Planning and building regulation drawings in Notting Hill (W11)

Two conservation areas, Norland and Avondale, are built around those garden squares, and Kensington and Chelsea treats the stucco frontages and the squares themselves as the character to preserve. Because rear elevations face the shared garden, a rear extension or a glazed addition is seen from there as well as from neighbouring houses, and frontage changes come under detailed material and elevation control.

Three Article 4 directions apply. One covers minor alterations in conservation areas, including windows, so a stucco frontage cannot have its windows replaced without permission. Another removes permitted development for basements, and the borough's basement policy limits how far you can excavate. A third covers conversion from commercial to residential use, relevant on streets with shops. We check the designation, the listing status and the Article 4 position for an address first, and only then start to draw.

Planning in Notting Hill: what to know before you apply

In W11, conservation-area coverage and the Article 4 directions mean a full planning application is usually the route for external householder work, with listed building consent where a house is listed. The council looks at materials, elevation detail and how a proposal sits within the garden-square townscape. Windows on a stucco frontage need permission under the minor-alterations Article 4 direction, and basement work needs a full application under its own direction and the borough's policy, which generally limits new basements to a single storey. For rear works, the shared garden that the elevations face is part of the setting. We confirm each constraint at the outset.

Applications are decided by Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea — its planning pages.