Curved bays and a door beside the hall
Croydon built garages into houses early. The council's draft character typology from 2015 describes the planned estates of semis put up mostly between 1925 and 1945, at Ballards, Spring Park, Elmers End, Croham Heights, Rickman Hill and Covington Way among others, as houses with curved bays and integral garages reached by a small front driveway. Some have a detached garage set back from the road instead.
Many of the garages converted here are close to a hundred years old, built to keep a car dry rather than a person warm. That doesn't stop the job. Have the builder check how the floor meets the damp course in the house walls before pricing.
Since 1950 it varies. On Park Hill, Forestdale and Fieldway the typology finds garages built into compact houses or grouped in separate blocks. The big detached houses of the Whitgift Estate and West Purley usually have one at the side. Much of Victorian Croydon never had garages, and front gardens in Broad Green and Addiscombe were paved for cars instead.
What the council thinks a usable garage is
Croydon's highway crossover guidelines give one number worth knowing. New or rebuilt garages should measure 3 metres by 6 metres, clear inside, so a car fits and its doors open. Measure yours. If it falls short, it was never much of a parking space.
The drive matters more. The same guidelines want a car-standing area at least 2.4 metres wide and 4.8 metres long, so a parked car doesn't hang over the pavement. Have that already, and you keep a space when the garage becomes a room. A new or wider dropped kerb needs council approval, plus planning permission on a classified road or in a conservation area. In a controlled parking zone, changes to the bay outside are charged to you.
Here is how each type fits.
Integral garage. The usual Croydon case, from the 1930s semis of Spring Park and Rickman Hill to the compact houses at Forestdale.
Single garage. Where the door comes out, a new wall goes in, often with a window to match the bay next to it. Expect to be asked what it stands on, since a new foundation may be needed under the old opening.
Read our full guide: Single Garage Conversion: What Is Involved and What to Budget For →
Home office. Working from a room off the hall means you can shut the door on it at six. Heated and used daily, it counts as a habitable room for building regulations.
Bedroom. Escape in a fire gets checked. On the low roads by the Norbury Brook, or along Brighton Road where the land is Flood Zone 3a, think twice about anyone sleeping at the lowest floor level in the house.
Utility or playroom. Handy where the kitchen is small, and it lets you keep the garage door and the look of a matching pair.
Double garage. Mostly found on the larger detached plots in Kenley, Coulsdon and Shirley Hills, where garages often take two cars. Converting one half and keeping the other for storage is a sensible split.
Detached garage. Kept as a household workshop, a garage at the side or back usually needs no planning permission. Fitting it out as a separate home is different and may need permission whatever the works. In a shared block, confirm what you own first.
Gym or studio. Where two integral garages sit back to back on a pair of semis, the wall between them carries noise. Line it before the rubber floor goes down.
Planning and building control. Internal work on a house rarely needs planning permission. Flats get no permitted development, so a flat's garage is different, and so is Chatsworth Road. Building regulations approval is needed either way.
Cost and value. No prices here. A 1930s slab that needs replacing or a new dropped kerb can change the figure a lot, so get three builders to look at the garage itself.
Front gardens in the conservation areas
Two appraisals use the same words. On Chatsworth Road and in The Waldrons, the council says an increase in demand for parking will not be accepted as a reason for losing a front garden, and it asks owners to avoid turning gardens into car parks. Lose the garage space, and you may not be able to replace it at the front.
Chatsworth Road has an Article 4 direction too, in force since 21 January 2016. It removes the right to alter a house there without permission, which takes in swapping a garage door for a window and wall. The same direction covers new hard surfaces and new access to the road. The one at The Waldrons, for numbers 5 to 23, covers hard surfaces and front boundaries.
Croham Manor Road's appraisal asks for permeable surfacing for any parking and for boundary walls to stay. In any conservation area, ask the council before changing the front of the house.
Two last checks. New rooms in a radon-affected area may need radon protection, so look up your address on the UKradon map. Building control is Croydon Building Control at the council, unless your builder uses a private firm, and the completion certificate is what a buyer's solicitor will ask to see.
Where these facts come from
- Croydon Council: character typology (draft, 2015)
- Croydon Council: Borough Character Appraisal
- Croydon Council: Highway Vehicle Crossover Guidelines
- Croydon Council: dropped kerbs and crossovers
- Croydon Council: Chatsworth Road appraisal and management plan
- Croydon Council: The Waldrons appraisal and management plan
- Croydon Council: Croham Manor Road appraisal and management plan
- Croydon Council: flood risk information (October 2020)
- Planning Portal: garage conversion planning permission
- Planning Portal: building regulations for garage conversions
- Planning Portal: converting a garage into a workshop
- LABC: do I need to consider radon?
- Croydon Council: contact building control
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Questions people in Croydon ask
Our 1930s semi in Spring Park has an integral garage. Is there likely to be a planning condition stopping a conversion?
The Planning Portal says conversion rights are sometimes removed, mostly on newer housing developments. If you have any doubt, ask the council for the original decision notice. You'll still need building regulations approval.
Our garage is narrower than 3 metres. Does that matter?
Not for the conversion itself. The 3 by 6 metre figure in Croydon's crossover guidelines is for new or rebuilt garages, so it tells you what the council regards as room for a car today.
We live on Chatsworth Road. Can we turn the garage into a study?
Inside work may be fine, but the Article 4 direction means swapping the garage door for a window needs planning permission. So does paving more of the front garden, which the appraisal discourages.
If we convert the garage, can we get a wider dropped kerb outside?
You can apply to the council. It will want a standing area at least 2.4 by 4.8 metres, and it may refuse if a street tree would have to go. On a classified road or in a conservation area you need planning permission as well.