At Green Elms on Middle Street in Nazeing, an old stable building offered the starting point for more useful household space. Our design replaces it with a single-storey annexe, bringing together a living and dining area, a bedroom, a flexible bedroom or office and a bathroom. The challenge was to accommodate these uses while keeping the building appropriate to its garden setting, the Green Belt and the surrounding conservation area.
Epping Forest District Council granted householder planning permission on 13 July 2026, under application EPF/1032/26, for demolition of the stables and construction of a replacement ancillary residential annexe.
A practical layout around the garden
The proposed plan uses an L-shaped arrangement. Living and dining space occupy the wider end, with a bathroom and the quieter rooms arranged along the other wing. This creates a clear distinction between shared activity and rooms that can provide privacy or somewhere to work.
Sliding glazed doors open from the shared space towards the surrounding hardstanding and garden. Windows serve the bedrooms and dining area, while the bathroom window is specified with obscured glazing. These choices balance an outward-looking living space with more privacy where it is needed.
The layout offers flexibility within the household, but the approved use has a specific limit. The council requires the annexe to remain ancillary to the main dwelling and prohibits its use as primary residential accommodation. The permission does not create a separate home that can be occupied independently of Green Elms.
Testing the proposal before the application
The site lies within the Metropolitan Green Belt and the Nazeing and South Roydon Conservation Area. Those constraints made the building’s scale, position and relationship to the existing stables central to the design process.
We began with concept design and feasibility and pre-application advice. The council’s early response helped identify the matters that needed supporting information, including trees and the treatment of the building’s external appearance. The formal application followed with a planning and heritage statement and arboricultural information.
The proposed annexe remains single storey, with a roof ridge shown at approximately four metres. Its position towards the rear of the garden follows the location of the existing stables. The planning case considered this setting and the relationship to the main house, rather than treating the garden as an unconstrained site for a new dwelling. This is where planning advice developed alongside the design can help shape a more considered proposal.
Materials and details suited to the setting
The elevations combine brickwork with a pitched natural slate roof. Metal rainwater pipes and aluminium windows and sliding doors complete the proposed palette. The intention is a straightforward outbuilding form with durable, carefully detailed finishes, rather than a larger building that competes with the main house.
The heritage work considered the landscaped character of the conservation area and the nearby Nazeing Congregational Church. Our conservation area planning approach looks at these wider relationships as well as the appearance of the individual building. Tree and hedge considerations also informed the submission, with hedge trimming identified on the proposed plan.
The approval leaves detailed work to complete before construction. Drawings of the windows, doors, eaves, fascias and cills require council approval before work starts, and the external finishes need written approval before installation. These requirements sit alongside the subsequent technical drawings and building regulations work; the planning decision also restricts further Class E outbuilding development without the council’s written agreement.
Green Elms shows how replacing an underused structure can provide more adaptable space when its design and use are considered together. If you are exploring an annexe or replacement outbuilding in a sensitive setting, book a call to discuss the site and your brief.
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