Loft Conversions in Perivale

City/Town Name: Perivale

Borough Name: Ealing

Area: 1.3 Sq Miles

Population: 16,185

City Information

Perivale sits in the west of London, inside the London Borough of Ealing. The Grand Union Canal runs along its northern edge, and Horsenden Hill rises just behind it, giving walkers one of the best views in the borough on a clear day. Most people know Perivale for its Central Line station, which puts central London within easy reach, and for the art deco Hoover Building on Western Avenue, once a factory and now home to a Tesco supermarket.

The area grew quickly in the 1930s. Before that, Perivale was one of the smallest parishes in Middlesex, with only a handful of farms and fewer than 100 residents. New roads, the railway, and the canal made it an obvious spot for factories and housing, and within twenty years the population had grown from a few hundred to almost 10,000. Today Perivale is mostly residential, with a mix of family houses, a working industrial estate, and green space along the River Brent.

Perivale Park offers football pitches, an athletics track, and a nine hole golf course, while the old parish church, St Mary the Virgin, still stands near the river and dates back to the 12th century. For homeowners here, that mix of solid 1930s housing stock and good transport links makes loft conversions a popular way to add space without moving.

Planning Notes

Ealing Council’s Planning and Building Control service handles planning applications for Perivale, including loft conversions. Most homes in Perivale can still use permitted development rights for a loft conversion, provided the work stays inside the usual national limits. For a terraced house, that means an added roof volume of no more than 40 cubic metres. For a semi detached or detached house, the limit rises to 50 cubic metres. The extension must not go beyond the highest point of the existing roof, and any side facing windows need obscured glazing. If your house already had a loft extension, or the roof has been altered before, this can reduce or remove what is left of your permitted development allowance.

Perivale ward does carry its own Article 4 Direction, though it is worth being clear about what it actually covers. The direction removes permitted development rights for changing a house into a small house in multiple occupation, known as an HMO. It does not, on its own, remove the general permitted development rights for loft conversions.

That said, parts of Perivale close to the canal fall within the Canalside Conservation Area, and homes inside a conservation area lose some permitted development rights for roof extensions and other external alterations. Anyone planning a loft conversion in Perivale should check their exact address against the council’s conservation area maps before assuming permitted development applies.

Article Notes

Ealing Council made an Article 4 Direction for Perivale ward with immediate effect, confirmed on 11 April 2025. It followed a planning committee decision on 4 September 2024 and formally came into force on 30 October 2024. The direction removes permitted development rights for changing a dwelling house into a small HMO, meaning a home to between three and six unrelated people who share a kitchen or bathroom. Anyone wanting to make this kind of change in Perivale now needs full planning permission from the council first. This direction is separate from the general permitted development rules for loft conversions, and it does not by itself stop a straightforward loft conversion on a family home. Homeowners should still check whether their property sits within the Canalside Conservation Area, since that would affect roof and external works in a different way.

Types of Houses

Perivale is largely a product of the 1930s. Before that decade, it was mostly farmland, with only a handful of houses standing along the canal and near Horsenden Hill. Once Western Avenue and the railway arrived, builders put up rows of semi detached and terraced houses fairly quickly, many of them close to the new factories on the industrial estate. You will still see plenty of these 1930s semis today, with their bay windows, hipped roofs, and small front gardens. There are also some postwar houses filling in gaps from later building, plus a scattering of flats nearer the main roads and the station. Because so much of Perivale's housing dates from the same short building boom, the roof shapes and room layouts tend to be quite similar from street to street, which is useful to know before planning a loft conversion.

Highlights

• Perivale Underground Station on the Central Line
• Bus routes connecting to Greenford, Ealing and Alperton
• Perivale Medical Clinic, Hillview Surgery and other local GP practices
• Perivale Library
• Perivale Primary School, Selborne Primary School and Vicars Green Primary School
• Perivale Community Centre
• Perivale Park, including the athletics track, football and cricket pitches, and a nine hole golf course
• Horsenden Hill open space
• Tesco supermarket in the former Hoover Building on Western Avenue
• Local shops along Bilton Road and Federal Road
• St Mary the Virgin parish church