House extension in Ealing

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

Ealing Common Conservation Area was designated in 1982 and extended in 2004 to take in Grange Park, Kenilworth Road, Grange Road, Hamilton Road, Hamilton Court and part of Warwick Road. Its March 2009 appraisal gives it a mainly Victorian and Edwardian character: late Victorian and Edwardian houses line North Common Road and Hamilton Road, some substantial detached houses of 1910 to 1930 sit on very generous plots south of the Common, and Gunnersbury Avenue has double-fronted Edwardian houses set well back. Stock and red brick in Flemish bond, stucco trim and slate or tile roofs predominate.

Haven Green, designated in 1982 and extended in 1993, is shaped by the green and the roads branching from it, Haven Lane and Mountfield Road to the east and Castlebar Road and Gordon Road to the west; its March 2008 appraisal finds large-plot detached and semi-detached houses to the west and small rows of terraces on very narrow plots to the east. Mount Park is mainly a planned estate built on the Wood family estate in the 1870s and 1880s, its houses mainly detached or semi-detached on large plots along roads that follow ground rising from south to north.

Montpelier Park Conservation Area was designated in 1982, extended in 1991 and 1997 to take in Park Hill and Mount Avenue, and in 2004 to add part of Woodfield Road. The park at its centre began as the grounds of Princess Helena College, which opened in Ealing in 1882. The April 2009 appraisal singles out Park Hill as one of the well-preserved streets of the Wood Estate, with large detached houses on narrow but deep plots and large rear gardens with mature trees, and the 2020 update lists Cecil Close, a three-storey block of purpose-built inter-war flats.

Local design and consent context

Mount Park’s management plan of April 2009 says inset dormers will usually be accepted on rear roof slopes but only very rarely on the front or side, depending on how visible they are and on the original design of the house, and that rear extensions should not wrap around the back and side. It warns that side extensions in particular can create a terracing effect that erodes the traditional spatial character, most evidently along Eaton Rise.

The Ealing Common appraisal of March 2009 lists comparable threats: extensions that upset the spacing between buildings, sometimes producing a terraced effect where houses were built detached or semi-detached; bulky dormers at the rear, front and side; and the loss of front garden trees, fences and garden walls.

The July 2020 updates recommended considering directions all the same: at Ealing Common, where no general case was found, for boundary treatments, particularly where they front and disrupt The Common; at Haven Green for hardstandings, lost boundary walls, front rooflights and overpainting; at Montpelier Park for lost front gardens, boundary treatment, rooflights and lost timber or metal windows; and at Mount Park for hardstandings, front boundaries and front rooflights. The council’s 2023–24 FAQs said it would be considering directions for the remaining conservation areas later, so ask whether any has been made since.

Access and site planning

Before work is scheduled, find room on the street for a skip, a scaffold and deliveries. In the London Borough of Ealing, any skip placed on the road needs a licence, which only an authorised skip company can apply for and which runs for 14 days from issue; a skip may not stand on the pavement. Scaffolding or a hoarding on or over a street needs a temporary structure licence backed by public liability cover, and a hoarding usually has to leave at least 1.2 metres of pavement. Apply for a parking bay suspension at least 3 working days ahead; applying 7 working days ahead costs less per bay, per day.

Continue planning

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

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