Air conditioning in the City of London

Offices, shops, restaurants and about 4,900 homes

Most of the City is workplaces. Offices range from new towers with central plant to small suites in Victorian and Edwardian buildings, and the streets around Leadenhall, Cheapside, Smithfield and Fleet Street are full of shops, restaurants, pubs and cafes. Those smaller premises are where a wall unit, a ceiling cassette or a multi-split system usually fits.

The City also has a resident population. In the 2021 Census there were about 4,900 households, and 87 per cent lived in a purpose-built block of flats. Most live in the north of the City, at the Barbican and Golden Lane estates, both listed, with smaller estates and private blocks elsewhere.

Commercial air conditioning in the Square Mile

Most City offices and shops are in multi-let buildings, so start with your lease. Alterations to the building, new pipe routes through shared walls and anything on the roof or facade usually need the landlord's written consent, and the building manager will have rules on access, working hours and contractors. We give them a method statement, drawings and the equipment's details.

Business premises fall outside the householder permitted development rules, so a new outdoor unit for an office, shop or restaurant usually needs planning permission from the City of London Corporation. In practice the outdoor units go on the roof, in a lightwell or in an existing plant area, out of sight from the street.

Where a building already has central cooling or a landlord's system, we can often add indoor units to it or service what is there, rather than adding new outdoor plant. For a restaurant, we size the system for the kitchen's heat and keep the indoor units away from cooking grease where we can.

What the City looks for in a planning application

The City's adopted plan is still the Local Plan 2015. Its replacement, the City Plan 2040, has been through public examination and was expected to be adopted by the end of 2026 when we checked. Until then the 2015 policies and the London Plan apply.

Policy DM 10.1 says plant and building services equipment should be fully screened from view and integrated into the design of the building, and installations that harm the character or appearance of the building or area will be resisted. Policy DM 10.5 asks shopfront schemes to consider the impact of louvres and plant. Policy DM 15.7 says developers must show there will be no increase in background noise levels from new plant and equipment.

The London Plan's cooling hierarchy (Policy SI 4) also applies: keep heat out, cut heat made inside, use thermal mass and ventilation, and only then active cooling. So an application for new plant usually needs drawings showing it out of view, an acoustic report and a short note on why cooling is needed. We provide the drawings, siting and sound data.

City conservation areas

Nearly every street with older buildings is in one of the City's 28 conservation areas, and the newest, Creechurch, was designated recently. The City expects plant to be screened from view, and more so in a conservation area, so we plan for roofs, lightwells and rear yards from the start.

• Barbican and Golden Lane, Charterhouse Square, Smithfield and Postman's Park
• Bank, Guildhall, Foster Lane, Bow Lane and Queen Street
• St Paul's Cathedral, Newgate Street and Whitefriars
• Fleet Street, Chancery Lane and Temples
• Bishopsgate, St Helen's Place, Finsbury Circus, New Broad Street and Brewery
• Leadenhall Market, Creechurch, Lloyd's Avenue and Fenchurch Street Station
• Eastcheap, Laurence Pountney Hill, Trinity Square and Crescent

Servicing, maintenance contracts and F-Gas

City systems work hard: long office hours, full meeting rooms, server cupboards and busy kitchens. We service any brand on a planned schedule, including systems another company fitted, and give you a written report after each visit with any faults priced before work starts.

If a system holds 5 tonnes CO2 equivalent of refrigerant or more, the business in control of it must have it leak checked at set intervals, at least every 12 months up to 50 tonnes CO2 equivalent without automatic leak detection, and keep records for 5 years. We are F-Gas and REFCOM certified. We work out which of your systems are covered, carry out the checks and keep the log for you.

If the air conditioning you control adds up to more than 12 kW of cooling, you also need a TM44 energy inspection at least every 5 years by an accredited energy assessor. That is separate from servicing. We can give your assessor the system details and carry out any work the report recommends.

For residents: the Barbican, Golden Lane and other City homes

The Barbican Estate was listed Grade II in 2001. The City's Barbican Listed Building Management Guidelines, adopted as planning guidance, say individual applications for surface-mounted service installations, including plant housings and air conditioning units, are most likely to be refused, and they list air conditioning units on balconies, walkways and roof terraces among the changes that affect the estate's character. Leaseholders also need the Barbican Estate Office's landlord's consent for alterations.

So an outdoor unit on a Barbican balcony or facade is very unlikely to be approved. If you're a Barbican resident, talk to the Barbican Estate Office and the City's planning team before anything else. We're happy to look at your flat and tell you honestly if we can't see an approvable route.

The Golden Lane Estate is listed too, with Crescent House at Grade II*, so the same caution applies. Other City blocks that aren't listed can sometimes take one heat pump under permitted development, with an outdoor unit up to 0.6 m³, but not on a wall or roof facing a road in a conservation area, and you will still need the freeholder's consent.

Parking, the Congestion Charge and working hours

The whole City is inside the Congestion Charge zone and the ULEZ. Where the van must stay close, we arrange a bay suspension with the City Corporation, which needs six working days. For a pay and display bay it costs £485 for the first bay, £39 for each extra bay and £51 a day per bay. A van standing in a suspended bay also needs a dispensation, which takes three working days and costs £38 a day. Any fee is on your quote.

The City has its own rules on noisy work. Noisy work runs from 8am to 6pm on weekdays, and on Saturdays from 9am to 2pm where residents could be disturbed. Where businesses could be disturbed, cutting with power tools and other noisy work is not usually allowed from 10am to 12 noon and 2pm to 4pm on weekdays. For a short job we give the neighbouring occupiers notice the working day before, and we plan core drilling around those hours or for a Saturday.

Prices in the City of London

Our standard London prices. Business prices are plus VAT. Planning drawings, acoustic reports, roof access, enclosures and long pipe runs are quoted after the survey, and maintenance contracts are quoted for your site.

• Commercial wall unit

  Fitted in business hours

  from£1,795+ VAT

• An annual service

  Keeps the manufacturer warranty valid

  from£119inc. VAT

• A bedroom or study

  2.5 kW wall unit, 5 m pipe, fitted in a day

  from£1,850inc. VAT

• A living room

  3.5 kW wall unit

  from£2,050inc. VAT

• Two rooms, one outdoor unit

  Multi-split

  from£3,650inc. VAT

• Three rooms

  Multi-split

  from£5,100inc. VAT

• Premium range upgrade

  Quieter, more efficient unit

  from£250inc. VAT

Neighbourhoods we cover

We work across the whole Square Mile, including:

• Barbican, Golden Lane, Smithfield and Farringdon (EC1)
• Moorgate, Liverpool Street and Broadgate (EC2)
• Bank, Guildhall and Cheapside (EC2)
• Aldgate, Leadenhall and Fenchurch Street (EC3)
• Monument and Tower Hill (EC3)
• St Paul's, Cannon Street and Blackfriars (EC4)
• Fleet Street, Holborn Circus and the Temples (EC4)

City of London questions