Builders in Barnet

Barnet's character is suburban but varied. The council's own design guidance highlights historic residential areas such as Hampstead Garden Suburb, Totteridge, the Cricklewood Railway Terraces and Monken Hadley, alongside large areas of detached, semi-detached and terraced housing that followed the railways and the Northern line in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

At the 2021 Census, 52% of Barnet's 148,900 households lived in houses: 27% semi-detached, 15% terraced and 10% detached. The other 45% lived in flats.

Typical projects range from rear kitchen extensions and hip-to-gable lofts on interwar semis in Edgware, Mill Hill and Hendon, to careful extensions and renovations of Edwardian houses in Finchley and Golders Green and the Arts and Crafts houses of Hampstead Garden Suburb.

On 15 June 2026 Barnet adopted its Sustainable Design and Development Guidance SPD, which replaced the Residential Design Guidance SPD of 2016. Part 4 covers residential extensions and alterations, with specific limits for rear, side, roof and basement extensions that we summarise on our Barnet extensions and Barnet loft conversions pages.

Barnet has 16 conservation areas, including Hampstead Garden Suburb, Mill Hill, Totteridge, Hendon Church End, Golders Green, Finchley Church End and Finchley Garden Village. In Hampstead Garden Suburb, the Suburb Trust's consent is also needed for any external change, separately from planning permission. The council publishes character appraisals, boundary maps and Article 4 directions on its conservation pages.

Part 4 also covers basements, which should project no further than 3 metres beyond the rear wall of a terraced house, 3.5 metres for a semi and 4 metres for a detached house, with front lightwells no more than 1 metre deep. Large areas of open land around Mill Hill and Totteridge are Green Belt, where extensions are limited further.