Brighton and Hove runs from the Regency seafronts of Kemp Town and Brunswick Town to the large inter-war houses of Hove Park, Tongdean and Withdean below the Downs, and Patcham further north, with Portslade (BN41) to the west. What you can fit depends on which part you are in: some streets sit in conservation areas with Article 4 directions that control new windows and doors on the front, while most houses sit outside them, where new windows and doors of similar appearance usually need no planning permission.
Which parts of Brighton and Hove are conservation areas?
Brighton & Hove City Council lists 34 conservation areas across the city. In Brighton they include Kemp Town, North Laine, Preston Park, Round Hill, West Hill, Queen’s Park, Patcham and Ovingdean; in Hove, Brunswick Town, Pembroke & Princes, Sackville Gardens, Tongdean, Woodland Drive, The Avenues and Old Hove; and in Portslade, the Old Village. The council publishes a street directory, so you can check your own address before you design anything.
The point of checking first is simple. In a conservation area the council can ask for a design that matches the original window. With an Article 4 direction on top, even a like-for-like change in a different material needs consent. Outside those areas, a house can usually have new windows and doors of similar appearance without planning permission at all.
| Area | Conservation area since | Article 4 direction | What it means for windows and doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brunswick Town (seafront) | 1969, extended 1978 | Yes, five directions, including Brunswick comprehensive (A4/25) and Adelaide Crescent and Palmeira Square (A4/34) | More than 550 listed properties. Timber sliding sashes with glazing bars are the character. Front windows on listed terraces are a timber joinery job, not an aluminium one. |
| Pembroke & Princes | 1989 | Yes, A4/28 (1994), covering all property | Replacement windows and doors usually need consent; the council says aluminium or plastic replacements are generally not acceptable. |
| Sackville Gardens | 1997 | None on the council’s published list | Victorian and Edwardian villas. Street-facing windows should match the originals; rear and side elevations have more freedom. |
| Tongdean | 1989, extended 2008 | None on the council’s published list | Large individually designed houses, mostly 1920s and 1930s Tudorbethan. A house can usually change windows of similar appearance without planning permission. |
| Woodland Drive (nos. 56 to 152 even) | 1996 | None on the council’s published list | A 1930s mock-Tudor road whose character statement names black-painted metal casement windows as part of its look. |
| Most of north Hove (BN3) outside these areas | Not designated | No | New windows and doors of similar appearance on a house do not usually need planning permission. |
Can you fit aluminium windows in Brunswick Town?
Usually not on the front of a listed Brunswick Town terrace. The council’s 2022 character statement describes two, four and six-pane timber sliding sashes with fine glazing bars, five Article 4 directions and more than 550 listed buildings. A front sash there should be repaired or replaced in timber, like for like.
We would say the same to anyone who asked. Brunswick Town was laid out by Charles Augustin Busby from 1824, and its terraces are listed for exactly the joinery an aluminium sash would replace. The council’s own guidance favours repair, slim double glazing in existing sashes and secondary glazing on historic windows. Where we can help on the seafront is behind the facade: an unlisted mews building, a new rear extension or internal glazed screens, all of which still need the council’s view first on a listed building.
Do you need planning permission for new windows in a Brighton or Hove conservation area?
It depends on the building and the street. A single house in a conservation area without an Article 4 direction can usually replace windows of similar appearance without permission. Flats, listed buildings and houses under an Article 4 direction, such as all of Pembroke & Princes, need consent, and the council expects street-facing windows to match the originals.
Brighton & Hove’s guidance for unlisted buildings in conservation areas is specific. On an elevation that faces a street or public open space, the replacement should match the original window’s material, style, pattern and joinery sections, which often means slim double glazing of 12 to 14mm. On rear and side elevations not clearly visible from the public realm, the council takes a more relaxed view. In Pembroke & Princes it goes further: its Article 4 information sheet says that changing a sliding sash to a casement or tilt-and-turn window, or removing glazing bars, needs consent.
So most of the slim aluminium work we do in conservation areas is at the back of the house: a new rear extension, a garden room, a kitchen opened onto the garden. That is where the sightlines matter most and where the rules allow a modern answer. If you are unsure, the council runs a pre-application advice service, and we are happy to send drawings and specifications for it.
