. The parade follows a tight elliptical curve between The Bourne and Winchmore Hill Road, with three floors of offices or flats above shops. Its paired gables, bays, small hips, applied timbering and tile hanging contrast with the station's Modernist forms.
Existing-building records for the tender
Put an individual window replacement, a roof repair and a wider facade scheme on separate lines in the chronology. Request completion information for each where available, including photographs showing the relevant locations. If a patch, opening or mark is a concern, connect it to the room and external elevation in the brief; an architectural similarity to nearby units cannot establish that the same repair was undertaken or that the same construction lies behind it.
Southgate tender and contract decisions
A Southgate Broadway tender should identify the actual unit, upper accommodation and building range within the curved parade. The elliptical street composition does not establish a single ownership or repair responsibility. Draw the employer's work boundary and show the entrance, service routes and access controlled by other occupiers. Ask contractors to price the route and occupation arrangements actually available rather than assume the whole parade can be treated as one site.
Schedule each instructed gable, bay, small hip and tile-hung surface separately. A single frontage rate can conceal different assumptions about repair extent at projecting details. The designer should identify retained fabric, proposed replacement and any investigation needed before the treatment is finalised. Where an opening-up exercise is required, define its location, temporary protection and the evidence needed for the subsequent decision. Keep that operation distinct from the final repair allowance.
The contrast with the station's Modernist forms is useful architectural context, but it does not provide design information for work within the parade. Use the current property drawings and approvals to establish the scope. Tenderers should identify any specialist design they propose to undertake and the information they expect from the employer's team. Discuss the proposed JCT form with those responsibilities and the administration requirements clearly recorded.
What should the Southgate tender and completion file make clear?
Before award, reconcile qualifications about business access, upper-floor occupation and protection of adjoining units. A lower total based on closing an entrance should not be compared as if it preserves the access required by the brief. Carry the agreed alternative and its price into the final contract documents. During administration, reference the particular unit and component on each instruction and valuation, and use the same identifiers for completion items so the parade's visual continuity does not obscure individual contractual obligations.
Appointment
HCS cannot act as independent contract administrator where HCS is the contractor.
Local Sources Checked
- Enfield Council: Southgate Circus Conservation Area Character Appraisal, approved June 2015 (2014 review) — PDF 19 / printed 18, paragraph 2.4.12 The Broadway: curved parade, three upper floors, paired gables, bays, applied timbering and tile hanging.
Nearby contract administration
Accountability
Provider
Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy — RICS Regulated Firm No. 923064
Other Southgate surveying services
- RICS Level 3 Building Survey in Southgate
- RICS Home Surveys in Southgate
- Party Wall in Southgate
- Building Pathology in Southgate
- Redacted RICS Level 3 sample reports
Need a RICS survey quote in Southgate? We confirm a fixed fee after scoping. Call 020 7101 4590, email enquiries@hampsteadcharteredsurveyors.co.uk, or inspect our redacted RICS Level 3 sample reports. Sample reports.