Flats to Be Built Above Featherstone Road Shoe Shop

The recently-approved development will retain the Modern Footwear shop but add four new flats above it while the store will remain open. The site at 5 Featherstone Road in Southall has been used for the sale and repair of boots and shoes for several decades under different ownership.

The new development will create four residential flats that the applicant says substantially exceed the London Plan’s minimum space requirements. It will retain the ground floor, demolish the existing single flat on the first floor, and add three new floors to create a new four-storey building.

There will be three two-bedroom flats in which each has been designed to house three occupants. There are also plans for a one bedroom ‘duplex flat’ spread over two storeys and designed for two occupants.

Every unit features a private balcony. Despite a few of these balconies falling short of minimum standalone requirements, the applicant claims this is forfeit by a communal rooftop terrace which will provide residents with 33.4 sqm of shared outdoor space.

The building has been designed to be modern whilst maintaining the history and local context of the area, they say.

Part of the design is inspired by the Edwardian former HSBC bank which was built in 1903 and the Gurdwara Guru Nanan Darbar, built in 2018.

It will be a car-free development due to the good public transport links, with the Southall Elizabeth line only a seven-minute walk away. It will be within a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ), meaning that no car parking spaces are provided, and residents will not be able to apply for permits.

To encourage sustainable travel, the ground floor features a secure bike store with eight cycle parking spaces for residents. There will also be one external visitor cycle parking space for customers visiting Modern Footwear.

The building will have 15 roof-mounted solar panels alongside electric boilers.

The application was granted in March 2026 with a number of conditions. These include requiring work to begin within three years and that exterior materials must be approved by the council before work can commence.

Additionally, sound insulation will have to be implemented to protect residents from street noise and the ground floor retail unit.

In recent years there have been multiple attempts to intensify the site’s residential capacity, including a 2017 approval to create four flats – this was withdrawn. Other plans seeking permission to build up to 13 flats were rejected.

Philip James Lynch - Local Democracy Reporter

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