What's protected where you live

Type a Guildford postcode and see what's recorded there — conservation area, green belt, Surrey Hills, Thames Basin Heaths, listed buildings nearby — and what each one means for building work.

[data-tool-body-wait]{display:none}This part of the page needs JavaScript, and this browser isn’t running it. Everything else on the page still reads.

This still hasn’t loaded. It looks stuck rather than slow, so reloading is worth a try now.

Reload the page Other tools for Guildford

About these tools

Town Tools builds free, public tools for Guildford and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.

Check a place

Pick a part of town, or type a postcode. The postcode is used once to find the spot and is never stored, logged, or put in a link.

A part of town

The cobbled High Street under the castle.

What’s recorded at Town centre

Designations recorded here

Conservation area
- Guildford Town Centre · Reference 8645
An area the council has designated for its special architectural or historic character. Permitted development rights are tighter than elsewhere — cladding, some extensions, roof alterations and satellite dishes that would need no application on an ordinary street can need one here — and demolition needs consent. Trees are covered too: you must give the council six weeks' notice before cutting or pruning one, whether or not it has a preservation order.
Who holds the rules: Guildford Borough Council: conservation areas
Green belt
Not recorded on the national planning data platform for this point.
Who holds the rules: GOV.UK: green belt planning guidance
National Landscape (Surrey Hills)
Not recorded on the national planning data platform for this point.
Who holds the rules: Surrey Hills National Landscape: planning
Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area
Not recorded on the national planning data platform for this point.
Who holds the rules: Guildford Borough Council: Thames Basin Heaths SPA
Special Area of Conservation
Not recorded on the national planning data platform for this point.
Who holds the rules: Natural England: designated sites
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Not recorded on the national planning data platform for this point.
Who holds the rules: Natural England: designated sites
Ancient woodland
Not recorded on the national planning data platform for this point.
Who holds the rules: GOV.UK: ancient woodland and veteran trees in planning decisions
Scheduled monument
Not recorded on the national planning data platform for this point.
Who holds the rules: Historic England: scheduled monument consent
Registered park or garden
Not recorded on the national planning data platform for this point.
Who holds the rules: Historic England: registered parks and gardens
Air quality management area
Not recorded on the national planning data platform for this point.
Who holds the rules: Guildford Borough Council: air quality
Article 4 direction
Not recorded on the national planning data platform for this point.
Guildford Borough Council has not published any article 4 direction to the national platform, so this tool cannot tell you whether one covers your street — and that silence is not evidence that none does. Ask the council, or use its planning restrictions search.
Who holds the rules: Guildford Borough Council: search for planning restrictions
Tree preservation order
Not recorded on the national planning data platform for this point.
Guildford Borough Council has not published its tree preservation orders to the national platform, so this tool cannot tell you whether a tree near you is protected — that is a gap in publication, not proof the tree is unprotected. The council holds the register; ask before you cut. And in a conservation area you must give six weeks' notice for tree work whether an order exists or not.
Who holds the rules: Guildford Borough Council: protected trees and hedges

Where this is

Local planning authority
- Guildford LPA · Reference E60000272
The authority that receives and decides planning applications here.
Who holds the rules: Guildford Borough Council: planning
Borough
- Guildford · Reference E07000209
The borough or district council area this point falls in.
Who holds the rules: Guildford Borough Council
Borough ward
- Castle · Reference E05014949
The ward you vote in for borough councillors — the people who sit on the planning committee.
Who holds the rules: planning.data.gov.uk: wards
Parish
Not recorded on the national planning data platform for this point.
Who holds the rules: Guildford Borough Council: how is my council tax spent (parish councils)
Built-up area
- Guildford · Reference E63012715
The settlement the Office for National Statistics puts this point in — which is how the platform names places, and is not the same thing as a planning settlement boundary.
Who holds the rules: planning.data.gov.uk: built-up areas
Agricultural land grade
- 6/Urban
How the land is graded for farming. Grades 1, 2 and 3a are "best and most versatile" land, which policy protects from development; "Urban" and "Non Agricultural" mean it is already built up or otherwise not farmland.
Who holds the rules: planning.data.gov.uk: agricultural land classification

Listed buildings within 200 m

99 listed buildings are recorded within 200 m of this point. The nearest 60 of 99 are in the table below.

Pins are each listing’s own published point, which for a terrace or a long wall is one point for the whole thing. The table below the map is the same data, and is what you get with the map switched off.

