Call 020 7864 7245Request a fixed quote
Georgian brick terrace with sash windows, arched fanlight doorways, stone steps and iron railings in London
Photograph: Lorenc Memaga

01Areas we cover

Architectural drawings across London's period neighbourhoods

On a London period street the house is only part of the brief: the conservation area, any Article 4 direction and the list entry each add a test. We are chartered architectural technologists (MCIAT), and we draw planning, listed building consent and Building Regulations sets for houses in the neighbourhoods below, starting from a free constraints check and a fixed quote.

Fixed quote after a free constraints check

  • MCIAT chartered architectural technologists
  • £2m professional indemnity insurance
  • LABC Partnered
  • ICO registered

Fixed fee, VAT included

Ask for a fixed fee

Photographs or current plans (optional)

Drag files here or browse your device

Up to 10 files, 90 MB in total: PDF, JPG, PNG or DWG

    Write to us before 3pm and we reply the same working day. Redraws are free until approval.

    02The brief

    Where the neighbourhood guides sit

    Most of the guides on this page fall in two boroughs. Westminster holds Mayfair, Marylebone and St John's Wood. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea holds Kensington, Chelsea, Notting Hill and Holland Park. Knightsbridge straddles the boundary between the two, and the Hampstead conservation area guide covers a Camden village.

    All three councils publish a heavy heritage register. Westminster lists 56 conservation areas and 10 Article 4 directions, Kensington and Chelsea lists 39 and 84, and Camden lists 40 and 21.

    Upper floors of a large yellow-brick Victorian house in London with chimney pots
    Rear view of brick terraced houses in London with slate roofs and chimney stacks along the shared roofline
    Photograph: Ben Hadfield

    03The record

    London heritage in figures

    Figures with their unit, period and source
    MeasureValuePeriodSource
    Conservation areas56 named conservation areas published by the councilNo periodplanning.data.gov.uk
    Article 4 directions10 Article 4 directions published by the councilNo periodplanning.data.gov.uk
    Listed building entries4,015 list entries (Historic England, within the LPA boundary)No periodplanning.data.gov.uk
    Conservation areas39 named conservation areas published by the councilNo periodplanning.data.gov.uk
    Article 4 directions84 Article 4 directions published by the councilNo periodplanning.data.gov.uk
    Listed building entries1,350 list entries (Historic England, within the LPA boundary)No periodplanning.data.gov.uk
    Conservation areas40 named conservation areas published by the councilNo periodplanning.data.gov.uk
    Article 4 directions21 Article 4 directions published by the councilNo periodplanning.data.gov.uk
    Listed building entries1,971 list entries (Historic England, within the LPA boundary)No periodplanning.data.gov.uk

    A blank value means the figure has not been published, not that there are none. Check your own address with the council.

    London14 councils
    Councils on this page

    04The drawing

    The listed building consent routeA, What the council weighs: Proposals affecting heritage assets need an assessment of significance (including setting) proportionate to the asset's importance. B, The weight given to conservation: Substantial weight to the conservation of designated heritage assets. C, Works without consent: Works without consent: up to 6 months' imprisonment or a fine on summary conviction; up to 2 years or a fine on indictmentSurvey and significanceHeritage statementDrawings and scheduleCouncil decisionABC

    The listed building consent route

    How works to a listed building are consented, from the first survey to the decision.

    A What the council weighs
    Proposals affecting heritage assets need an assessment of significance (including setting) proportionate to the asset's importance
    B The weight given to conservation
    Substantial weight to the conservation of designated heritage assets
    C Works without consent
    Works without consent: up to 6 months' imprisonment or a fine on summary conviction; up to 2 years or a fine on indictment
    The listed house in its terrace3D
    Scroll the page: the model turns with it.

    05The detail

    The order we check controls in

    Every enquiry starts with the same free check, in the same order: conservation area, listed status, Article 4 direction, tree preservation order, flood zone, then planning history. The order matters because an early finding changes the route. A listed house needs listed building consent drawings before anything else is priced, and an Article 4 direction can remove rights a house would otherwise have.

    List entries show the scale of the problem. Westminster has 4,015, Kensington and Chelsea has 1,350 and Camden has 1,971, each counted across the whole borough. A borough count tells you how common listing is. It cannot tell you whether your own house is on the list, which is why we read the entry for your address.

    Which service fits which house

    Three services sit at the centre of period work. A new roof storey is drawn under mansard roof drawings, from £845 including VAT. A lower floor is drawn under basement conversion drawings, from £1,995. Works to a listed house are quoted after the free check, because the price depends on how much of the building they touch.

    Other work on a period house, such as a rear extension or a loft with dormers, follows the same neighbourhood rules. Tell us the address and we say which application each part needs. Whatever the council charges to receive the application is billed by the council, apart from our fixed fee.

    What the streets ask of the drawings

    Chelsea shows how a terrace is read. Its terraces are mainly yellow stock brick with stucco decoration and timber sliding sash windows, as in Sydney Street, Markham Square and Halsey Street. A drawing that changes the window pattern changes the thing the officer is protecting. St John's Wood shows the other house type. The north and the east and west fringes have large detached and semi-detached Victorian villas in generous gardens on wide tree-lined streets; the south-east has larger Edwardian and early-20th-century mansion blocks.

    Roofs draw the sharpest lines. The audit for the Harley Street area of Marylebone says: Upward roof extensions would disrupt the unity of long terraces such as Mansfield Street and are unlikely to be acceptable. We read the audit for your street before we draw a storey on it.

    Planning sheet for a single-storey rear extension: proposed ground floor plan and rear elevation, with the Property Architecture title block
    Sample drawing. Proposed plan and rear elevation from a planning application set, sheet 03 at 1:50.

    06The papers

    What the drawings rest on

    Rows of brick terraced houses and gardens on a residential streetPlanning drawings
    Photograph: Altaf Shah
    Building regulations section through a rear extension, with the roof, floor, wall and foundation build-ups labelled
    Sample drawing. Section A-A with the build-ups building control checks, sheet 07 at 1:50.

    07Correspondence

    Questions

    Which parts of London do you draw period homes in?

    Every London borough and the City of London, plus councils around the capital in Essex, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Kent, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. The neighbourhood guides on this page are where we have set out the local heritage rules in full.

    How do I find out whether my street has an Article 4 direction?

    Send us the address. Checking Article 4 directions is part of our free constraints check, and we confirm each one against the council's published register. Directions can differ from one street to the next inside the same borough, so a neighbour's answer may not be yours.

    Do you work on listed houses?

    Yes. We prepare the drawings for listed building consent and coordinate a heritage consultant where the application needs a statement of significance. The route is set out in our listed building consent guide.

    What does the fixed fee cover?

    Fees are fixed, published up front and include VAT. Drawings take about a week after the measured survey. A second chartered technologist, never the one who drew the set, checks every sheet, and if the council asks for changes we redraw at no charge until approval.

    Red-brick mansion blocks and shopfronts on a street corner
    Photograph: Tom McCarten

    08Further reading

    09Sources

    Sources and dates

    Licences

    Kensington street lined with brick townhouses and lit streetlamps beneath an orange dusk sky

    Send us the address of your house.

    We look up the conservation area, listing and Article 4 position, then reply with a fixed fee. A message before 3pm is answered the same working day.

    Ask for a fixed feeCall 020 7864 7245WhatsApp
    Architectural drawings for period homes in London