DH Painter & Decorator covers St David's, the NN2 7 residential district on the eastern side of Kingsthorpe, about 1.9 miles north of Northampton town centre. Dean has over 30 years in the trade and paints interiors, exteriors and rented homes there, with a free written quote for every job.
Where St David’s is
St David’s sits on the eastern side of Kingsthorpe in north Northampton, roughly 1.9 miles from the town centre, in the NN2 7 postcode sector. Eastern Avenue North and South run along the edge of the estate, with Boughton Green Road and Kingsthorpe College to the north. Hastings Road, Cranford Road, Rosedale Road and Newnham Road form the middle. To the west is the old Kingsthorpe village core and the Harborough Road shops. To the east and south-east are St David’s Open Space, Bradlaugh Fields and Kingsthorpe Golf Course. St David’s is also one of the five wards of the Kingsthorpe area.
The name is older than the houses. It comes from the medieval Hospital of St David, founded around 1200 by St Andrew’s Priory, whose site is now occupied by a Grade II listed 1882 stone house on Harborough Road. The housing estate itself began in the 1930s, after Kingsthorpe had been absorbed into the borough of Northampton.
The interwar terraces at the centre of the estate
Most homes in St David’s date from between 1914 and 1939. EPC build-age data gives the roads between Hastings Road and Wakefield Road, Cranford, Rosedale and Whiston among them, a modal year of 1939, with St Davids Road older again at 1914. Most are mid- and end-terrace houses, with some semis.
For decorating, these houses share a few traits. The rooms are compact, the plaster has been redecorated many times, and older walls often need filling, lining or occasionally skimming before a good finish is possible. On the pre-1920 houses some plaster may be lime-based, and that needs breathable paint. Where the 1930s doors and skirtings are still in place, decades of gloss have usually blurred their mouldings, and cutting that back is part of the job. Our interior painting page explains our preparation in full.
On a mid-terrace the front elevation is a pavement job. The rear is the awkward part: with no side passage, access is by a shared alleyway where one exists, otherwise ladders are carried through the front room, which we protect with sheets and runners first.
Post-war semis and bungalows off Eastern Avenue
The second wave of building came in the 1950s along Eastern Avenue North and South, Bondfield Avenue, Holdenby Road, Helmdon Road and Dorset Road, with a modal build year of 1958. This part of the estate has semi-detached houses, terraces and semi-detached bungalows. Eastern Avenue North is mostly owner-occupied, and that is where most owner-led redecorating happens: whole-house repaints, decorating after kitchen refits and extensions, and wallpaper.
The bungalows have low eaves, so fascias, soffits and gutters can be reached from ladders or low platforms without full scaffolding. Many of these houses have side and rear gardens with timber fences and gates that need restaining every few years. Many windows on the estate are now uPVC, so exterior work here tends to mean masonry, front doors, any fascias still in timber, and garden woodwork. See our exterior painting and fence and gate staining pages for how we approach those.
Flats on Newnham Road and Drayton Walk
Newnham Road (mostly built around 1971) and Drayton Walk (mostly around 1979) are mainly flats, with some maisonettes and terraced bungalows, and most homes on both are social housing. Decorating here means working through communal entrances and stairwells and parking in shared areas. Stairwells and corridors need scuff-resistant, washable paint, and work has to fit around residents coming and going. Our hallway, stairs and landing page covers hard-wearing finishes for heavily used areas.
Rented homes, voids and the HMO direction
On Cranford, Rosedale, Langdale and Dorset Roads, EPC samples show more socially rented homes than any other tenure, and private lets typically account for 10 to 25 percent. The ward sat in Northampton’s very first HMO Article 4 direction of March 2011, alongside Sunnyside and Obelisk, which means a C3 house cannot become a C4 shared house without planning permission.
For landlords and letting agents this means steady between-tenancy work. That means quick void repaints to a set specification, hard-wearing neutral finishes that can be touched up, and well-kept doors and frames in shared areas of rented houses. Our landlord and letting agent decorating service is set up for that.
Shops, schools and community buildings
Commercial work in St David’s is small in scale. Retail amounts to the Newnham Road parade, with its Co-op food store and four smaller units, plus a corner shop each on Cranford Road and Rosedale Road. The larger shopping strip is in neighbouring Kingsthorpe. Other buildings include Green Oaks and Purple Oaks academies on Whiston Road, Kingsthorpe Grove Primary School and the Kingsthorpe Children’s Centre on St David’s Road, the medical centre and St David’s Church and hall on Eastern Avenue South, and the Drayton Centre. Schools and the church have perimeter railings and metal gates that need rust treatment and repainting, which is easiest to do in the school holidays, when the grounds are quiet.
Colours and planning
There is no conservation area in St David’s. The nearest ones cover the old Kingsthorpe village to the west. Where windows have gone over to uPVC, the front door is often the main painted surface left on an estate house. Masonry may be bare brick or may carry render or pebbledash; the records do not say street by street, so we check each house before quoting for render and masonry painting. You can choose outside colours without heritage controls, and our colour and finish advice helps you pick shades that suit the house and its neighbours.
Planning a job in St David’s
On a compact terrace or a bungalow, rooms can be taken one at a time so the household stays in. Parking on the terraced roads is mostly on the street, and the lock-up garage blocks around the estate suggest off-street space is limited in places. We agree where the van will go and where materials will be stored before the start date. For exterior work, read our guide to timing exterior painting, because masonry paint and wood stain need dry, mild weather. For budgeting, see the painter and decorator cost guide. Then call Dean on 07539 779 036 to arrange a free quote.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
