Builders in Northfields & South Ealing

Maps of Ealing from 1890 show Northfields as almost entirely rural, with just a few houses along Little Ealing Lane. Building followed the District Railway: South Ealing station opened on 1 May 1883, and Northfields Halt in 1908. Local landmarks include Lammas Park, kept as a public park as the area was built over, and the Spanish-style former cinema of 1932, which became the Ealing Christian Centre in 1994.

Terraced houses dominate. In the 2021 Census, 56% of households in the Northfields, South Ealing and St Mary's statistical areas lived in houses, and 33% in terraced houses, against 18% semi-detached and 4% detached. Median semi-detached prices there were about £1 million to £1.25 million in the year to March 2026.

A typical Northfields terrace has a two-storey back addition, so the space is gained by infilling the side return, extending a few metres into the garden and adding a dormer at the back of the roof.

Most of these streets are outside conservation areas, so permitted development often applies: a single-storey rear extension of up to 3 metres on a terraced house, or up to 6 metres through the prior approval process, which asks the council to consider the effect on the neighbours. With a terrace, both neighbours usually need party wall notices.

Where a planning application is needed, Ealing's SPD 4 asks for rear extensions of about 3 metres deep and 3 metres high in most cases, and expects new windows and materials to match the original house. In its conservation areas, Ealing also says an infill beside a projecting wing should be set back around 500 millimetres from the end of that wing, without removing the back or side walls of the house entirely.

Many of these terraces have shared drains running behind them, so we check sewer records before fixing the depth of an extension.