The short answer for Hatch End
Planning authority
London Borough of Harrow
Postcode district
HA5, shared with Pinner
Conservation area
One, Pinnerwood Park Estate
Detached households
1,206 of 3,528
Not sure you are in Hatch End? Check your area
Yes, we cover Hatch End. Most of it has no conservation area, but one 1930s garden suburb, the Pinnerwood Park Estate, lies mostly inside the ward, and Harrow's Article 4 direction there has two tiers: which one applies depends on your road. In the core streets, planning permission is required for all additions and alterations to a building. In the outer streets the same controls apply, but only on elevations that front a highway or open space. Neither list names air conditioning, and the estate's own appraisal asks for units to be hidden from the street, so we settle the position before anything is booked. Across the ward, 1,206 of 3,528 households live in detached houses, the highest share of any Harrow ward, and outside the estate an install is as straightforward as anywhere we work.
Wall mounted systems start from £1,995 fully installed, and the price does not change with the postcode.
Free survey
Get a written quote in Hatch End
- We call you back, or email you if we cannot get through.
- We come and do a free survey at your address.
- You get one price in writing, agreed before any work starts.
The survey is free, and nothing is booked before you have the price in writing.
Harrow has thirty conservation areas and none is called Hatch End
The one that reaches into Hatch End ward is Pinnerwood Park Estate, designated on 31 August 1989. The council's appraisal places it in the north west of the borough, south of the Pinnerwood Farm conservation area and the Green Belt. By area, most of it falls in Hatch End ward and the rest in Pinner ward, so check your road against the council's schedule rather than relying on the postcode.
Two tiers of Article 4 in one estate
As Harrow's guidance note for residents sets them out. Both sit on top of the normal conservation area controls.
| Core streets | Outer streets | |
|---|---|---|
| Streets | Evelyn Drive, Marsworth Avenue, Woodhall Gate, Bede Close, Old South Close and others | Albury Drive, Grimsdyke Road, Latimer Gardens, Hallam Gardens and others |
| Made | Confirmed 10 June 1991 | Served 30 November 1995, confirmed 25 January 1996 |
| Where it applies | All elevations, except replacing rear windows and doors | Only elevations fronting a highway, waterway or open space |
| What needs permission | Additions and alterations, roof changes, porches, hard surfaces, gates and fences, painting, satellite dishes | The same list, on those elevations only |
| Names air conditioning? | No | No |
From Harrow Council's Pinnerwood Park Estate Article 4 guidance note. The streets are abridged from the council's schedule, which gives house numbers and excludes some, so the direction can cover part of a road. Satellite dishes and antennae need permission across the whole conservation area.
A garden suburb, and what it asks of a unit
The estate was laid out from 1932 for the Artizans, Labourers and General Dwellings Company. About 2,500 houses were planned and about 435 were built. The appraisal describes cottage style houses in symmetrical pairs on tree lined streets with hedges rather than walls, and asks that alterations do not disturb the balance of those pairs.
That appraisal, adopted in December 2009, lists air conditioning units among the pressures on the estate, because they can be very visually obtrusive where poorly sited and visible from the street. Its management response is that they be sited so they are as concealed and unobtrusive as possible, usually out of view of the street. That is guidance rather than a ban, and it is where we would put a unit anyway.
Because neither Article 4 list names a unit, whether a wall mounted outdoor unit counts as an addition or alteration is for Harrow's conservation team to say, and we would ask them before you commit. We do not submit applications, but we give you the unit's dimensions and position for the form.
On Grimsdyke Road and Albury Drive there is a second wrinkle. The council's note says those houses back onto open space, so for windows and doors the rear elevation counts as a controlled one. The usual advice to put the unit at the back does not settle it on those two roads.
What the housing in Hatch End actually is
Households by accommodation type at the 2021 Census, Hatch End ward. No other ward in Harrow has a higher share of detached homes.
| Accommodation type | Households |
|---|---|
| All households | 3,528 |
| Detached | 1,206 |
| Semi detached | 1,105 |
| Terraced | 224 |
| In a purpose built block of flats | 823 |
| Part of a converted or shared house | 103 |
| In a commercial building, for example over a shop | 58 |
| Part of another converted building | 8 |
| A caravan or other temporary structure | 1 |
ONS Census 2021, table TS044, accommodation type by household, as at 21 March 2021, on the 2022 ward boundaries. Rows are as ONS publishes them. The Pinnerwood Park Estate is only part of the ward.
What applies to you
Your road is on the Pinnerwood Park schedule
Check your road and house number against the council's schedule, which lists some houses and not others and says which tier applies. In the core, ask the council before any outdoor unit goes on. In the outer tier the elevation matters. The survey settles the position with that in hand.
You have a house elsewhere in Hatch End
No conservation area covers you, and Harrow publishes its Article 4 directions on its conservation area pages, so outside the estate there is no direction to check there. Harrow's 2011 character study names Cedar Drive and St Thomas Drive at Hatch End as detached areas. A unit on a side or rear elevation is the usual answer, subject to the national limits.
You live in a flat
823 households in the ward live in purpose built blocks, and the same study singles out Dove Close, two 1960s high rise blocks with balconies. Freeholder's written consent first, then us. Over the shops on Uxbridge Road, where the study says upper floors are almost entirely residential, the landlord is the first call too.
Your building is listed
Historic England's data has six Grade II entries inside the ward, among them the entrance block of Hatch End station, the former Royal Commercial Travellers' School building and Woodhall Farmhouse, the only listed building in the estate. Permitted development does not apply in the curtilage of a listed building, so that is a separate conversation.
You are a business
Permitted development for heat pumps covers houses and blocks of flats, not commercial premises, so an application to Harrow is likely. We give you the unit dimensions and position for the form.
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 would fit in Hatch End
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 Hatch End that we also cover.
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Instant estimate
Tell us your road and we will start there.
In the estate the road decides the rule, and everywhere else in Hatch End it is a normal install. Size your room in about a minute, and the free survey and written quote come before any work starts.