Turn your unused Lewisham garage into a bedroom, home office or open-plan kitchen-diner. Planning route assessment, full building regulations drawings with Part L thermal compliance, structural calculations for any removed walls.
Usually not, if the garage is attached and no new opening faces a highway. Lewisham issued 1,221 lawful development certificates in three years, and the borough holds 89 Article 4 areas — the check that most often turns a certificate into an application.
| Measure | Lewisham | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Lawful development certificates issued | 1,221 | — |
| Article 4 areas in the register | 89 | — |
| Conservation areas | 30 | 705 hectares |
| Householder decisions | 2,037 | 86.3% approved |
| Certificate application fee | £274 | statutory, England 2026 |
| Building regulations package | from £840 | our fixed fee |
Sources: decision figures from MHCLG District Planning Application Statistics (PS1 and PS2), twelve quarters to March 2026; registers from the MHCLG Planning Data Platform, retrieved 1 September 2026; the fee from the Fees for Applications Regulations 2012 as amended; the package fee is our own published fixed fee. Building regulations apply to a garage conversion whether or not planning permission does: the floor, walls and any new opening all become new thermal elements under Approved Document L.
A garage conversion drawings package in Lewisham, where the stock is largely Victorian and Edwardian terraces across Brockley, is the full measured-survey-to-submission drawing set London Borough of Lewisham needs in order to determine an application: existing and proposed plans, elevations and sections at 1:100 and 1:50, a location and site plan, and the supporting statements the case officer asks for.
Prepared and reviewed by the chartered technologist team at Architectural Drawings London — MCIAT chartered, £2m PI insured.Last reviewed 2026-08-03.
Turn your unused Lewisham garage into a bedroom, home office or open-plan kitchen-diner. Planning route assessment, full building regulations drawings with Part L thermal compliance, structural calculations for any removed walls.
Housing stock in Lewisham: Victorian and Edwardian terraces across Brockley, Honor Oak, Forest Hill; 1930s semi-detached in Catford and Hither Green; post-war mixed in Deptford.
Character: Generally permissive planning compared to central boroughs; loft conversions and side-return extensions routinely approved under PD.
We check whether your Lewisham garage conversion needs planning permission or qualifies as Permitted Development — most integral garages don't need planning.
Full laser-measured survey of the existing garage, plus adjacent rooms where walls are being removed.
Existing and proposed floor plans, elevations and sections at 1:50 — full council-ready specification.
Garage conversions must meet current energy-efficiency standards — upgraded insulation, glazing U-values, heating specification.
Steel beam and padstone design where garage doors are replaced with walls and windows, plus any load-bearing wall removals.
Full Plans submission to Lewisham Council Building Control or an approved inspector with inspections coordinated through to completion certificate.
Single planning or regs submission.
Planning + building regs + structural.
Listed, conservation, complex sites.
Move the controls for an indicative figure. It anchors your budget — it is not a quote. Every project is priced after a free survey.
Build costs are separate and quoted by your contractor. See our published fees.
Every Lewisham postcode district we draw in, the stock that dominates it and the authority that validates a garage conversion there. Lewisham fees below are the statutory England rates for 2026, not garage conversion estimates.
| Postcode | Area | Dominant stock | What it means for a garage conversion |
|---|---|---|---|
| SE6 | Catford / Bellingham | 1930s semi-detached, post-war flats | SE6 covers Catford / Bellingham only; Lewisham Council handles the garage conversion, and Catford / Bellingham case officers apply the SE6 conservation-area map. |
| SE8 | Deptford | Georgian terraces, post-war estates, new-build | Deptford sits wholly inside SE8, so Lewisham Council validates every garage conversion submitted from an SE8 address. |
| SE12 | Lee / Grove Park | Victorian and Edwardian terraces across Brockley | Lee / Grove Park is split at SE12. Either Lewisham Council or Bromley Council can determine a garage conversion here, so the SE12 address is checked against both policies maps first. |
| SE13 | Lewisham / Hither Green | Victorian terraces, post-war flats | SE13 covers Lewisham / Hither Green only; Lewisham Council handles the garage conversion, and Lewisham / Hither Green case officers apply the SE13 conservation-area map. |
| SE14 | New Cross | Victorian and Edwardian terraces across Brockley | A garage conversion at an SE14 address in New Cross is determined by Lewisham Council under its own Local Plan policies for New Cross. |
| SE23 | Forest Hill / Honor Oak | Victorian villas, Edwardian terraces | SE23 covers Forest Hill / Honor Oak only; Lewisham Council handles the garage conversion, and Forest Hill / Honor Oak case officers apply the SE23 conservation-area map. |
| SE26 | Sydenham | Victorian villas, Edwardian terraces | SE26 straddles a boundary: Sydenham addresses fall to Lewisham Council or Bromley Council, so confirm which authority validates the garage conversion before submitting SE26 drawings. |
| SE3 | Blackheath / Kidbrooke | Georgian villas, Victorian terraces | Blackheath / Kidbrooke is split at SE3. Either Greenwich Council or Lewisham Council can determine a garage conversion here, so the SE3 address is checked against both policies maps first. |
Roof pitch, wall build-up and plot depth change every few Lewisham streets, and each one changes what a garage conversion can achieve at that address.