Building	Grade	Distance
105, High Street	Grade II	10 m
107, High Street	Grade II	10 m
92, High Street	Grade II	15 m
109 and 111, High Street	Grade II	15 m
90, High Street	Grade II	15 m
103, High Street	Grade II	15 m
97 and 99, High Street	Grade II	25 m
117, High Street	Grade II	30 m
80 and 82, High Street	Grade II	30 m
93 and 95, High Street	Grade II	30 m
119, High Street	Grade II	30 m
72, 74, 76 and 78, High Street	Grade II*	40 m
The Angel Hotel	Grade II*	45 m
70, High Street	Grade II	50 m
The Bulls Head	Grade II	55 m
Underwoods	Grade II	60 m
127, 129 and 131, High Street	Grade II	60 m
Nos 122, 124 and 126 (including Rowleys Wine Bar to Rear)	Grade II	65 m
83, High Street	Grade II	65 m
The Guildhall	Grade I	65 m
21, Chapel Street	Grade II	75 m
77, 79 and 81, High Street	Grade II	75 m
Tunsgate	Grade II	75 m
20, Chapel Street	Grade II	80 m
75, High Street	Grade II	80 m
Pair of K6 Telephone Kiosks to Rear of Tunsgate Arch	Grade II	85 m
Russell House	Grade II	85 m
73, High Street	Grade II	85 m
71, High Street	Grade II	90 m
141 and 143, High Street	Grade II	90 m
56, High Street	Grade II	95 m
132 and 134, High Street	Grade II	95 m
The Two Brewers Public House	Grade II	95 m
Dunn and Company	Grade II	100 m
Lloyds Bank	Grade II*	100 m
136, 138 and 140, High Street	Grade II	100 m
The James I Restaurant	Grade II	105 m
142 and 144, High Street	Grade II	110 m
Harris Carpets	Grade II	110 m
146, High Street	Grade II	115 m
Churchill Antique Gallery Hairdressers	Grade II	115 m
St Mary's House	Grade II	120 m
46, High Street	Grade II	120 m
Campbell Insurance National Westminster Bank	Grade II	125 m
Microwave Masters, Terrapin Design and Harpers Antiques	Grade II	125 m
58, Quarry Street	Grade II	125 m
57 Quarry Street	Grade II	130 m
Garden Wall and Gate Attached to Rear of Guildford House	Grade II	130 m
Guildford House	Grade I	130 m
Miles Tomb, 5 Metres North of Chancel of Church of St Mary	Grade II	135 m
56, Quarry Street	Grade II	135 m
17, North Street	Grade II	135 m
152 and 154, High Street	Grade II	135 m
1, QUARRY STREET (See details for further address information)	Grade II	140 m
55, Quarry Street	Grade II*	140 m
3, Quarry Street	Grade II	140 m
The Star Public House	Grade II	140 m
Weller Eggar Estate Agents	Grade II	140 m
Country Casuals Peter Harris	Grade II	140 m
The Brew House	Grade II	145 m

Guildford borough is mostly green belt, a large part of it lies inside the Surrey Hills National Landscape, and the town is thick with conservation areas and listed buildings — so "can I actually do anything to this house?" has a longer answer here than in most places. Pick a part of the borough, or type a postcode, and this shows what England's national planning data platform records at that exact spot, with a plain-words line on what each designation means for building work.

This is a record, not a decision

Everything here is what the national planning data platform publishes for this point. It tells you what is designated. It does not tell you whether your work needs permission, and it is not a planning decision — designations move, and the platform can be behind an authority’s own records.

Who decides

Guildford LPA (E60000272) is the local planning authority here, and the only body that can say whether permission is needed for what you have in mind. Ask them before you start — not this page. Guildford LPA · Do I need planning permission?

Flood risk is not on this page — on purpose

This tool deliberately does not show flood risk. The national platform’s flood-risk layer is patchy here: point checks on the riverside came back empty while the district holds well over a thousand unnamed polygons elsewhere. Silence from it would read as safety, and that would be wrong. The Environment Agency’s Flood Map for Planning is the authority.

Official pages

Guildford Borough Council: search for planning restrictions — The council's own map of what covers an address — the one to check for article 4 directions and tree preservation orders
Guildford Borough Council: planning — Applications, pre-application advice, and the planning enquiries team
Guildford Borough Council: Local Plan — The policies a decision is actually made against, and the policies map
Planning Portal: do I need planning permission? — The national interactive guide to permitted development
Historic England: search the National Heritage List — The official record of every listed building, scheduled monument and registered park
planning.data.gov.uk — The national platform this tool reads, where you can see every dataset and how up to date it is

Designations from planning.data.gov.uk, the national planning data platform (Open Government Licence). Postcodes are located by postcodes.io (Open Government Licence). Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Across the borough

How much of the district these designations cover, counted from the same platform. Only designations wholly inside the district are counted.

Designation	In the district
Conservation areas	40
Listed buildings	1,089
Ancient woodlands	491
Scheduled monuments	34
Sites of Special Scientific Interest	12
Registered parks and gardens	8
Air quality management areas	3

What's protected where you live

About these tools

Check a place

What’s recorded at Town centre

Designations recorded here

Conservation area

Green belt

National Landscape (Surrey Hills)

Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area

Special Area of Conservation

Site of Special Scientific Interest

Ancient woodland

Scheduled monument

Registered park or garden

Air quality management area

Article 4 direction

Tree preservation order

Where this is

Local planning authority

Borough

Borough ward

Parish

Built-up area

Agricultural land grade

Listed buildings within 200 m

Official pages

Across the borough