Wandsworth, Clapham & Battersea.

Which council?

Clapham sits across two boroughs. Clapham Common and Clapham Junction conservation areas are Wandsworth. Clapham Old Town, The Pavement, Grafton Square and Crescent Grove are Lambeth's Clapham conservation area, first designated in 1968. Check which side of the line you are on before you ring anyone.

What the buildings are

Round Clapham Common the surviving eighteenth-century houses are "predominantly built of stock or gault brick with stone and stucco detailing" (113 North Side, 1763, Grade II); Grove Mansions and Broadlands Terrace are 1896. Clapham Junction is Victorian stock-brick terraces with Arding & Hobbs' Edwardian baroque store of 1910. The Shaftesbury Park Estate (1873–77) is two-storey "London stock brick with red and black banded arches" and Gothic detail, built by the Artisans', Labourers' and General Dwellings Company. Battersea Park's streets are "yellow stock brick with red brick used for details". On the Lambeth side, The Pavement has mid-to-late eighteenth-century stock brick and Grafton Square mid-nineteenth-century stucco.

What the council says, in its own words

The Shaftesbury Park appraisal is the best single paragraph on repointing any London council has published: "Walls are generally constructed in London stock brick. Problems are likely to occur where the pointing of brickwork has deteriorated. Re-pointing should be carried out using a lime based mortar, carefully matching the existing type of joint, its texture and colour… The facing brick of the houses is a beautiful natural material of excellent quality which needs very little maintenance and should never be painted, rendered or clad." Clapham Common's appraisal lists "painted elevations" among its negative elements and says that where fronts have been painted, pebbledashed or stone-clad, "removing these elements and reinstating the original improves the conservation area enormously". Clapham Junction's names specific St John's Road buildings harmed by "painting over what should be fair-faced brickwork".

Consent and advice

Painting the outside of an unlisted house is permitted development unless an Article 4 direction removes it; Wandsworth Common (West Side 62–72), Roehampton Village, Shaftesbury Park, Heaver, Latchmere, Totterdown Fields, Dover House and Putney Lower Common are the Article 4 areas, and the council "discourages" painting where bare brick is the common finish. Render or cladding needs permission. Pre-application advice: householder meeting plus written £420, an extra £280 if the building is listed or locally listed (2025–26).

Scaffold on the pavement

From 1 April 2025: a scaffold licence on a single or double frontage up to 10 metres is £213 per 28 days (£1,329.50 for six months); over 10 metres £805 per 28 days. Hoarding is priced the same way. A £51.50 inspection fee applies to each application or renewal.

What this means for your job

• Lime repointing matched to the existing joint is written into council policy on the Shaftesbury estate and is the right answer across the borough's stock brick.
• Paint, render and pebbledash removal is actively encouraged, and sometimes grant-aided.
• Confirm Lambeth or Wandsworth first; the Clapham line runs through the middle of the Old Town.