01City of London, London
Listed building consent drawings in the City of London
Only 2% of City households live in a house, so a listed home here is usually a flat, and the drawings have to show exactly what the listing protects. We survey the fabric, draw the existing and proposed work against that listing, and have a second technologist check every sheet before it reaches the council.
Fixed quote after a free constraints check
- MCIAT chartered architectural technologists
- £2m professional indemnity insurance
- LABC Partnered
- ICO registered
02The brief
Where the City writes its own guidance for listed homes
For housing, the council's published guidance is the Barbican Estate Listed Building Management Guidelines: Volume I Introduction and Volume II Residential (SPD), written for one estate rather than for the whole borough. Our records hold no other City rule for listed homes, so away from that estate the national tests do the work.
Those tests are short. Policy asks for an assessment of significance, in the words of the framework: Proposals affecting heritage assets need an assessment of significance (including setting) proportionate to the asset's importance. It sets the weight in one line: Substantial weight to the conservation of designated heritage assets. We organise the existing-and-proposed sheets to answer the first and to make the second easy to apply.
03The record
Local figures for City of London
| Measure | Value | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supplementary planning document | Barbican Estate Listed Building Management Guidelines: Volume I Introduction and Volume II Residential (SPD) | 2012 | cityoflondon.gov.uk |
| Listed building entries | 637 list entries (Historic England, within the LPA boundary) | No period | planning.data.gov.uk |
| Grade I listed entries | 86 list entries | No period | planning.data.gov.uk |
| Conservation areas | 28 named conservation areas published by the council | No period | planning.data.gov.uk |
| Article 4 directions | 1 Article 4 directions published by the council | No period | planning.data.gov.uk |
| Households living in a house | 2 % of households living in a house or bungalow (detached, semi-detached or terraced) | Census 2021 | nomisweb.co.uk |
| Listed building consent decisions (PS2) | 154 listed building consent decisions (to alter or extend) | 2025 Q2 to 2026 Q1 (1 Apr 2025 to 31 Mar 2026) | assets.publishing.service.gov.uk |
| Listed building consents granted (PS2) | 99.4 % granted | 2025 Q2 to 2026 Q1 (1 Apr 2025 to 31 Mar 2026) | assets.publishing.service.gov.uk |
| NPPF Aug 2026, policy HE5(1) | Proposals affecting heritage assets need an assessment of significance (including setting) proportionate to the asset's importance | No period | gov.uk |
| NPPF Aug 2026, policy HE6(1) | Substantial weight to the conservation of designated heritage assets | No period | gov.uk |
| Concessions: application types with no current fee - Listed Building Consent | 0 GBP | No period | ribblevalley.gov.uk |
| Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 s9(1), s9(4) | Works without consent: up to 6 months' imprisonment or a fine on summary conviction; up to 2 years or a fine on indictment | No period | legislation.gov.uk |
A blank value means the figure has not been published, not that there are none. Check your own address with the council.
04The drawing
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 City of London: consents decided
- 154 listed building consent decisions (to alter or extend)
- D City of London: consents granted
- 99.4 % granted
- E 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
05The detail
A small residential stock inside a large heritage one
The City has 4,914 households. Historic England records 637 list entries within the boundary: 86 at Grade I, 82 at Grade II* and 445 at Grade II. Those entries cover every kind of building, and our drawings concern the ones people live in.
The council publishes 28 conservation areas and 1 Article 4 direction. The register adds 5 Heritage at Risk entries, 53 scheduled monuments and 5 registered parks and gardens, so a City address often sits among several designations. Before we quote, we check your address against conservation areas, listed status and Article 4.
Decisions on record, and the offence to avoid
In the national statistics the council decided 154 applications to alter or extend a listed building and granted 99.4% of them. That describes past decisions and predicts nothing about yours. The consent itself carries a council fee of £0.
Starting before consent is a criminal offence under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. Works without consent: up to 6 months' imprisonment or a fine on summary conviction; up to 2 years or a fine on indictment. We draw the set so the council can decide on paper first, and if officers ask for changes we redraw free until approval.
The other applications a City listed home may need
Consent rarely travels alone. A roof change is a separate question for mansard roof drawings in the City of London, and work below ground belongs with basement conversion drawings. Across the boundary, Westminster has a page of its own, and the listed building consent hub sets the councils side by side.
06The papers
What the drawings rest on
Flat conversions & change of use
07Correspondence
Questions
Does the Barbican have its own listed-building rules?
The council publishes the Barbican Estate Listed Building Management Guidelines: Volume I Introduction and Volume II Residential (SPD). Send us the flat's address and we read that document against the changes you want before we quote.
Does a flat in a listed building need consent for internal changes?
Listing covers the whole building, so a change to a flat that affects its character, inside or out, can need consent. We read the list entry for your address and tell you which parts of the flat it concerns.
What does the council charge for listed building consent?
Nothing: the national fee table sets listed building consent at £0. We quote our own fee as a fixed sum after the free constraints check, and a planning application filed alongside has its own council fee.
Are there period houses in the City at all?
A few. 2% of households live in a house or bungalow, and the list records 637 entries of every kind. We check whether your address is one of them.
2%
of households living in a house or bungalow (detached, semi-detached or terraced)
Households living in a house, City of London, Census 2021. Source: nomisweb.co.uk
08Further reading
Related pages
Other services in City of London
Listed building consent drawings nearby
09Sources
Sources and dates
- cityoflondon.gov.uk, retrieved
- planning.data.gov.uk, retrieved
- planning.data.gov.uk, retrieved
- planning.data.gov.uk, retrieved
- nomisweb.co.uk, retrieved
- assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, retrieved
- gov.uk, retrieved
- ribblevalley.gov.uk, retrieved
- legislation.gov.uk, retrieved
- nomisweb.co.uk, retrieved
- planning.data.gov.uk, retrieved
- planning.data.gov.uk, retrieved
- planning.data.gov.uk, retrieved
Licences
- Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
- Contains Historic England data © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
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.