Builders in Ealing Broadway

Ealing became a town in the Victorian period. The Great Western Railway opened a station here in 1838, and in the 1850s improved travel turned scattered villages into continuous residential streets. By 1902 Ealing was known as the “Queen of the Suburbs” for its greenery, and parts of the countryside were kept as public parks such as Ealing Common. The town centre, Ealing Broadway, became an Elizabeth line station in 2022.

Around the town centre the housing is now mostly flats. In the 2021 Census, only 27% of households in the Ealing Broadway East, Ealing Broadway West and Ealing Common and Twyford Avenue statistical areas lived in a whole house; 43% lived in purpose-built blocks and 28% in flats within converted houses. The houses that remain whole are valuable: median semi-detached prices in those areas were about £1.34 million to £1.68 million in the year to March 2026.

That shapes the work. Typical projects are full renovations of large period houses, rear and side extensions with careful detailing, loft conversions, and reconfiguring flats in converted houses, which needs planning permission for external changes and usually the freeholder's consent.

Ealing Council lists 14 conservation areas in its Ealing group. Those around the town centre include Ealing Town Centre, Haven Green, Ealing Common and Ealing Green, and others in W5 include Mount Park, Grange and White Ledges, Creffield, Brunswick and Montpelier Park. Inside a conservation area, roof enlargements and side extensions are not permitted development.

Ealing Town Centre (The Grove) is one of six Ealing conservation areas with Article 4 directions. The council says that in most of these areas, planning permission is needed for all residential extensions and minor alterations, porches, exterior painting, boundary walls and fences, vehicle access and hardstandings.

Outside those areas, Ealing still uses its SPD 4 Residential Extensions guidance as interim guidance: single-storey rear extensions of about 3 metres in most cases, dormers kept 0.5 metres from the ridge, sides and eaves, and no mansards that change the roof slope. Use the council's conservation area pages include a map for checking your address.