Builders in Roehampton

Homes in Roehampton

Wandsworth's conservation area appraisal describes Roehampton Village as still recognisable as a village with 17th-century origins, bounded on two sides by Putney Heath. Medfield Street has red-brick Gothic cottages and stock-brick terraces and cottage pairs with slate roofs, and nearby Ponsonby Road and Treville Street have detached and semi-detached villas. The southern part of the Dover House Estate, a London County Council cottage estate built from 1920 in pairs and short terraces, also lies in Roehampton.

The Alton Estate, built between 1952 and 1959, is made up of slab and point blocks, maisonettes, two- and three-storey terraced houses and bungalows set in parkland; its five slab blocks on Highcliffe Drive are Grade II* listed. Around Roehampton Lane, the Urban Design Study notes 1930s houses at Roehampton Close and substantial detached houses at Roehampton Gate. The cottages, terraces and villas suit careful rear extensions and loft conversions; most Alton Estate homes are flats, which need planning permission for almost any extension.

Planning in Roehampton

Roehampton is covered by the London Borough of Wandsworth, although the SW15 postcode also reaches into the London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Kingston upon Thames at its edges, so check which council covers your address. Conservation areas include Roehampton Village (designated 1969 and extended 1984), the Alton Estate (designated 2001), the Dover House Estate, Westmead and Putney Heath, each with an appraisal on Wandsworth's conservation areas pages.

In Roehampton Village, an Article 4 direction covers 15 to 85 Medfield Street (odd numbers) and Hambro House on Treville Street. The council's 2004 report describes it as removing permitted development rights for building or demolishing front boundaries, hard surfacing and painting outside walls; the council's current web page lists a longer set of controls, so check the position for your address. The Dover House Estate has its own direction controlling roof changes and alterations to elevations visible from the street. In the village, the appraisal expects extensions to respect the symmetry of the terraces and will not support front extensions, and the Urban Design Study names oversized dormers on Medfield Street as harming its character.

On the Alton Estate, the appraisal notes that many homes are flats without permitted development rights, discourages rear and side extensions to buildings that contribute to the conservation area, and suggests there may be scope for small rear roof extensions on the two-storey terraces where the roof slope cannot be seen. Brick houses there should be left unrendered. Wandsworth's Housing guidance covers lofts and rear extensions borough-wide.

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 roofscape of the Medfield Street terraces is defined by rows of firebreak party walls, which the appraisal calls an important feature, so roof extensions there need particular care.
• Trees in a conservation area need six weeks' notice to the council before any work, and several trees on the Dover House Estate are protected by tree preservation orders, so check before clearing space for an extension.
• Residents of the Alton Estate voted in 2025 in favour of a regeneration programme of up to 650 new homes with new community facilities, so expect building activity in parts of the estate over the coming years.