Licence to Alter Drawings in Earl's Court

The exact address comes first because Earl's Court crosses the RBKC and Hammersmith & Fulham boundary. For an RBKC address, its digital map can show conservation areas, Article 4 directions and listed buildings. For an H&F address, use the council's PublicAccess constraint search. We identify planning jurisdiction from those council tools, not a title plan.

An RBKC address must be matched to its actual conservation area, not a notional Earl's Court designation. RBKC publishes separate adopted appraisals for Earl's Court Square and Earl's Court Village, alongside nearby Courtfield, Nevern Square and Philbeach areas. Each has a mapped boundary; a postcode cannot select the applicable heritage guidance.

If the address is inside the Earl's Court Square Conservation Area, its appraisal describes terraces, mansion blocks and houses behind railings, gardens, hard standings or front lightwells. It identifies terrace roof forms, windows, entrances and boundaries as character considerations. Visible windows, extracts, roof plant, lightwell changes or boundary work should therefore be drawn against the host building and its terrace, not a district-wide style assumption.

If the address is inside the Earl's Court Village Conservation Area, its appraisal distinguishes larger five- and six-storey Italianate terraces from modest two- and three-storey terraces on streets including Child's Street, Kenway Road, Wallgrave Road and Redfield Lane. It describes how door and window proportions, cornices, parapets and rooflines balance each house within a terrace. The design response must follow the property's mapped character area.

Article 4 status on the RBKC side is address-specific. The current register lists 2–26 even, 30–52 even, 3–47 odd and 51–69 odd Earl's Court Square under Direction 36. Direction 76 includes 1–75 odd and 2–58 even Eardley Crescent, 1–47 odd and 2–34 even Kempsford Gardens, and 1–63 consecutive Nevern Square. These ranges must not be expanded to the whole neighbourhood.

For an address in a registered range, read the linked direction before deciding whether an external change needs planning permission. RBKC says conservation-area directions can control items such as windows, front doors, boundary walls and roof coverings, but that is not the schedule for every property. Conservation-area designation and Article 4 coverage are separate checks, and neither decides what a private lease permits.

A basement proposal needs a borough-specific test. For a single dwellinghouse in RBKC, Direction 100 removed the permitted-development rights defined by that direction for basement extensions across the borough and took effect on 28 April 2016. Apply that fact only where the address, property class and proposed basement work fall within its terms; it is not a rule for every flat refurbishment.

For an H&F address, the council says borough-wide Article 4 directions have restricted permitted-development rights for basement excavation since April 2018 and planning permission is required for basement excavation. H&F also has its own conservation areas, listed buildings and Buildings of Merit. Check its constraint system before design; an RBKC appraisal or street range cannot be carried across the boundary.

Public planning and heritage approval are not the Licence to Alter. After the address and any external planning track are established, the private track begins with the lease, demise plan and current landlord or managing-agent procedure. Those documents determine whether structure, windows, services, floors, wet areas or common parts are controlled. No official area-wide rule supports one drawing list, fee or review timetable for every Earl's Court freeholder.

The drawings are scoped to the identified building and works. Plans can record walls, openings, rooms and services; elevations or sections can coordinate external changes with planning; and structural, fire, acoustic, waterproofing or construction information is added where the lease process and design require it. Landlord approval is not presented as planning permission, and a planning decision is not presented as consent under the lease.

Conditional council-landlord guidance applies only when RBKC is the landlord. RBKC places layout changes, moving or removing walls and creating a bathroom or shower room in its Licence to Alter route; it treats basements, loft conversions, roof terraces and extensions as major works. Its window route may require a Deed of Variation and includes listed-building and conservation-area conditions. A private landlord's lease and current instructions may differ.

Building Regulations are a third track for the exact works. GOV.UK says approval can be needed for bathroom plumbing, electrical work near baths or showers, fixed air conditioning, replacement windows and doors, roof coverings and heating systems; higher-risk buildings can involve the Building Safety Regulator. We coordinate consistent information, but neither a Licence to Alter nor planning permission is described as Building Regulations approval.