House extension in Hadley Wood

Connect the added space to the existing home.

Start with the house extension brief

Begin with how the new space will meet the old rooms, garden and circulation. A measured brief should record boundaries, levels, existing drains, neighbouring windows and the parts of the building you intend to keep.

Develop daylight, structure and services alongside the floor plan. Agree which openings and finishes are included, how the existing home will be protected during construction and which decisions need surveys or approval before a quotation.

The local building context

Enfield’s Hadley Wood Conservation Area Character Appraisal places Hadley Wood in the north-western corner of the borough and describes it as essentially the creation of Charles Jack, then tenant of Beech Hill Park, who part-funded the new station. Designated in 1989, the conservation area covers 13.4 hectares at the centre of Hadley Wood, with 75 houses and a church. Its heart is the horseshoe of Crescents East and West off Camlet Way, with Lancaster Avenue branching north-east from Crescent East, and the railway cutting and a parade of modern shops effectively divide it in two.

The appraisal sets out three house types by building phase. Crescent West, built first, has tiled roofs, tile-hung upper floors, paired canted bays, large dormers and timber casement windows; Crescent East has mostly linked pairs with slate roofs, red brick facades, offset gables and timber sashes; and Lancaster Avenue, built last, has rendered upper storeys, paired façades and slate roofs. It singles out the joinery, decorative brick aprons and stained glass, and a terrace of white-rendered cottages at 34–40 Crescent West. Extensions are typically side wings or garages, subservient to the houses.

Neither the name Hadley Wood nor an EN4 postcode tells you which council decides, whether a home is inside the conservation area, whether it is listed, whether the Article 4 direction covers it or which consent route the work takes. EN4 is also used in Barnet, Enfield’s own Local Heritage List gives Camlet Way addresses the postal town ‘Barnet’, and the western boundary of the neighbourhood plan area runs along Barnet’s Monken Hadley Conservation Area. Confirm the council with the official lookup, then read the appraisal’s maps, the Article 4 schedule and map, any list entry, the title or lease and the planning history of the property itself.

Local design and consent context

Planning Data records the Hadley Wood Conservation Area, reference CA11, as a London Borough of Enfield conservation area, and the appraisal gives 1989 as the year of designation. Enfield, which has 22 conservation areas, lists four documents for this one: the character appraisal, the management proposals, the 2006 Article 4 Directions and the Article 4 map.

Its policies reach everyday house projects. HW-12 asks for extensions subsidiary to the host building, dormers inset at least 500mm from the eaves, ridge and edges of the roof, and rooflights on less prominent slopes, and says uPVC doors, windows and rainwater goods will not generally be supported in the conservation area. HW-1 asks development to keep at least 1m from side boundaries, and HW-2 and HW-3 say front boundaries over 1m need planning approval and that new or replacement hardstanding must leave at least a quarter of the front garden unpaved, unless individual circumstances make that inappropriate.

Continue planning

The Hadley Wood area guide · House extension across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

Discuss your project

Tell us what you are planning in Hadley Wood

Share the property location, the work you have in mind and any drawings or permissions you already have.

£5M public liability, £10M employers’ liability and contractors’ all risks cover.

Design support: Hampstead Architecture & Planning.
Surveying support: Hampstead Chartered Surveyors.