Most front garden bike sheds in London need planning permission, and anything that replaces a front wall almost always does. This page explains which rules apply to your house, what the application involves, and what we do about it so that you do not have to.
Do you need planning permission for a bike shed in a front garden?
Usually, yes. Permitted development rights let most householders put a shed in a rear garden without an application, but they do not extend to structures in front of the principal elevation of the house. A bike store, bin store or any other outbuilding that sits between your front door and the street is therefore treated as development that needs consent, however small it is.
The exceptions are narrow. A very low structure on a frontage that does not face a highway, or one that sits behind the building line down a side return, can sometimes qualify. Conservation areas, Article 4 directions and listed buildings remove even those exceptions. We check which applies to your address at the survey and tell you before you commit to anything.
Side returns and rear gardens
A Mews Return in a side return or against a rear garden wall is the unit most likely to fall within permitted development, because it sits behind the front of the house. Height matters: the general limit near a boundary is 2.5 metres, and Mews Return is 1.45 metres including its planted trough, so it is comfortably inside. Conservation areas can still require an application, and we will say so if yours does.
Replacing the front wall
Taking out a boundary wall on the highway edge and putting a Mews Boundary storage run in its place is a change to the street scene, so it is always a planning application. In practice this is the application that wins most easily, especially with the optional sedum roof, which reads as a hedge from the pavement: the bikes and bins disappear from view, and planning officers generally prefer that to a wall with bins in front of it. Expect eight to ten weeks for a decision.
What the application involves
- Scaled drawings of the unit on your frontage, in plan and elevation
- A location plan and a short design statement
- The council’s statutory fee, which we pay on your behalf
- Neighbour consultation, which the council runs; it helps to have spoken to next door first
- A decision within eight weeks for a householder application, ten to twelve in some boroughs
We prepare and manage the whole application for a fixed fee that includes the council’s own charge. Submitting reserves your slot in the production schedule, so waiting for a decision does not cost you a place in the queue, and the 50% deposit is taken when you confirm your order.
What happens if you skip it
Plenty of front garden bike sheds in London went up without permission and nothing has happened. That is a risk rather than a rule: a neighbour complaint or a sale of the house can trigger an enforcement notice, and a retrospective application is harder to win than a normal one.
Which London boroughs are strict?
Every borough applies the same national rules, but conservation-area coverage varies enormously: Kensington and Chelsea, Islington, Camden, Hackney and Richmond have large conservation areas where front garden structures are looked at closely, while many outer boroughs do not. A planted sedum roof is the single feature that makes the difference in a conservation area. Every unit comes with a 2mm steel roof as standard, and sedum is an option on all of them, including Mews Boundary. If you are in a conservation area, or replacing a front wall, we highly recommend it.
Start with a free survey
Send us a photo of your frontage and your postcode and we will tell you, before anyone visits, whether an application is likely. Book a free survey inside the M25, and nothing is paid until you have seen drawings. Our planning service is only available with a Cycle Mews unit; we do not offer it as a standalone service.