What suits a 1930s mock-Tudor house in Hove?
Slim black frames. The council’s statement for the Woodland Drive conservation area describes black-and-white timbering, plum brick and black-painted metal casements with leaded lights. Black steel-look aluminium windows and doors keep that palette and thin profile while giving modern double glazing, so a new opening reads as part of the house.
The council’s statements describe Woodland Drive as a 1930s mock-Tudor road and Tongdean as mostly 1920s and 1930s houses, individually built on generous plots. Their owners tend to want two things at once: a big, light kitchen extension at the back, and a front that still looks like 1935. A white frame or a chunky casement fights both. Black, slim and regular wins both.
On one 1930s mock-Tudor house in north Hove, we replaced the original steel windows with black steel-look aluminium (Smart Alitherm Heritage), keeping the slim metal look the house was built with, and fitted a four-panel Cortizo COR Vision sliding door across the width of a new single-storey extension. COR Vision’s interlock sightline is 20mm, so the garden reads as one view rather than four panes.
What do the Article 4 directions in Brighton cover?
They differ by area. In Preston Park and North Laine the directions cover the front of a house, so street-facing windows and doors need permission while the rear can still change. In Patcham and Ovingdean, altering windows and doors needs permission, though like-for-like replacement does not. On the Kemp Town estate a direction even sets the paint colour.
| Area | Article 4 direction | What it means for windows and doors |
|---|---|---|
| Kemp Town estate (BN2) | A4/02, covering Chichester Terrace, Lewes Crescent, Sussex Square and Arundel Terrace | Sets the paint scheme on elevations seen from Marine Parade, the gardens and Eastern Road: window frames, sashes and glazing bars white, doors in a gloss finish. The front is a timber job. |
| North Laine (BN1) | A4/19, in force from 24 March 2005 | Covers front facades and roofs facing a street or open space. Rear windows and doors of a single house can still be changed without permission, unless the back faces a street. |
| Preston Park (BN1) | A4/20, in force from 11 January 2001 | Front elevations only. Changing a front window or door needs permission unless it is like for like in the same material; the rear is free. |
| Patcham (BN1) and Ovingdean (BN2) | A4/46 and A4/48, both confirmed 24 April 2012 | Altering windows, doors or roof coverings on a house in the conservation area needs permission; a like-for-like replacement does not. |
| Portslade Old Village (BN41) | A4/45 | Check the council’s information sheet before you design; most of Portslade sits outside the conservation area. |
Most of the city’s 1930s and post-war roads in Patcham, Ovingdean, Woodingdean and Hollingbury sit outside those boundaries, which is where we do most of our Brighton work: steel-look doors on a rear extension, and slim sliding doors that open a kitchen to the garden and the Downs beyond. The test is the same as in Hove. Check whether your house is in a conservation area, then whether the change faces the street.
Steel-look or slim sliding doors: which works better in a Brighton or Hove home?
Steel-look suits an opening you want to frame: a garden door, a bay or a side return in a period house. Slim sliding doors suit a wide opening you want to disappear, usually across a new extension. Many projects here use both, steel-look in the old house and sliding glass in the new part.
| Steel-look doors and windows | Slim sliding doors (Cortizo COR Vision) | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Period rooms, bays, side returns, internal screens | Wide openings across new rear extensions |
| Look | Black frames divided by glazing bars, like the metal windows of the 1920s and 1930s | Large clear panes, 20mm interlock sightline |
| Opening | Hinged doors, casements, fixed top lights and sidelights | 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 sliding panels; corner opening at 90° without a post |
| Largest panel | Sized to the opening; tall doors take a fanlight above | Up to 2,500mm wide by 3,000mm high per panel (Cortizo technical file) |
| Fits a conservation-area front? | Only where the council accepts it; ask before you design | Rarely; a rear-elevation choice |
Does slim aluminium glazing cope with Brighton and Hove’s sea air and wind?
