Loft Conversions in Ickenham

City/Town Name: Ickenham

Borough Name: Hillingdon

Area: 2.4 Sq Miles

Population: 10,900

City Information

Ickenham sits in the London Borough of Hillingdon, in the far west of the city where the underground network starts to feel almost rural. The Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines both stop at Ickenham station, so residents can reach Baker Street in around thirty eight minutes, yet the village still keeps a green, unhurried feel that many parts of outer London have lost.

The heart of the area is the old village around Swakeleys Road and the High Road, where the Old Pond and the Charlotte Gell water pump still stand at the junction with Long Lane. St Giles Church and the Grade I listed Swakeleys House, a seventeenth century mansion, sit close by and give the place a real sense of history.

Most of the housing was built after the Swakeleys estate was sold off in 1922, and estates such as Glebe Avenue and the wider Swakeleys Estate went up through the 1930s. This means a lot of homes here have decent sized roof voids, which is one reason loft conversions are so popular with families wanting more room without moving.

Swakeleys Park, Ickenham Marsh nature reserve and the Yeading Brook all sit within easy walking distance, and Ruislip Woods is a short drive away. For a place inside Greater London, Ickenham still feels like a village, and that character shapes almost everything about how homes here get extended and improved.

Planning Notes

Planning applications and enquiries for Ickenham are handled by Hillingdon Council, through its Planning and Building Control service, based at the Civic Centre on High Street in Uxbridge.

For most houses, a loft conversion counts as permitted development, meaning you do not need to apply for planning permission as long as you stay within set limits. Under the national rules that Hillingdon Council applies, a terraced house is allowed up to 40 cubic metres of extra roof space, while a detached or semi detached house is allowed up to 50 cubic metres. The new roof cannot be higher than the highest part of the existing roof, materials must match the look of the house, and any side facing windows must be obscure glazed where they overlook a neighbour.

These permitted development rights do not apply everywhere in Ickenham, though. Hillingdon Council has designated the Ickenham Village Conservation Area, covering the historic core around Swakeleys Road, Long Lane and Austins Lane, and national planning law removes some permitted development rights inside conservation areas by default. Council planning records also show Article 4 directions have been used on individual streets and plots in Ickenham to guard against the overdevelopment of gardens and larger sites.

Because rules can differ from one street to the next, it is always worth asking Hillingdon Council’s planning team, or a local loft conversion company who knows the area, to check your specific address before any design work begins.

Article Notes

Article 4 directions remove some permitted development rights, so a full planning application is needed even for work that would normally be allowed without one. In Ickenham, the clearest example is the Ickenham Village Conservation Area, which covers the historic centre of the village around Swakeleys Road, the High Road and Austins Lane. The conservation area was extended in 2008 to bring in land around Austins Lane, which shows how closely Hillingdon Council watches over this part of Ickenham. Council planning records also point to Article 4 directions being used on individual streets and plots in Ickenham to stop gardens and larger sites being overdeveloped, separate from the conservation area itself. Because these directions can apply to a single road, or even a single property, rather than the whole of Ickenham, the safest approach is to check your exact address with Hillingdon Council's Planning and Building Control service, or ask your loft conversion company to do this for you before any design work is commissioned.

Types of Houses

Ickenham's housing dates mostly from after 1922, when the Swakeleys estate was sold and building began in earnest. Streets such as Glebe Avenue, Burnham Avenue and Hoylake Crescent are lined with 1930s semi detached and detached houses, many with generous gardens and off street parking, built as London's suburbs pushed further west along the railway. Closer to the historic village centre, around Swakeleys Road and the High Road, older period cottages survive from before the estate was broken up, giving that part of Ickenham a more traditional, village like feel. North Ickenham has larger detached houses on bigger plots, while newer developments, including flats and townhouses built on the former USAF base at Ickenham Park, have added more contemporary housing stock in recent decades. This mix of periods is one reason loft conversion designs vary so much from street to street here.

Highlights

• Ickenham station, on the Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines
• West Ruislip station nearby, for the Central line and Chiltern Railways services
• Local bus routes, including the U1 and U10
• Shops along the High Road and Long Lane
• Local pubs, including the Coach and Horses, the Tichenham Inn and the Fox and Geese
• The Compass Theatre
• Swakeleys Park, including a lake, outdoor gym and tennis courts
• Ickenham Marsh nature reserve and the Yeading Brook
• Ickenham Green
• St Giles Church
• Swakeleys House, a Grade I listed seventeenth century mansion
• Breakspear Primary School and Glebe Primary School
• Vyners School, the local secondary school
• Ickenham library