Access to historic planning application information

Planning have files on past planning applications submitted in the borough. Some files date back to the 1940’s however most of our files date from the 1960’s onward. We do not have files on all properties within Lambeth as our files only cover those properties where planning applications have been submitted and many older properties have no planning history at all. Planning files often contain floor plans and elevation drawings but very rarely include details of construction, electrical, plumbing or sewerage.

You can find details of more recent applications through our online planning application database, which has records and decision notices of all applications from 1986 onwards and scans of drawings and other documents for applications submitted from 2006 onwards.

Should you wish to view an original paper planning application file. We can order the file from our archive for viewing by appointment at our Vauxhall office and this should usually take about 5 working days; it is not permitted for files to be taken away. There is a fee of £5 for each file retrieved, payable on viewing. If there is a particular application file that you are seeking then please let us know otherwise all files for a property would be retrieved and a file retrieval fee for each would be payable.

Please email your file requests to PlanningFiles@Lambeth.gov.uk quoting the address, details of the application you wish to view (with reference number if possible), your name and a phone number to be contacted on for booking the appointment.

Once we have retrieved the file we will contact you to book an appointment for viewing the files at the address above.

Any plans you selected for copying can be copied at the viewing appointment up to a maximum size of A3 in black and white and at a small cost. To copy larger plans whole and in colour it will be necessary to dispatch the plans to our print room - this will incur considerably higher cost, dependent on the size of the plans, and take a few days to complete.