Building work in Camden: area guide

Camden Council is the planning and building control authority for Camden, which covers NW1, NW3, NW5, NW6, WC1, WC2, N6 and N19 and takes in Camden Town, Hampstead, Kentish Town, Bloomsbury and Highgate. This is our area guide to building work in the borough; for whole-house refurbishment go to Home renovation in Camden.

Around 113,890 homes make up Camden on the valuation list; 88% are flats and 12% houses, and 48% date from before 1919, 9% from between the wars and 42% from after 1945. VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 27 statistical areas in Camden. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Planning and building control in Camden

What Camden Council publishes about building work in the borough, with each point linked to the council page it comes from:

• There are 40 conservation areas in Camden, covering about half of the borough. camden.gov.uk
• Camden's Article 4 direction on basements, adoption date 1 June 2017, applies to the whole of the London Borough of Camden so every basement excavation needs planning permission. camden.gov.uk
• Camden has more than 5,600 listed buildings in a variety of ages, types and architectural styles. camden.gov.uk
• Camden's Level 1 pre-planning application advice for homeowners costs £481.50 including VAT. camden.gov.uk
• Camden Council's own building control service takes applications directly, or work can go through a Registered Building Control Approver who must tell the council about it. camden.gov.uk
• Camden offers 2 main types of building control application, full plans and building notice. camden.gov.uk
• With a Camden building notice you do not submit detailed plans, can start work within 2 days of applying and get no formal approval. camden.gov.uk
• Camden requires a Basement Impact Assessment (BIA), specific to the site and proposal, with any planning application that includes a new or extended basement. camden.gov.uk

With 88% of Camden's homes flats, the lease comes first on many jobs. Flats have no householder permitted development, so an extension or most external changes to a flat need planning permission from Camden Council as well as the freeholder's consent. The 12% that are houses keep the householder rights within the size limits, and in a conservation area a single-storey rear extension survives unless an Article 4 direction removes it. Taking out a wall or a chimney breast is building regulations work, not planning, unless the building is listed.

Camden runs from Bloomsbury's Georgian squares up through Camden Town and Kentish Town to Hampstead and Highgate, taking in NW1, NW3, NW5, NW6, WC1, WC2, N6 and N19. On VOA figures, most homes are flats, many converted from larger houses or warehouse buildings near the canal, and a flat routes first through the freeholder. The houses are mostly Victorian terraced, two or three storeys with a rear closet wing and small garden, and the same few structural problems recur in them.

Side returns on terraces start with the rear wall

On a Kentish Town or Camden Town terrace, the most requested job is filling in the side return beside the original closet wing, turning a narrow strip into kitchen and dining space open to the rear reception. That is a house extension job, but the rear wall is normally nine-inch solid brick carrying floor and roof loads, so the opening needs a designed steel frame rather than a padstone and hope: RSJ installation comes first.

We appoint the structural engineer, build to their calculations and coordinate temporary support while the wall comes out. Rooflights or a glazed roof over the return answer the daylight problem of a deep terrace, with insulation, ventilation and wiring signed off under Parts L, F and P. In a converted flat the same opening is a structural alteration job that waits on the freeholder's licence.

Conservation areas and neighbour notices come first in Camden

Camden Council has designated 40 conservation areas, covering about half the borough, and Hampstead, Highgate and much of Bloomsbury sit inside them. Designation takes side extensions, two-storey rear additions, roof extensions and cladding out of permitted development, leaving a modest single-storey rear addition as the main right that survives, and Article 4 directions go further in specific streets. A borough-wide direction also means every basement needs planning permission. Confirm your address before committing to a house extension design, because it changes what is buildable.

Terraces and conversions also mean party wall duties. Beams bearing into the wall you share, taking a chimney breast out of a shared stack, or digging foundations close to next door all need notice under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, served by you as building owner, before chimney breast removal or steel work starts. Neighbours are close, so we agree hours, keep the frontage clean and warn before noisy stages.

Popular starting points in Camden: kitchen renovation in Camden, house extensions across Camden, builders in London and How to Choose a Builder.