Hoarding-Advice-Note - the City of London Corporation

Displays on site hoardings
Introduction
The purpose of this guide is to encourage a suitable appearance
to hoarding displays securing construction sites and sites awaiting
development. The City of London resists the proliferation of advertisements
but recognises that hoardings can offer opportunities to
provide information, to add interest and enhance the street scene
whilst sites are developed.
Planning Advice Note
Visual Appearance
The City of London encourages an imaginative approach to the design of hoarding displays.
Hoardings may be in place for a number of years and an attractive hoarding design may help
to mitigate some of the inconvenience caused by construction works. Care should be taken
to ensure that images, lettering and colours on hoardings do not appear visually intrusive or
a distraction to road users. A neutral backdrop and setting to the City’s historic townscape
will sometimes be preferable. Examples of positive approaches that have been employed in
the past are shown below:
Visual representations
of the building or
redevelopment
in question and
related artwork.
A design that includes
contributions from
local school children,
colleges or other
commissioned works.
Factual information on
a building concerning
its use, floorspace
etc. Information on
progress and the
provision of protected
windows improve
public interest.
Information on the
immediate locality
such as street maps,
points of interest
or site specific
infrastructure work.
Artwork alluding to
people or events
relevant to a site or its
archaeological history.
Other visual concepts.

Prominence & context.
Corporate logos and other commercial
information can be successfully incorporated
into hoarding designs. An attractive eyecatching
hoarding in the right location
is likely to be more effective than a dull
uninspired design. The size of lettering
should be carefully considered. Excessively
large lettering is often ineffective in the
narrow confines of some City streets.
Displays should usually be restricted to
pedestrian level. The incorporation of images
on hoardings would be acceptable at first floor
level where these are designed to hide high
level gantries above a recess at ground level,
or where it hides construction site equipment
such as site offices, containers, the base of
cranes etc. The visual impact of such images
is significant and commercial advertising
at this level will be resisted. Large scale
displays on high level scaffolding and netting
can also be visually intrusive, though a noncommercial
representation or visualisation
of the building itself could be acceptable.
Contacts and Contractor’s boards.
The importance of information such as
agents, owners and contractor’s names,
floorspace figures etc, is acknowledged but
designers of hoardings are encouraged to
incorporate these into an overall design
rather than making them the sole focus.
Maintenance and practicality.
Hoardings are likely to be subject to a high
degree of wear and tear and designs should
be sufficiently robust to last the length of
the construction period. Designs should take
account of site entrances and the need to
highlight the corners of sites for people with
visual impairments and provide sufficient space
for heath and safety and other required notices.
Policies and regulations
This guidance builds on advertisement policies ENV 30
and ENV 31 of the City of London Unitary Development
Plan 2002. Designers are advised to consider Planning
Policy Guidance 19 (Outdoor Advertisement Control,
1992) which focuses mainly on amenity and public safety
issues, and the Town and Country Planning (Control of
Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007.
Contact details
Department of Planning & Transportation
PO Box 270 Guildhall, LONDON EC2P 2EJ
Tel: (020) 7332 1710
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/plans
plans@cityoflondon.gov.uk/plans
Is an application required?
The Development Division of the Department of Planning
and Transportation should be consulted before making
any major decisions that will affect the size, appearance
or location of proposed hoarding signs. Informal advice is
freely available and may save you time, inconvenience and
unnecessary expense.
Department of Planning & Transportation