Where Leicester keeps its garages
Walk down most Victorian streets in Leicester and you won't see a garage at all. The terraces of the 1880s and 1890s went up long before anyone needed somewhere to put a car. Where garages were added later, they often went out the back.
The council's statement of character for Ashleigh Road, on the west side of the city, describes many single garages built off the rear service road between Westleigh Road and Ashleigh Road, and a handful of original brick coach houses. A converted coach house can make a lovely studio, but it is a separate building from the house, and that changes the questions you need to ask.
The garages most people here convert belong to later houses. Stoneygate's draft appraisal describes large inter-war detached houses and semis, and Aylestone has its own run of inter-war semis. Further out, Beaumont Leys and Hamilton are later estates. Ashton Green, the newest, is built under an outline permission from December 2010 that came with conditions. On any house that new, read the conditions on your own decision notice before you order anything.
Picking a conversion for the house you've got
Ordered for Leicester's housing. Each links to a longer guide.
Integral. Built into the house, so the work is internal, but a condition keeping the garage for parking still applies. Check your decision notice.
Single. Where the garage is a later brick add-on beside an older semi, expect new footings under the wall that replaces the door.
Read our full guide: Single Garage Conversion: What Is Involved and What to Budget For →
Home office. It stays part of the house, so planning seldom gets involved, though building control usually does.
Bedroom. Fine for your own family. Letting the room to an unrelated sharer is a different question in the parts of the city under the HMO directions.
Utility or playroom. Keeping the old door and fitting out the back half avoids touching the front at all. On an Article 4 street that can be the difference between an application and none.
Detached. A gym, workshop or study used with the house is household use. If the building is to work as a separate home, the Planning Portal treats that as a change of use needing permission.
Double. Found on the larger detached houses in Stoneygate and the newer estates. Converting one bay and keeping the other for the car leaves the parking question alone.
Gym or studio. Where your garage shares a wall with next door's, line that wall for sound before the weights arrive.
Planning and building control. Two separate permissions. Planning turns on conditions and Article 4, while Building Regulations approval is needed for nearly any room you'll use, whatever the planners say.
Cost and value. No prices here. Footings, the floor and whatever you need to do at the front for parking move a Leicester quote more than the finish does.
The car still needs somewhere to go
Lose the garage and you may want to park on the front. That needs a dropped kerb, and the city council sets its own rules for one.
Its guidance says the hardstanding should normally be at least 4.5 metres long and 2.4 metres wide for a 3 metre kerb, laid at right angles to the road. Anything between 4 and 4.5 metres is looked at case by case and can be turned down. Short front gardens don't always pass.
Planning permission may be needed too, for example on an A, B or C road or in a conservation area. The council prefers permeable materials, and gravel needs a solid strip at least 500mm wide along the pavement edge. Settle this before the garage door comes out.
Streets where the front of the house is controlled
Swapping a garage door for a window and a stretch of wall is an alteration to the outside. Across most of Leicester that sits inside permitted development. On some streets it doesn't.
Eleven conservation areas have Article 4 directions, and the council lists new windows or doors, concreting gardens and knocking down front walls for parking among the things they can control. Ashleigh Road is the bluntest. Its 1991 direction was served on every house, and the council says any external alteration to those houses now needs planning permission. Stoneygate's appraisal links car ownership to lost front gardens, and its direction followed in 2007. The Evington Footpath direction was proposed to cover the whole area rather than just the street side.
Knighton Village's 2024 direction takes in Class A alterations, hard surfaces and front walls and gates, which is most of a garage conversion in one list. If you're in any of these areas, ask the planners before you draw anything.
Before the door comes out
The Planning Portal says a new wall in the old door opening may need its own foundation, and the floor, walls and ventilation all need looking at. If your garage floor sits a step below the hall, expect it to be rebuilt with insulation and a damp proof membrane.
Radon depends on the address. Look yours up on the UKradon map, and if the square is in a higher band, building control will want protection in the new floor.
If you're close to the Willow Brook in Belgrave or North Evington, think twice about a ground-floor bedroom. Keep the beds upstairs and give the garage a use you can clear in a hurry.
Sign-off comes from Leicester City Building Control, the council's own team, or a private approved inspector. Keep the completion certificate for when you sell.
Where these facts come from
- Leicester City Council: apply for a dropped kerb
- Leicester City Council: Article 4 directions
- Ashleigh Road Conservation Area statement of character
- Aylestone Village Conservation Area statement of character
- Stoneygate Conservation Area character appraisal (draft)
- Knighton Village Article 4 direction (2024)
- Leicester City Council: Ashton Green
- Leicester City Council: building control
- Planning Portal: garage conversion planning permission
- Planning Portal: building regulations for garage conversions
- Planning Portal: detached garage as self-contained living space
- Leicester Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (2022)
- LABC: radon and building work
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Questions people in Leicester ask
We bought a new house at Ashton Green. Can we convert the integral garage?
Possibly, but read your planning conditions first. The estate has an outline permission from 2010 with conditions covering design codes and parking. Ask the council for the decision notice that covers your plot and check whether it keeps the garage for a car.
Our Ashleigh Road house has an old brick garage at the back. Can we put a window in it?
Talk to the planners first. The 1991 direction there means any external alteration to the houses needs permission. Whether that reaches a separate garage behind the house is a question to put to the council before you order joinery.
If we convert the garage in Stoneygate, can we pave the front garden for parking?
Not without asking. Stoneygate has an Article 4 direction, and the council's dropped kerb guidance says planning permission may be needed in a conservation area.
We live in Birstall, just outside the city. Does Leicester City Building Control cover us?
No. Birstall is in a Leicestershire district, not the city, so planning and building control come from that district. The city team only covers Leicester itself.