Two sets of rules to read together
The conservation area here was designated in 1989, and planning.data.gov.uk maps it at about 13.4 hectares; that boundary is the study area for the heritage, ground and flood figures below. A neighbourhood plan prepared by a local forum adds policies of its own for a separately defined neighbourhood area, which the council approved in July 2015, so both documents matter when a change to a house or garden is in view.
Housing counts come from the two statistical areas that overlap the conservation area, so they approximate it rather than match it. The Enfield guide sets out the borough context, and the separate Monken Hadley conservation area has a guide of its own.
Records for the conservation area and the plan
Every statement below links to the public record it comes from; sources were re-checked on .
The 1989 designation and its appraisal
The planning.data.gov.uk record gives Enfield reference CA11, a mapped area of about 13.4 hectares and a designation year of 1989, with no day or month recorded.
Enfield's character appraisal confirms designation in 1989, and records that the appraisal was first adopted and published in 2006, with the revised text approved in February 2015 and amended in September 2016.
The management proposals, approved in February 2015, are Enfield's framework for handling change and for conserving and enhancing its conservation areas, and they send readers to Section 3 of the appraisal for the summary of special interest.
The appraisal itself notes that neither its 2006 version nor its 2015 revision refers to Douglas Close, the development behind 29-33 Lancaster Avenue for which the council granted planning permission in 2006.
An appraisal can therefore trail what has been built, so the planning history of an address is read alongside the appraisal text rather than inferred from it.
Article 4 and listing
Enfield's page for the conservation area links its Article 4 Directions 2006 document, which covers this area and ten others, along with an Article 4 map.
An Article 4 direction withdraws named permitted development rights, so the 2006 direction document is read before any external alteration is assumed to need no application.
The NHLE dataset returns no list entries for the conservation area, which holds neither scheduled monuments nor registered parks and gardens.
Unlisted buildings within the designated boundary still fall under conservation-area planning controls, so an absence of listing does not mean an absence of control.
The neighbourhood plan
Enfield's adopted plans page records that the neighbourhood forum and a revised neighbourhood area were approved on 7 July 2015, that the plan was submitted for examination on 2 May 2023 and that examination began on 17 May 2023.
The same page links the final made version of the neighbourhood plan, which covers 2022 to 2039.
The plan describes a relatively isolated, car-dependent community on the borders of Hertfordshire and Greater London, with the characteristics of a rural village rather than a London suburb, set among Green Belt farmland and mature woodland it wants protected.
On trees, the plan's aims are to maximise the retention of all trees in public space and private gardens and to replant trees lost during or for development on a two-for-one basis.
For front gardens, the plan seeks to keep at least 25% as green space with adequate but not excessive hardstanding, to encourage their reinstatement and to discourage tall front boundaries.
Those aims bear on a new driveway, a higher front wall or a tree removal, so where a buyer has such work in mind, the plan's policies are noted alongside the condition of the house.
Ground and flood
Each of the five sample points inside the boundary is mapped as London Clay Formation, clay, silt and sand, on the BGS bedrock layer at 1:50,000, and no superficial deposit is recorded over any of them.
London Clay changes volume with its moisture content and large trees deepen the drying, so with the neighbourhood plan favouring the retention of garden trees, cracks near big trees are read with the clay the BGS maps in mind.
The Environment Agency Flood Map for Planning shows 1.6% of the conservation area in Flood Zone 3 and 0.5% in Flood Zone 2, both from rivers.
Planning zones take no account of defences and do not describe individual properties, so each address is also looked up on the long-term flood risk service, whose maps add surface water.
Housing in two statistical areas
The two LSOAs overlapping the conservation area, E01001417 and E01001422, hold about 1,550 dwellings in the Valuation Office Agency council tax stock, 2025 edition, every figure there being rounded to the nearest 10.
Detached houses account for 55.5% of them in the VOA property-type table, flats and maisonettes for 24.5%, semi-detached houses for 11.0%, bungalows for 4.5% and terraced houses for 3.9%.
Two periods lead the VOA build-period table, 34.8% from 2000 onwards and 32.9% from 1945-1972, followed by 14.8% from 1919-1939, 6.5% from 1973-1999 and 5.2% each from before 1900 and from 1900-1918.
On the VOA band counts, 44.5% of dwellings are in band H and 36.8% in band G, and bands F to H together hold 91.0%.
Because the LSOAs extend beyond the 13.4 hectares, the VOA figures describe the wider statistical areas, and with over a third of that stock dated 2000 or later, a recent house's completion certificate and any new-home warranty are worth asking for.
Local guides and firm-wide services
Guides in the first list each take one type of instruction for property here, and the second list gives the general page for that service across the practice.
Nearby guides on this site
For the borough, see the Enfield guide. Monken Hadley has its own guide for its separate conservation area, and Cockfosters and Barnet have guides built on study areas of their own.
Questions about the conservation area and the plan
How old is the conservation area designation?
It was designated in 1989, as both the planning.data.gov.uk record and the council's character appraisal state. The appraisal was first published in 2006, revised and approved in February 2015, and amended in September 2016, and it should be read with the management proposals.
Are there listed buildings inside the boundary?
The NHLE dataset returns no list entries inside the 13.4-hectare conservation area. Conservation-area controls still apply to unlisted buildings, and Enfield's Article 4 Directions 2006 document covers the addresses named in its schedule in parts of this area, so external changes are checked with the council first.
What does the neighbourhood plan say about front gardens?
Its aims are to keep at least 25% of front gardens as green space, with adequate but not excessive hardstanding, to encourage front gardens to be reinstated and to discourage tall front boundaries, as set out in the neighbourhood plan.
How does the plan treat trees in private gardens?
The plan aims to maximise the retention of all trees, in public space and private gardens, and to replant trees lost during or for development on a two-for-one basis. On the London Clay mapped here, trees also affect ground movement, so both points matter for a house.
Is the ground under the conservation area clay?
On the map, yes: the BGS bedrock layer shows London Clay Formation at every one of its five sample points, recording no superficial deposits. The map is not site-specific, so cracking, drainage and nearby trees are examined at the property itself.
Is any of the conservation area in a flood zone?
Only small shares: river Flood Zone 3 takes in 1.6% of it and Flood Zone 2 takes in 0.5%, according to the Flood Map for Planning. Because planning zones disregard defences and cannot speak for one house, the GOV.UK long-term service is consulted for the address, surface water included.
How we work on an instruction
Hampstead Chartered Surveyors is a RICS-regulated firm (RICS Regulated Firm No. 923064) working from its registered Hampstead NW3 office. The firm does not claim premises, staff or completed instructions in an individual locality, and it does not treat a neighbourhood name as evidence about a particular building.
An instruction starts with the full address, the decision the client faces and the documents already available, such as leases, drawings, notices or earlier reports. The scope, fee and inspection date are confirmed in writing only after that review, and access to roofs, lofts, basements or common parts is agreed before the visit.
Reports include RICS Level 2 and Level 3 home surveys, building and defect investigations, party wall appointments, reinstatement cost assessments, contract administration and schedules of condition. Each report records what was inspected, what could not be seen and what further investigation the evidence supports.
Public datasets such as the conservation-area register, the National Heritage List for England, British Geological Survey mapping, the Environment Agency flood map and Valuation Office Agency housing statistics describe areas rather than individual properties. They frame questions before an inspection; they never replace it.
Reviewed by Savas Bulduk BSc (Hons) MRICS, Director & Chartered Building Surveyor at Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy. Last reviewed: . Our people · RICS firm record