Planning permission in Westminster

Mostly flats and listed stock — assume a full application and check for listed building consent.

Rare — the terrace typologies and flat conversions of Westminster offer few side returns.

Roof-level changes face the strictest control in London — precedent and heritage statements essential.

Tightly limited and excluded under most listed buildings; expect maximum scrutiny.

Limited garden stock; where gardens exist, conservation-area rear placement still qualifies for PD.

Usually a full application — and on a mansion-block flat, often not available at all.

Usually a full application on a house, and typically not possible on a mansion-block flat.

Yes — a full planning application under Westminster's basement policy, and on the area's many listed villas, excavation is usually ruled out.

St John's Wood is heavily listed, so there's a real chance your property is — and if it is, listed building consent is required for works affecting its character inside and out, on top of planning permission.

For most of Maida Vale, an external extension isn't really the question — the area is dominated by purpose-built mansion blocks, which are flats with no permitted-development rights, so works are internal and governed by your lease as much as by planning.

In most of Maida Vale, a loft conversion isn't available to you — the mansion blocks are flats whose roofs are common parts owned by the freeholder.

On Maida Vale's mansion blocks, a private basement generally isn't available — the structure is shared and the ground belongs to the freeholder.

Parts of Maida Vale are listed — including some of the mansion blocks and stucco terraces — and if your building is, listed building consent is required for works affecting its character inside and out, on top of planning permission and (on a flat) a freeholder licence to alter.

Almost certainly not as permitted development — and on the Nash terraces, an external extension is usually off the table entirely.

On the Nash terraces, effectively no — roof alterations to a Grade I-listed composition are not the kind of change that gets consent.

On the Grade I-listed Nash terraces, excavation is protected against almost absolutely — a basement is generally not available.

Most of Regent's Park's residential terraces are Grade I-listed Nash architecture, so listed building consent is the governing permission — required for works affecting the building's special character inside and out, in addition to planning permission.

W1 carries some of the densest heritage protection in the country — Mayfair and Marylebone's estate-managed Georgian streets are c…

W2's white stucco terraces around Bayswater and Lancaster Gate sit largely in conservation areas, with many buildings converted to…

W9's mansion blocks and canal-side villas in Maida Vale and Little Venice are heavily conservation-protected. Roof alterations on …

SW1 spans Belgravia's Grade II* stucco squares, Pimlico's grid of listed terraces and the political core around Westminster itself…

NW8's villa stock — Italianate, detached and semi-detached — is unusual for central London and gives more scope for extensions tha…

WC2 is theatreland and Covent Garden: dense, heavily listed and almost entirely conservation-controlled. Residential stock is scar…

SW1E is Victoria: office-led and largely commercial, rebuilt along Victoria Street and Bressenden Place in glass and stone around …

SW1H is government Westminster — ministries, the Broadway offices and the streets between St James's Park and Victoria Street. Hou…

SW1P runs from Westminster Cathedral and Horseferry Road down to Millbank and the Smith Square streets. The stock is genuinely mix…

SW1V is Pimlico proper: a white stucco grid of mid-nineteenth-century terraces, nearly all long since divided into flats, alongsid…

SW1W covers the southern half of Belgravia — Eaton Square, Chester Square and the Ebury Street and Elizabeth Street grid — thinnin…

SW1X is Knightsbridge and the grand northern half of Belgravia — Belgrave Square, Lowndes Square, Sloane Street and the Brompton R…

SW1Y is St James's — Pall Mall, Jermyn Street, the Haymarket and Carlton House Terrace. It is overwhelmingly commercial: clubs, ga…

W1B is the Regent Street and Portland Place spine: flagship retail, hotels, embassies and institutional headquarters, with only a …

W1C is Oxford Street itself, the stretch running west from Oxford Circus towards Marble Arch: department stores, flagship units an…

W1D is the heart of Soho — Wardour Street, Old Compton Street, Dean and Frith Streets, and Gerrard Street in Chinatown. The grain …

W1F is northern Soho — Berwick Street market, Broadwick and Poland Streets, Great Marlborough Street and the Carnaby blocks. Tight…

W1G is the medical quarter: Harley Street, Wimpole Street and Devonshire Place, where uniform Georgian and early-Victorian terrace…

W1H is Marylebone west of Baker Street towards Marble Arch: Gloucester Place, Seymour Place, George Street, and the Bryanston and …

W1J is southern Mayfair — Piccadilly, Berkeley Square, Curzon Street, Park Lane and the Shepherd Market lanes. Grand houses now in…

W1K is northern Mayfair: Grosvenor Square, Mount Street, Park Street and the red-brick and Portland-stone terraces around them, wi…

W1S is a commercial district first: New and Old Bond Street, Savile Row, Conduit Street and Hanover Square — luxury retail, tailor…

W1U is Marylebone Village — the High Street, the kink in Marylebone Lane, Thayer and Blandford Streets, Manchester Square. Late-Ge…

W1W is Westminster's slice of Fitzrovia — Great Portland Street, Great Titchfield Street, Hallam Street and Riding House Street. I…

WC2E is Covent Garden: the Piazza and market building, the Opera House on Bow Street, and Long Acre. Street level is commercial an…

WC2N runs from Trafalgar Square through St Martin's Lane and Villiers Street down to the Adelphi and the Embankment. It is institu…

If your home is listed, planning permission is only half the story.

Your lease is a contract — and the council was never the only gatekeeper.

The designation nobody's heard of until it refuses their extension.