Builders in Earlsfield

Homes in Earlsfield

Wandsworth's Urban Design Study describes Earlsfield's overriding character as Victorian terraced streets in red brick or yellow London stock, generally two storeys and rising to three along main roads such as Earlsfield Road and Garratt Lane. Terraces and shops grew up around the station in the late 19th century, followed by a building boom in the 1920s and 1930s.

The Magdalen Park conservation area is built around two formally laid-out council estates, Fieldview and Openview, from around 1933, together with Edwardian houses designed in 1911 by the Holloway Brothers on Swaby Road, Burntwood Lane and Magdalen Road. On the Wandsworth Common side, the Ellerton Road area has two-storey red-brick houses with roughcast bays and hipped clay-tiled roofs, built mainly between 1897 and 1916, and northern Earlsfield Road has larger villas with attic storeys.

Planning in Earlsfield

Earlsfield is covered by the London Borough of Wandsworth, although some SW18 and SW17 addresses nearby fall within the London Borough of Merton, so check which council covers your street. There is no Earlsfield conservation area as such, and the Urban Design Study rates most of the area as having medium sensitivity to change, higher on the best-preserved terraces.

The Magdalen Park conservation area, extended in 2023, has an appraisal and design guidance on Wandsworth's conservation areas pages. It discourages dormers and extensions on front or side roof slopes and rear roof extensions visible from public areas, although there may be scope for a small extension on a rear slope that can't be seen. Blocks of flats in the conservation area, including those on Fieldview and Burntwood Lane, have no permitted development rights at all.

The eastern streets around Ellerton Road, St Anne's Hill and northern Earlsfield Road fall within the Wandsworth Common conservation area. Its Article 4 directions cover only a few streets, including parts of Westover Road and Rosehill Road, so check your address. Elsewhere, Wandsworth's Housing guidance sets out its expectations for loft conversions and rear extensions on terraced houses.

Basements in Wandsworth are governed by Policy LP6 of the Wandsworth Local Plan (adopted 2023). It allows no more than one storey below ground, limits a basement to half of the existing rear garden, requires at least a metre of permeable soil and a drainage layer above any part under the garden, and asks for a pumped device to protect against sewer flooding. Lightwells must leave at least half the depth of the front garden, and in the higher flood zones basement bedrooms are not allowed.

Worth knowing locally

• The western side of Earlsfield sits on flatter land in the former floodplain of the River Wandle, some of it in Flood Zone 2, so check your flood zone before planning anything below ground.
• The Urban Design Study lists dropped kerbs, removed front walls and lost period features among the things that detract from Earlsfield, so expect front-garden parking and boundary changes to be scrutinised.
• In Magdalen Park, Fieldview's roofs are hipped with plain clay tiles and Openview's are slate, so a loft or re-roof needs to match the right material for your estate.