Orangeries in Durham, Designed for a Historic Setting

Designing Close to Durham's World Heritage Site

The cathedral and castle in Durham together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the city centre around them is a conservation area. Homes in and near the centre are seen within a heritage setting of international importance, so an extension here needs to be modest in scale and carefully detailed.

For an orangery at the rear of a period house, that usually means respecting the height and proportions of the original building, using materials that match or complement it, and keeping the new room clearly subordinate to the house. A rear orangery is often less visible than a front or side addition, but with the River Wear running through the city, the backs of some houses may be seen from further away than you would expect. Thinking about how the orangery looks from a distance, not only from your own garden, is part of designing well here.

Stone or Brick: Matching the House

Homes in Durham are built in both stone and brick, and the orangery should follow whichever material the house uses, rather than introducing a third.

Stone-Built Homes

A stone house calls for an orangery base and piers in stone, or a carefully chosen match where new stone is not practical. Muted frame colours, a traditional cornice and a lantern with fine glazing bars tend to sit quietly beside older masonry. The joints, coursing and colour of the stone all deserve attention, because small differences are noticeable on a building that has weathered for many years.

Brick Homes

In brick, the colour, texture and bond of the existing walls are the guide. A close match lets the orangery read as part of the house rather than a later addition. On newer homes, a contemporary design with slim frames and a flat roof can work well; our guide to traditional and contemporary orangeries compares the two approaches.

Bringing Daylight into Older Rooms

Older houses, in Durham as elsewhere, often have rooms that are deep from front to back, leaving the rear kitchen or dining room with little direct light. An orangery with a roof lantern over its centre can change that, sending daylight back into the original room through a widened opening. The size and position of the lantern are decided with the room below in mind, and our page on orangery roofs and lanterns explains the options. On a period property, a lantern with traditional proportions usually looks more at home than a very shallow modern one.

Planning and Consents from the County Council

Durham County Council is the planning authority for the city and the surrounding area. Within the city centre conservation area, permitted development rights are more limited and planning permission is more likely to be needed. Listed buildings require listed building consent for most alterations, inside and out. Trees in a conservation area, or protected by a tree preservation order, need consent before they are cut back or removed.

Outside these designations, many single-storey rear orangeries on houses can be built under permitted development if they meet the limits, though flats and maisonettes have no householder permitted development rights. Building regulations approval is separate and usually required. The Planning Portal guidance on planning permission for extensions is a useful first read.

Groundwork in County Durham's Former Mining Villages

County Durham lies on the former coalfield, and many of the villages around the city have a mining past. Old shallow workings and mine entries can sit close to the surface, so a coal mining search for the property is a sensible step before foundations are designed. If you bought your home recently, your conveyancer may already have obtained one.

Where a search flags potential issues, further ground investigation may be recommended, and the foundation design can then respond to what is found. Building control will also want to see that the foundations suit the ground. It is far easier to plan for this at the start than to deal with it once excavation has begun, and it gives a clearer picture of the work involved when the quote is prepared.

Drains and Existing Services

Older village properties can have drains running beneath the garden close to where an orangery would sit. Locating them early allows the design to avoid them or plan a diversion. Where a public sewer is involved, building over or near it may need agreement from the water company.