Air conditioning in Harrow
This is the home patch, and it is two very different jobs depending on which end of it you are at.
Air conditioning installation across London. Based in Harrow and Stanmore.
Air conditioning in Harrow
We are based in Harrow, so this is the part of London we know street by street. What changes an install here is not the postcode, it is which Harrow you are in. Harrow town centre is the densest part of the borough and roughly seven in ten of its households are in purpose built flats, so the question that decides the job is usually the freeholder's consent and where the building will allow an outdoor unit. Half a mile south, Harrow on the Hill holds eight conservation areas and the greatest concentration of listed buildings in the borough, five of them under Article 4 directions, and there the question is where the unit can go so it is not visible from the street. Everywhere in between is interwar Metro-land semis, where an install is usually straightforward.
Wall mounted systems start from £1,995 fully installed, and the price does not change with the postcode.
Planning authority
London Borough of Harrow
Postcode districts
HA1, HA2 and HA3
Conservation areas in the borough
30
Town centre conservation area
None
The town centre: flats, not heritage
Harrow is classified as a Metropolitan centre in the London Plan, the top tier, and the council describes it as the most densely developed area in the borough with the highest concentration of taller buildings. That shows up in the housing: at the 2021 Census, 3,103 of the 4,495 households in Greenhill ward, which covers the town centre, were in purpose built blocks of flats. Only 182 were detached.
The useful thing about the town centre is what it does not have. There is no conservation area covering the primary shopping area, and only four listed buildings in the centre itself: the church of St John the Baptist on Station Road, its war memorial, 315 Station Road, and the Granada Cinema on Sheepcote Road. So for most town centre addresses, heritage is not the constraint.
What is the constraint is the building. In a purpose built block you need the freeholder's or the managing agent's written consent before anything is fixed to an external wall or placed on a balcony, and many blocks have already decided where units may go. That consent takes longer to obtain than the installation does, so it is worth starting before you book anything.
What the council says about air conditioning specifically
Harrow Council's adopted conservation area appraisals name air conditioning units directly. They say the units can be very visually obtrusive where they are poorly sited and visible from the street scene, and that they should be carefully sited and integrated so they are as concealed and unobtrusive as possible, which will usually mean installing where they are not visible from the street. That is the standard we design to here, and it is the council's own wording rather than our interpretation of it.
Harrow on the Hill: the opposite problem
Just under a mile south of the station, the picture inverts. Harrow on the Hill contains eight separate conservation areas and accounts for the greatest concentration of conservation areas anywhere in the borough. The council's own figures put roughly 80 listed building entries inside those areas, about 30 percent of the borough's total, alongside around 400 locally listed buildings.
Five of those eight areas carry Article 4 directions: Harrow Park, Harrow on the Hill Village, South Hill Avenue, Mount Park Estate, and Roxborough Park and The Grove. An Article 4 direction removes permitted development rights, so work that would be automatic elsewhere needs a planning application here. The Harrow on the Hill Village direction is the strictest, requiring residents to apply for planning permission for any alteration to a façade fronting a highway or open space.
Roxborough Park and The Grove is the one that runs right up to the town centre, with the Metropolitan line marking the boundary between it and the commercial centre. If your address is on the town centre side of the railway you are almost certainly outside it; on the other side you are almost certainly in it. That is worth checking before anything else.
What that means for your install
If you are in a town centre flat
Start with the freeholder, not with us. Ask whether the building permits external units, whether there is a designated position, and whether written consent is needed. Above the first floor, plan for a condensate pump, because there is usually nothing for the water to fall towards.
If you are in a conservation area on the Hill
The outdoor unit goes to the rear, out of sight of the street. The council's appraisals state that rear elevations away from the street scene, and rear gardens, are the most suitable locations for externally mounted equipment, so that is both the best design answer and the one that aligns with local policy.
If your property is listed
Permitted development does not apply within the curtilage of a listed building, and listed building consent is a separate consideration on top of planning permission. The council asks that any external attachment to a listed building is discussed with its conservation team first. We will tell you at the survey if this applies to you.
If you are in a Metro-land semi
Almost two thirds of Harrow's housing stock dates from the interwar period, and the semis that run through Kenton, Wealdstone and North Harrow are the most straightforward install we do. Side return, condenser on the rear or side elevation, pipe run inside three metres, done in a day.
Checking your own address
Harrow Council publishes its 30 conservation areas in four groups, with the Article 4 status of each one listed beside it, and the individual conservation area pages carry the maps. If you are unsure, the council's conservation team takes questions directly on 020 8736 6101.
One thing worth knowing: the council's own residential planning guide for conservation areas predates the current permitted development rules for air source heat pumps and does not cover them. It is still the right document for windows, doors and hard surfacing, and it is not the place to check whether your air conditioning needs permission. That question is settled by the national rules, which we cover in our planning guide.
Your planning authority is London Borough of Harrow
They decide any application for your address, and they publish the conservation area maps you would need to check it. We do not submit applications on your behalf, but we will tell you at the survey if one is likely and give you the unit dimensions and position to put on the form.
London Borough of Harrow conservation areasWhat we fit most in Harrow
Every price is fully installed and includes the unit, the installation, the electrical work and VAT.
Nearby
We work right across London. These are the places next to Harrow that we are asked about most.
Read next
Instant estimate
We start the day in Harrow.
Which means the survey and the install usually sit close together, and a return visit is a short trip rather than a planned expedition. Size your room in about a minute.