Building work in Hammersmith and Fulham: area guide

Hammersmith and Fulham Council is the planning and building control authority for Hammersmith and Fulham, which covers W6, W12, W14 and SW6 and takes in Hammersmith, Fulham, Shepherd's Bush and Parsons Green. This is our area guide to building work in the borough; for whole-house refurbishment go to Home renovation in Hammersmith and Fulham.

Of the 95,080 homes the valuation list records in Hammersmith and Fulham, 56% were built before 1919, 9% between the wars and 34% since 1945; 77% are flats and 23% are houses. VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 25 statistical areas in Hammersmith and Fulham. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Planning and building control in Hammersmith and Fulham

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

• Hammersmith and Fulham has 44 conservation areas covering about half of the borough, with a further two conservation areas in the north of the borough. lbhf.gov.uk
• Hammersmith and Fulham Council's borough-wide Article 4 direction removing permitted development rights for basement development was made on 25 April 2017. lbhf.gov.uk
• The borough-wide basement Article 4 direction was confirmed by the council on 16 April and came into force on 26 April 2018. lbhf.gov.uk
• Almost 500 buildings in Hammersmith and Fulham are on the statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. lbhf.gov.uk
• A design and access statement is only required for major applications, listed building consent applications and, in conservation areas, applications for one or more dwellings or 100 square metres or more of floor space. lbhf.gov.uk
• Hammersmith and Fulham Council runs its own building control service and issues a completion certificate on satisfactory completion of a project. lbhf.gov.uk
• The council offers both Full Plans and Building Notice applications and states that the two cost exactly the same. lbhf.gov.uk
• The council aims to give a decision on a Full Plans application within 5 weeks, though it may take longer. lbhf.gov.uk
• Full planning permission is needed to create a new basement or extend an existing basement, including for flats, maisonettes and single dwelling houses. lbhf.gov.uk

With 77% of Hammersmith and Fulham'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 Hammersmith and Fulham Council as well as the freeholder's consent. The 23% 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.

Fulham, Hammersmith, Shepherd's Bush and Parsons Green were built out in a rush between roughly 1880 and 1910, and it shows. Street after street of bay-fronted terraces to a repeating plan across W6, W12, W14 and SW6, with a two-storey rear closet wing, a narrow side return and a small garden. On VOA figures, most are now flats. The repetition tells us where the drains run and what the rear wall carries, but in a flat the freeholder comes first.

Flat conversions: fire separation and sound come first

A great many of the borough's houses were split into flats decades ago, sometimes well and sometimes not. Stripping out one of those flats uncovers a shared stair with no proper fire separation, a bathroom stacked over a neighbour's bedroom, and a soil pipe boxed into a cupboard. Part B governs the escape route and Part E the sound separation between dwellings.

So a bathroom renovation here starts with the shared soil stack and the floor over the flat below, and a kitchen renovation that moves a wall starts with freeholder consent, which leasehold flats need on top. Hammersmith and Fulham Council building control will want the fire and sound provisions, cheapest done while stripped out. We handle the notifications, book the inspections and pass you the certificates.

Popular starting points in Hammersmith and Fulham: kitchen renovation in Hammersmith and Fulham, house extensions across Hammersmith and Fulham, builders in London and Building Regulations Explained.