Wandsworth Council has refused planning permission for the proposed alterations at 34 Charlwood Road, the locally listed Victorian semi-detached house whose application Putney.news reported in March when residents lodged 47 objections.
The decision, signed last week, refused permission on three grounds. The council said the proposed side extension and raised rear outrigger would harm the character of the locally listed building, the streetscene, and the Charlwood Road and Lifford Street Conservation Area. A proposed 1.7-metre boundary wall and the loss of the vegetated front garden would cause the same harm. A third ground flagged that the application had not shown the basement works would avoid increasing flood risk.
The council’s decision notice was direct about why the application could not be rescued: “The principle of the proposal is clearly contrary to our statutory policies and negotiation could not overcome the reasons for refusal.”
The application drew 53 responses during consultation, 47 of which were objections. In March, we reported how the council’s own conservation area appraisal explicitly discourages side extensions on this section of the street, and how the proposal would fill the open gap between nos. 34 and 32, a passage the officer described as part of “the characteristic openness of the semi-detached pair.”
The applicant had cited two nearby properties, nos. 44 and 48, as precedent for a side extension. The officer rejected that argument: both examples replaced existing structures and “should not be considered appropriate precedent for a side extension in this location.” No house in this section of Charlwood Road, east of Hotham Primary School, has had a comparable extension, the officer found.
Not everything in the application was refused. The rear dormer, rear terrace, and principle of further basement excavation were all found acceptable. The refusal is specific to the side extension, the raised rear outrigger, the boundary wall, and the loss of the front garden.
The applicant has 12 weeks to appeal. The deadline is 7 July 2026.
34 Charlwood Road is the second story in Putney.news’s Planning Investigations series, which began with the 103B Clarendon Drive application in March.
