House extension in Blackheath

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

Royal Greenwich designated the Blackheath Park conservation area in 2002, when a boundary review split the original Blackheath area in two. Its appraisal, which the council lists as 2013, places the private Cator Estate within it: wide tree-lined avenues, villas set back from the road, grass verges, gutters of granite setts and white-painted timber gates at the entrances. The area also takes in the east side of Blackheath Village from the railway to Cresswell Park, 1–23 Lee Road, Cresswell Park and Bennett Park.

The appraisal finds the area’s significance in the quality and diversity of its housing, from grand Georgian and Victorian villas to compact flats. Pond Road has listed 1830s Regency stucco villas and, beyond the church, four 1860s villas; Morden Road, laid out in 1852–3, has large yellow-brick villas, some divided into flats by the 1930s. Between 1958 and 1969 Span replaced eight houses with 240 houses and 181 flats; its hallmark was the short terrace, often grouped round a courtyard or set among shared gardens. Cator Estate South has two-storey brick houses of the 1930s.

An SE3 address can fall in Royal Greenwich or in Lewisham. The centre of Lee Road is the borough boundary, and Blackheath Village is split, with its east-side frontages in Royal Greenwich and the rest in Lewisham. Pond Road, wholly in Royal Greenwich, is split between two of its conservation areas: the council’s tree list places Nos 2–12 and 1–9b in Blackheath Park and the rest in the Blackheath conservation area, though that list’s conservation column is not always reliable. Ward names such as Blackheath Westcombe settle nothing either. Check the council’s map, the statutory and local lists, the Article 4 pages, your title or lease and the planning history for the exact address.

Local design and consent context

The council’s conservation page lists a Blackheath Park conservation area appraisal, with photo surveys and a boundary map, and a Blackheath appraisal in four parts with its own boundary map, both labelled 2013. Their text was written before summer 2010 and the photo surveys date their fieldwork to 2006, so treat them as the council’s appraisals listed as 2013 rather than recent studies. Each describes itself as a non-statutory planning document to be read with national, regional and local planning policy.

No Article 4 direction on householder alterations is listed for Royal Greenwich’s Blackheath or Blackheath Park conservation areas. The 2010 guidance said the council would consider one on removing front boundary walls in Blackheath and one on roofs and dormer windows on the Cator Estate, but a proposal to consider is not a direction. Two Royal Greenwich directions do apply. The first, borough-wide and in force from 27 September 2018, means planning permission is needed to turn a house into a small house in multiple occupation. The second, in force from 8 August 2023, removes the right to convert commercial (Class E) premises to homes within mapped centres, including Blackheath District Centre; it concerns shop and office units, not houses.

Royal Greenwich’s development plan is the London Plan 2021, the Core Strategy with Detailed Policies, adopted on 30 July 2014, and, where relevant, the Lee Neighbourhood Plan 2024. Policy DH(h) grants permission in a conservation area only for proposals that pay special attention to preserving or enhancing its character or appearance, and DH(a) limits rear, side and other additions, basements included, to a scale and design suited to the building and locality. The Urban Design Guide supplementary planning document, adopted on 18 October 2023, is consistent with the Core Strategy.

Access and site planning

On Royal Greenwich streets, a skip on the road needs a licence that only a skip hire company can obtain, usually valid for 30 days, while a skip in a front garden or driveway needs none. Scaffolding and hoardings on a public street or pavement need licences, as do building materials left there, and parking bay suspensions should be applied for 10 working days ahead. The Blackheath Park appraisal records that only Lee Road, Bennett Park and Cresswell Park are public roads there, so on an estate road ask who controls it before booking. On the Lewisham side, a skip on the highway needs a licence, and scaffolding or hoarding licences are requested at least five days ahead.

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

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