Design Guide

• Back to PLANNING

• Introduction
• The design of the garden suburb
• New Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust
• Barnet Council
• The Trust and the Council
• Extensions
• Building materials and details
• Walling materials
• Tiles
• Roofs
• Dormer windows & loft conversions
• Gutters and pipes
• Chimneys
• Porches
• Windows and doors
• Garages and parking spaces
• Garden buildings
• Fences, walls and hedges
• Landscaping and trees
• Satellite dishes
• Shopfronts and advertisements
• Listed buildings
• Glossary
• Making applications to:
• The Trust
• Barnet Council
• Additional information

Garages and parking spaces

Hampstead Garden Suburb was designed before car ownership became widespread. Constructing further off-street parking within the curtilage of individual houses would usually result in the loss of front gardens and hedges. This would change the character of the Suburb.

Where there is room for a garage, it should be designed in sympathy with the house to which it relates and without detriment to the overall area. Brick built or rendered blockwork garages with either pitched tiled roofs or flat roofs with parapets, as appropriate, are preferred. Garages should be positioned to minimise their visual impact. Wherever possible traditional hinged garage doors should be used. ‘Up and over’ doors, where acceptable, should be timber, vertical boarded, and stained or painted a dark colour. Metal and GRP (plastic) doors are usually not acceptable.

Grassed and planted front gardens and continuous hedging help to give the Suburb its special charm and the need to preserve this character may preclude the grant of permission to form a hardstanding in the front garden. We will consider each cases on its merits and in some locations a small hardstanding may be laid out in the front garden. There should be a minimal break in hedge, fence or wall, with two lines of good quality hard paving underneath the car tyres. The location of a hardstanding should not result in cars being parked directly in front of the house. Many roadsides include a grass verge contributing to the green character of the area. Any vehicle crossover should be the minimum width necessary to avoid the creation of the patchy appearance to the street scene.

We will not normally approve the creation of paved forecourts with ‘in and out’ approaches. They usually reduce grassed areas, flower beds and the line of hedging. They are alien to the concept of the Garden Suburb except in the case of very large houses.

It is common for Suburb residents to use garages for storage. The conversion of garages capable of housing the average modern car will lead to further on street parking and pressure for off-street car parking. The use of a garage as living accommodation may require planning permission. Check with the Planning Group of the Council. If external alterations are made, eg. Insertion of a window, planning permission will always be required. If it is a Listed Building Consent will be required as well. Permission is necessary from the Trust and will normally be resisted. The loss of off-street car parking through conversion will not be a justification for an alternative garage or hardstanding.

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