Builders in Tooting

Homes in Tooting

Wandsworth's Urban Design Study describes Tooting's residential streets as two- and three-storey period terraces and semi-detached houses in London stock and red brick, many now converted to flats. Houses are larger around Tooting Bec, while west of the town centre they are more modest Victorian terraces. The study also notes that some back gardens have been lost to extensions and flat conversions, and asks that new work respects the scale and proportions of the street.

Totterdown Fields, built between 1901 and 1911, was the London County Council's first cottage estate: 1,261 cottages over 38 acres, mostly two storeys in yellow stock brick with slate roofs, timber windows and, on many, roughcast upper floors. Towards Tooting Bec, the Heaver Estate was built by the developer Alfred Heaver from around 1890 to 1910, with red-brick Queen Anne style houses, carved brickwork, stained glass, tiled paths and cast-iron railings.

Planning in Tooting

Most of Tooting is covered by the London Borough of Wandsworth, but the SW17 postcode crosses into the London Borough of Merton in places, so check which council covers your address before applying. Totterdown Fields and the Heaver Estate are both conservation areas, designated in 1978, with appraisals on Wandsworth's conservation areas pages.

Both estates are also covered by Article 4 directions. On listed Totterdown Fields streets, including Blakenham, Coteford, Cowick, Derinton, Franciscan, Lessingham, Okeburn and Ruislip Roads and Church Lane, they remove permitted development rights for roof alterations, changes to elevations visible from the road (including windows and doors), porches, front hard surfaces, front walls and gates, and exterior painting. On the Heaver Estate, on streets including Louisville, Ritherdon, Streathbourne, Huron, Drakefield, Elmbourne and Manville Roads, they cover changes to street-facing elevations and roof slopes, porches, front hard surfaces, boundaries and painting.

Outside the estates, many rear extensions and loft conversions can proceed under permitted development. Wandsworth's Housing guidance sets out what it expects for lofts on terraced houses and for rear extensions near a neighbour's boundary.

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 Totterdown Fields appraisal notes that front gardens are being lost to parking, especially on Derinton Road and Church Lane; on Article 4 streets a new front hard surface needs planning permission.
• Roofs on Totterdown Fields are mainly slate, and the appraisal says non-matching materials have seriously harmed some cottages, so re-roofing or a loft conversion needs matching materials.
• The Urban Design Study notes that areas to the south of Tooting Graveney are in Flood Zone 2, near the River Graveney, a culverted tributary of the Wandle, so check the flood map before planning anything below ground.