New Plan to Demolish Mews Cottages in Ealing Town Centre

Proposal is to build office space near Dickens Yard

Springbridge Mews comprises a row of Victorian cottages now used as business premises

April 2, 2026

A new proposal has been submitted to redevelop a row of Victorian cottages behind the Springbridge Road multi-storey car park.

The mews, which is close to Dickens Yard and Ealing Broadway Station, is currently occupied by a cluster of small commercial units with a three-storey workspace building. The replacement proposal (261188FUL), designed by Redmond Ivie Architects, would see the demolition of the existing two-storey L-shaped structure at 6–16 Springbridge Mews and its replacement with a contemporary commercial building offering around 445 square metres of flexible workspace for small and emerging businesses.

The site sits within the Ealing Town Centre Conservation Area, and the heritage impact of any redevelopment has been central to previous planning decisions. The applicant argues that the current buildings, which originated as Victorian cottages but have been heavily altered over time, are in poor condition and make only a limited contribution to the character of the conservation area. This view has been partly endorsed by an earlier appeal decision on a previous application for the site that also noted the extent of past alterations.

This latest proposal follows a series of earlier applications, including a 2025 scheme that was refused and subsequently dismissed at appeal. The Planning Inspectorate concluded that the previous four-storey design would fail to preserve the character or appearance of the conservation area and would worsen the sense of enclosure along the narrow pedestrian route that runs beside the site. The Inspector accepted that a contemporary design could be appropriate in this part of the conservation area, but found that the scale, height and relationship with the footpath were unacceptable.

In response, the new scheme has been scaled back to three storeys, with stepped massing and a retained L-shaped footprint intended to echo the historic pattern of development on the site. The architects say the reduced height brings the building closer to the scale of neighbouring mews properties and helps it sit more comfortably within the streetscape. They also argue that increased glazing and active frontage along the pedestrian route will improve natural surveillance and create a safer, more attractive environment, even though the building still sits directly on the boundary and will inevitably increase enclosure to some degree. A previous suggestion that the footpath could be widened through a land transfer was explored in earlier negotiations but ultimately ruled out because the land lies outside the applicant’s ownership.

The heritage statement accompanying the application states that the proposal would not affect key views of Christ the Saviour Church, the nearest listed building, and that the new design would replace what the applicant describes as “low-quality” structures with a more coherent and durable building. The planning balance therefore hinges on whether the council agrees that the public benefits of regenerating an underused site and providing new workspace outweigh the heritage harm caused by demolition.

The developer's visualisation of the replacement three storey office building

If approved, the development would bring new commercial space to one of the borough’s most accessible locations, a short walk from Ealing Broadway Station and within the area identified in the London Plan and Ealing’s emerging Local Plan as suitable for increased employment floorspace.

Anyone wishing to comment on application 261188FUL may do so via the Ealing Council planning portal at pam.ealing.gov.uk before 21 April 2026.