Yes, if the system is tested for it. Cortizo’s COR Vision sliding door reaches wind resistance Class C5 and watertightness Class 7A in the manufacturer’s test, and its powder coat is applied to the Qualicoat standard at over 60 microns. Near the seafront, plan for regular rinsing of the frames to clear salt.
The seafront from Kemp Town to Hove faces the Channel with nothing in between, and the higher roads in Tongdean, Patcham and Ovingdean take the wind off the Downs. Those test classes come from Cortizo’s own technical file, measured on a reference sample with one sliding panel and one fixed light. A big panel in an exposed spot still needs the right glass and fixings for its size, which is what the survey is for. We fabricate COR Vision in our own factory in Slough, so the person who measures your opening can talk to the person who builds the frame.
Where we install in Brighton and Hove
We fabricate in Slough and install nationwide. These are the parts of Brighton and Hove where our recent work sits.
Patcham (BN1)
Inter-war and post-war family houses on the slopes north of the city. Our work here includes black steel-look doors with sidelights across a new rear extension, with a matching steel-look internal screen, and aluminium bi-fold doors opening a kitchen onto the garden.
Ovingdean (BN2)
Houses on the edge of the Downs above the sea. On one we fitted a Cortizo COR Vision sliding door across a new extension, with bi-folds and aluminium windows to the rest of the house, so the room looks straight out to the hills.
Kemp Town (BN2)
Regency and Victorian terraces, much of them in conservation areas, where the street fronts usually stay in timber. Our work here was at the back of a terraced house: a steel-look aluminium door and windows opening the kitchen to the space behind it, out of sight of the street.
Tongdean, Withdean and the Tudor-revival roads (BN3, BN1)
The Tudor-revival roads below the Downs, where the conservation area statements describe half-timbered gables, clay-tile roofs and black metal casements. Withdean, across the valley in BN1, has the same large detached houses on generous plots. Our work here pairs black aluminium windows in the old house with slim sliding doors in new rear extensions.
Hove Park and north Hove (BN3)
Hove Park has the highest house prices of any ward in the city. Most of its large family houses sit outside the conservation areas, so a house can usually change its doors and windows of similar appearance without planning permission. Steel-look doors into gardens and side returns are the common request, along with internal glazed doors between hall and kitchen.
Sackville Gardens and west Hove (BN3)
Wide, straight Victorian and Edwardian roads running down to the sea, inside the Sackville Gardens conservation area. The statement notes a mix of stucco terraces, red-brick Queen Anne revival houses and yellow gault brick villas. On one house here we fitted Smart VS600 aluminium sash windows and COR Vision sliding doors to a new rear extension, where the sash keeps the Victorian proportion and the slider opens the kitchen to the garden.
Pembroke & Princes (BN3)
The council describes this as the only large group of Victorian and Edwardian red-brick development in Hove, with an Article 4 direction over every property. Our work here was aluminium doors and windows for new building at the rear, not the street-facing windows, which the direction protects.
Which aluminium sash window suits a Victorian villa in Hove?
Where aluminium is allowed, the Smart VS600. Its sash joints are square cut and it has a deep bottom rail, which is how a timber sash is built and what a conservation officer looks for. It is rated at 1.6 W/m²K, WER band C. On a listed building or a protected front, timber is still the answer.
The VS600 suits the yellow-brick and red-brick villas of west Hove and Pembroke & Princes (BN3) at the back and side, and the many unlisted Victorian houses outside the conservation areas. It tilts in for cleaning from inside, which matters on upper floors with no easy ladder access.
Planning windows or doors for a Brighton or Hove home?
Send us your drawings or a few photos of the openings. We will tell you what suits the house and the street, and what the council is likely to expect.
Sources: Brighton & Hove City Council conservation area pages and character statements for Brunswick Town (2022), Pembroke & Princes, Sackville Gardens, Tongdean and Woodland Drive; the council’s Article 4 directions list and information sheets for Kemp Town (A4/02), North Laine (A4/19), Preston Park (A4/20), Patcham (A4/46) and Ovingdean (A4/48) and the Pembroke & Princes Article 4 information sheet (A4/28); the council’s guidance on new and replacement windows in conservation areas; Planning Portal, doors and windows; Cortizo COR Vision technical file.