Conservation areas covering Lewisham: Lewisham Council runs 30, and Deptford High Street, Forest Hill, Hither Green are the ones Lewisham owners meet most. A garage conversion inside a Lewisham conservation area loses permitted development, so the Lewisham submission is a householder application at £548 decided in 8 weeks — not a £249 prior approval decided in 6 weeks. In Hither Green a garage conversion is judged on the street elevation first.
Article 4 and your Lewisham garage conversion: Lewisham Council has made no borough-wide direction, so permitted development for a garage conversion in Lewisham generally survives outside Lewisham conservation areas and listed curtilages. A Lawful Development Certificate at £274 is how a SE4 owner records that a garage conversion was lawful.
Lewisham housing stock: Victorian and Edwardian terraces across Brockley, Honor Oak, Forest Hill; 1930s semi-detached in Catford and Hither Green; post-war mixed in Deptford. Generally permissive planning compared to central boroughs; loft conversions and side-return extensions routinely approved under PD. Read that before choosing a garage conversion route in Lewisham — construction, not postcode, sets what is achievable. Lewisham Council charges £548 for a householder application and has 8 weeks to determine it.
Sources for this Lewisham garage conversion page: borough policies maps and conservation-area registers (2025–26), Royal Mail postcode district boundaries, the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications) (England) Regulations, the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 as amended, and the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
Of 109 change-of-use appeals decided in Lewisham over the window covering appeals decided 2016-2026, Lewisham sat close to the London norm, with 25.7% of appeals succeeding against 29.1% city-wide. 28 were allowed and 80 dismissed, with 1 split. Turning a garage or outbuilding into habitable space is usually decided as a change of use, and 109 such Lewisham decisions were challenged far enough to reach an inspector.
Half of those Lewisham appeals took more than 113 days to decide from the day the appeal started — time added on top of the council's own determination period, which is the argument for getting the application right first. 96.3% were decided by written representations rather than a hearing or inquiry, meaning the written case and the drawings were the whole of the evidence.
109 change-of-use appeals decided in Lewisham. Source: Planning Inspectorate casework, OGL v3.0.
Direct answers to the questions Lewisham homeowners ask every week about garage conversion drawings.
Start a free quote →Most integral garage conversions in Lewisham do not require planning permission — they're classed as an internal alteration, which is not development under the TCPA 1990. However, if the conversion materially alters the external appearance (new windows, raising the roof), planning permission may be required. Detached garage conversions to habitable use always need planning. Article 4 Directions in Lewisham may also affect eligibility. We confirm the planning route before quoting.
A Lewisham garage conversion is one of the cheapest ways to add habitable space: our package covers the planning route assessment, building regulations drawings and structural calculations for the door opening. Build cost depends on whether the garage is integral or detached, and on insulation, flooring and services. See our fees.
Typically yes — a well-executed garage conversion in Lewisham adds 10–15% to property value and costs far less per square metre than an extension. In areas where parking is not at a premium, converting an underused garage is one of the most cost-effective ways to gain living space.
A standard integral garage conversion in Lewisham typically takes 4–6 weeks to build once drawings are approved. Our architectural package takes 3–4 weeks from instruction to Building Control submission. Total timeline: approximately 3–4 months from initial survey to completion.
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