Decade Long Battle Over Barclays Premises Ends

Developer wins permission to build flats over ground floor unit

The branch will continue to operate despite the planned conversion of the office space above

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August 13, 2026

A developer has won a decade-long battle with Ealing Council to convert offices above a Barclays Bank into flats.

Located near Ealing Broadway station, the former Barclays office space on the upper floors at 52-53 The Broadway, is set to become six flats. In November 2016, a prior planning application to convert this same first-floor space into residential was refused by Ealing Council.

The council argued that the space lawfully fell under community and/or medical class, rather than the class of offices, making it ineligible to be converted into residential space at the time. To overcome this, the applicant provided evidence of a long-term tenancy by Barclays Bank, which occupied the first-floor offices alongside its ground-floor retail branch.

Planning documents proved continuous, lawful commercial office (Class E) use by Barclays since at least 2007. As the office use had been uninterrupted for nearly two decades, the council accepted that its 2016 objection was no longer valid.

The council’s historic understanding that the first floor was reserved for community/medical (Class D1) use stemmed from a nearby planning permission on the same block. To win approval in 2026, the developer’s planning team had to legally separate their site from this neighbouring unit.

Under new permitted development rights introduced in 2021, commercial buildings can be converted to housing if they have been in lawful commercial use for a continuous period of at least two years.

Having been granted prior planning approval on August 5, 2026, the floor will now be converted into four studios, a one-bedroom, and a two-bedroom flat. The development will be car-free, instead offering 10 secure bicycle parking spaces.

There are no changes expected to the operation of Barclays Bank from the ground floor.

Philip James Lynch - Local Democracy Reporter