# Builders in West Ealing

Canonical URL: https://mirion.uk/areas/ealing/west-ealing/

> Loft conversions, side-return extensions and renovations for Victorian terraces and 1920s homes in West Ealing, W13, with Ealing's SPD 4 and conservation rules.

In West Ealing, Drayton Green and Castlebar we mostly work on Victorian terraces and 1920s houses: loft conversions, side-return and rear extensions, and renovations of homes that are often a century old.

A hamlet called West Ealing was recorded in 1234 and later renamed Ealing Dean. Most of the area stayed open countryside, with houses at Ealing Dean, Drayton Green and Castlebar Hill, until the Great Western Railway opened a station at Ealing Dean in 1871 and the line was extended to Greenford via Castle Bar Park and Drayton Green. A tram line to Southall followed in 1901. In the 1920s, more houses were built on the Argyle Park estate and along Kent Avenue, and since the Second World War many Victorian houses have been converted into flats.

The 2021 Census shows that mix. In the West Ealing and Drayton Green and Cleveland statistical areas, 42% of households lived in houses \(21% terraced, 18% semi-detached and 3% detached\) and 56% in flats. Median semi-detached prices were about £875,000 to £1.13 million in the year to March 2026. West Ealing station joined the Elizabeth line in 2022.

On the terraces, the usual projects are a rear or L-shaped dormer loft and a side-return infill that turns a narrow galley kitchen into a kitchen-diner.

Ealing's SPD 4 guidance says dormers should not wrap around two roof slopes. That makes an L-shaped dormer, over both the main roof and the back addition, hard to get through a planning application, so on West Ealing terraces it usually relies on permitted development, within 40 cubic metres of extra roof space and outside conservation areas.

For side-return infills, single-storey side extensions are permitted development outside conservation areas if they are no more than half the width of the original house and no more than 4 metres high. Converting a house into flats, or flats back into a house, is a separate change that needs planning permission.

St Stephen's W13 and Ealing Green W5/W13 are among the council's Ealing conservation areas that extend into W13, and permitted development is restricted inside them.

Building work in West Ealing: common questions

Can I build an L-shaped dormer on a West Ealing terrace?

Usually through permitted development rather than a planning application: Ealing's guidance says dormers shouldn't wrap around two roof slopes. Under permitted development, a terraced house can add up to 40 cubic metres of roof space if it isn't in a conservation area and its rights haven't been removed.

Do I need planning permission to turn a West Ealing house into flats?

Yes. Dividing a house into flats is a change of use that needs planning permission, and the new flats must also meet Building Regulations for fire separation and sound insulation.

- Local planning authority: London Borough of Ealing
- Postcode districts: W13
- Work Mirion has carried out here: Extensions, loft conversions and renovations