Georgian brick terrace with sash windows, arched fanlight doorways, stone steps and iron railings in London — Photograph: Lorenc Memaga

01Areas we cover

Architectural drawings for homes in Dulwich

A Dulwich house can sit in the Village, the Wood or the Sunray Estate, and Southwark treats each as a place of its own. Before we draw anything we find out which one is yours, then read the council's wording for it.

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02The record

Dulwich on the record

Figures with their unit, period and source
Measure	Value	Period	Source
Conservation area	Dulwich Village	No period	southwark.gov.uk
Local fact	Dulwich Village Conservation Area was designated on 7 September 1968, one of the first in Southwark, and was extended in September 1971 and on 15 March 2005.	No period	southwark.gov.uk
Local planning consideration	Southwark publishes Article 4 directions for the Sunray Estate Conservation Area.	No period	southwark.gov.uk
Local fact	Dulwich Village Conservation Area Appraisal (Regeneration Department, February 2006; parts 1-3)	appraisal	southwark.gov.uk
Conservation areas	53 named conservation areas published by the council	No period	planning.data.gov.uk
Article 4 directions	480 Article 4 directions published by the council	No period	planning.data.gov.uk
Listed building entries	919 list entries (Historic England, within the LPA boundary)	No period	planning.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.

Dulwich3 conservation areas

Conservation areas named for Dulwich

Dulwich Village: designation date not recorded
Dulwich Wood: designation date not recorded
Sunray Estate: designation date not recorded

Upper floors of a large yellow-brick Victorian house in London with chimney pots — Photograph: Lorenc Memaga

03The drawing

Constraints check: Southwark

What we check first on any address in Southwark. Counts are for the whole council area.

A Conservation areas: 53 named conservation areas published by the council
B Article 4 directions: 480 Article 4 directions published by the council
C Listed building entries: 919 list entries (Historic England, within the LPA boundary)
D Heritage at Risk entries: 36 Heritage at Risk Register entries within the LPA boundary (Historic England)

A period street in three dimensions3D

Scroll the page: the model turns with it.

04The brief

The Village: front gardens first, back gardens second

Dulwich Village Conservation Area was designated on 7 September 1968, one of the first in Southwark, and was extended in September 1971 and on 15 March 2005. In July 1975 the Secretary of State accepted that the Dulwich Village area was of 'outstanding architectural or historic interest'.

The appraisal is blunt on two points. On the front: Loss of front gardens to car parking and erosion of verges for crossovers is not acceptable. At the back: New development in rear gardens will not normally be acceptable unless ancillary to the use of the land.

Rows of brick terraced houses and gardens on a residential street

05The detail

Dulwich Wood and the cottages on Denmark Hill

Dulwich Wood Conservation Area was designated on 30 September 1985. The Village itself is read against the Dulwich Village Conservation Area Appraisal (Regeneration Department, February 2006; parts 1-3).

The Sunray Estate, a small garden suburb of cottage housing on Denmark Hill in North Dulwich, was built between 1920 and 1922. Southwark publishes Article 4 directions for the Sunray Estate Conservation Area. Cottage-scale houses of that kind are exactly where a small window or door change needs checking against the direction.

When your garden meets the College grounds

The appraisal notes that the grounds of Dulwich College are designated Metropolitan Open Land. If your house borders it, our survey records boundaries, levels and trees so the officer sees the true edge of your site.

Planning data lists 480 Article 4 direction records across Southwark and 53 conservation areas, so a Dulwich address is checked at street level, not borough level.

Listed houses, roofs and basements

Southwark counts 919 list entries. Where a Dulwich house is one of them, listed building consent runs beside planning, and listed building consent drawings in Southwark shows how we prepare it. In its latest year the council granted 92.5% of those consent decisions, which tells you about the past and nothing about your house.

A new roof storey is its own question: see mansard roof drawings in Southwark. Digging down follows a separate policy, set out in basement conversion drawings in Southwark. If you are comparing a similar house elsewhere in south London, our Clapham page makes a useful contrast.

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

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

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.

Can I park on the front garden of a Dulwich Village house?

The appraisal says not: Loss of front gardens to car parking and erosion of verges for crossovers is not acceptable. Ask us before you plan a crossover, and we read the guidance for your road.

Is the Sunray Estate covered by an Article 4 direction?

Southwark publishes Article 4 directions for the Sunray Estate Conservation Area. We confirm the exact scope for your address during the free constraints check.

Can I put a garden room behind a Dulwich Village house?

The Village appraisal is cautious about the back garden: New development in rear gardens will not normally be acceptable unless ancillary to the use of the land. An outbuilding that serves the house is a different case from a separate dwelling, and we draw it so that difference is plain to the officer.

My garden backs onto the College grounds. What changes?

The appraisal notes that the grounds of Dulwich College are designated Metropolitan Open Land. We survey the boundary and the levels so the application shows exactly where your land stops and the open land starts.

Rear view of brick terraced houses in London with slate roofs and chimney stacks along the shared roofline — Photograph: Ben Hadfield

08Further reading

Drawings in Dulwich

Nearby neighbourhoods

09Sources

Sources and dates

southwark.gov.uk, retrieved 17 October 2026
southwark.gov.uk, retrieved 17 October 2026
planning.data.gov.uk, retrieved 7 October 2026
planning.data.gov.uk, retrieved 17 October 2026
planning.data.gov.uk, retrieved 17 October 2026
southwark.gov.uk, retrieved 17 October 2026
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, retrieved 17 October 2026
planning.data.gov.uk, retrieved 17 October 2026

Licences

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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.

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