SO22 and SO23

Renovation and building work in Winchester.

Winchester is the most planning-sensitive part of the patch. The work is often excellent, but it is rarely the kind of job you can start next month — the consents come first, which is precisely why the design and planning service exists.

Winchester at a glance
PostcodesSO22 and SO23
Planning authorityWinchester City Council
From RomseyAbout 11 miles from Romsey
01The housing
here

What we’re usually working with.

The centre and the streets around the Cathedral are largely historic and heavily listed. St Cross, Hyde and Fulflood are Victorian villas and terraces, many of them substantial. Weeke, Harestock and Badger Farm are twentieth-century, with the bigger plots and the more straightforward construction that make extensions and loft conversions practical.

Planning in Winchester

Winchester City Council is the planning authority, and it takes design seriously. There are extensive conservation areas and a very high concentration of listed buildings in and around the centre. Listed building consent is a separate application from planning permission and is needed for internal work as well as external — including things people are often surprised by, such as replacing internal doors or altering a fireplace.

Planning notes are general, not advice on your house. Constraints turn on the specific property and change over time. Confirm anything that matters with Winchester City Council before committing — or book a survey and it gets checked as part of the design work.

02Worth
knowing

Three things that change the job here.

Listed buildings

Work to a listed building without consent is a criminal offence, not just a planning problem. Anything of that kind starts with drawings and an application, and no work is quoted as though it were a straightforward refit.

Conservation areas

Permitted development rights are commonly withdrawn, so rooflights, dormers, cladding and window replacements that would be automatic elsewhere need an application here.

The suburbs are a different job entirely

Weeke, Harestock and Badger Farm are ordinary postwar housing with none of the above, and a rear extension there is priced like any other rear extension.

03Common
jobs

What people in Winchester usually ask for.

  • Design and planning applications, including listed building consent
  • Loft conversions with dormers on twentieth-century housing
  • Sympathetic kitchen and bathroom refits in period property
  • Structural openings with calculations
04Nearby

Also working in

Somewhere else? The list above is the usual patch, not a boundary. Send the job through or ring 07343 014 235 and he’ll tell you straight whether he can get to you.