Architectural Designers in Petersfield

Looking for an Architect in Petersfield?

Around Petersfield, the National Park shapes almost every design decision.

Most people searching here want someone who can design their house well and get planning permission for it. That is what we do, and we have been doing it for 26 years. We are architectural, interior and landscape designers, and we can take a project the whole way: measured survey, design, planning application, building regulations drawings, and construction management if you want the build run as well as drawn.

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Who decides planning applications in Petersfield?

The South Downs National Park Authority is the planning authority, not East Hampshire District Council. East Hampshire’s planners handle much of the casework on the Authority’s behalf under an agency agreement, and most decisions are then taken by the Authority’s Head of Planning under delegated powers. Applications judged to have a significant effect on the Park are called in to the Authority’s own Planning Committee. Over the border in the West Sussex villages, such as Rogate and South Harting, the host council is Chichester District Council, which deals with most applications itself on the Authority’s behalf. Knowing which desk your application will land on changes how it is put together. Source: South Downs National Park Authority, how applications are decided, Chichester District Council, planning in the South Downs.

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Which plans decide it?

Three documents. The South Downs Local Plan, adopted on 2 July 2019 and running to 2033, with a review now under way. The Petersfield Neighbourhood Development Plan 2013 to 2028, made by the Authority on 21 January 2016 and amended in January 2018 and September 2024, which is part of the development plan for the town and so carries real weight. And, in the town centre, the Petersfield Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan, approved on 13 April 2017. Source: South Downs Local Plan, Petersfield Neighbourhood Plan, Petersfield Conservation Area Appraisal (PDF).

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Do you need planning permission for an extension?

Often, yes. Inside a National Park, permitted development rules are narrower. Side extensions, rear extensions of more than one storey, roof extensions such as dormers, and cladding the outside of the house all need planning permission, and the larger single-storey rear extension allowance does not apply. If the house is listed, most alterations also need listed building consent. Source: GOV.UK, permitted development rights for householders.

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What if your home is in the Petersfield Conservation Area?

It is larger than people expect. It was designated on 19 March 1976, extended to take in College Street in 1982, extended again in 1991 to cover Chapel Street, Lavant Street and the Station Road area, and extended once more in 2013. It now runs across seven character areas, from The Square, High Street and Dragon Street out to the Arts and Crafts streets of Heath Road, Weston Road and The Avenue. Around 105 listed entries sit inside it. Almost all are Grade II, with St Peter’s Church and the statue of King William III in The Square at Grade I, and The Old College, 1 and 2 The Square and Goodyers on The Spain among those at Grade II*. Source: Petersfield Conservation Area Appraisal (PDF).

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Which materials will the planners expect?

The conservation area appraisal describes them in detail, and officers read it. Soft red stock brick, locally made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with gauged brick arches. Malmstone, ironstone used as galletting, sandstone and flint. Handmade clay tiles on the steep roofs of older buildings, slate on many of the Victorian ones, and the appraisal actively encourages replacing concrete tiles with slate. Timber sashes and casements and, on the Arts and Crafts houses, glazing bars to the upper sash only. A rear extension in uPVC with machine-made tiles is a harder conversation than it needs to be. Source: Petersfield Conservation Area Appraisal (PDF).

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How do the dark skies rules affect your design?

The whole National Park is covered by Local Plan policy SD8, and the South Downs has been an International Dark Sky Reserve since 2016, so 2026 is its tenth anniversary year. Glazing, rooflights and outside lighting get a level of scrutiny they do not get elsewhere in Hampshire. Large areas of glass facing open countryside, uplighters and unshielded rooflights are worth designing around from the first sketch rather than defending at the end. Source: South Downs National Park Authority, dark night skies.

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Planning information checked by the Alchemy team, November 2026.

Where we work around Petersfield