Planning and building regulation drawings in Paddington (W2)

Most projects follow from that stock: reconfiguring a flat, reworking a lower-ground floor, or altering the rear of a terrace that now holds several homes. Freeholder and management-company consent is often needed for anything that touches the structure or the elevations, and it is better to settle that before the drawings are finished than after.

Paddington also holds something unusual, the Hallfield Estate. It is a listed post-war modernist scheme, and it is protected as a conservation area in its own right, so its original design is the protected feature rather than a stucco front. Bayswater, Westbourne and Queensway are conservation areas too, and in all of them rooflines, front elevations and communal garden squares are what the council wants kept intact. We begin each W2 job by identifying which designation applies and who owns what, then draw to suit.

Planning in Paddington: what to know before you apply

Westminster expects a full planning application for most work in W2, and listed building consent as well where a building is listed, because the conservation areas remove most permitted development. Two Article 4 directions matter here in particular. One removes permitted development rights for basement development, so a lower-ground excavation needs planning permission and, under the City Plan basement policy, a basement impact assessment. The other, in the Central Activities Zone, removes the right to convert commercial floorspace to homes without permission. Flats carry no permitted development of their own, and a lease commonly asks for the freeholder's agreement alongside the council's. We resolve those layers before drawing so the application is complete when it is submitted.

Applications are decided by Westminster City Council — its planning pages.