We tell you straight, and give you options.
If a scheme is in trouble, you’ll hear it from us first, with the choices laid out and the one we’d take.
SET SQUARE STUDIO · DESIGN · CONSENTS · BUILD
Drawn true. Planned properly. Built once.
Planning, licensing, extraction, conditions and appeals: the consents other people find awkward are our everyday work. Tell us what you’re trying to do and we’ll tell you straight whether it’s possible and what it will take, then get on with it, from the drawings to the build.
- No call centre, no account manager. You deal with the people doing the work.
- A personal reply within two working days, usually sooner.
- One team from first sketch to sign-off.
- Clients
- Operators · Landlords · Care · Homes
- We do
- Design · Consents · Build
- Based
- Bournemouth
- Experience
- 15+ years
START WITH YOUR SITUATION
What do you need help with?
I’ve had a letter from the councilEnforcement, a licensing warning, a condition breach. Forward it to us and we’ll tell you where you stand.→
I’m opening or taking over a restaurant, bar or takeawayPlanning, extraction, licence and fit-out, worked back from your opening date.→
I need a premises licence, or to change oneNew licences, variations, transfers, pavement licences and HMOs. We handle the forms, the plans and the officer.→
My application was refused, or I need conditions signed offAppeals, resubmissions and conditions discharge, with the case made in full first time.→
I want to extend, convert or build at homeExtensions, lofts, annexes, HMOs and listed homes, from first sketch to sign-off.→
My building’s been damagedAn independent scope after water, fire or impact, then the repair itself.→
Not on the list? Tell us in your own words. Most of our best projects started with “I’m not sure who to ask”.
FEATURED CLIENT · BLOOMSBURY LEISURE GROUP
A dozen pubs, one team dealing with every council.
From the Strand to Bristol harbourside to Manchester’s station taps: awnings, signage, advertisement and listed building consent, pavement licences, plant and condenser consents, conditions and fit-out packages, run site by site for one operator.
The Jackalope · Marylebone
The Stranded · Strand
The Jackalope · bar
The Stranded · inside
The Jackalope · seating- The Jackalope
- The Stranded
- The Pelt Trader
- The Whippet EC2
- Farringdon Tap
- The Bolter
- The Rectory
- Llandoger Trow, Bristol
- Piccadilly Tap, Manchester
- Victoria Tap, Manchester
01 — WHAT WE DO
Three services, one team accountable for all of them.
Most projects go wrong in the gaps between the designer, the planning consultant and the contractor. We do all three, so you brief us once and hold one team to the result.
S·01
Design & Consents
- Feasibility and measured surveys
- Planning applications and appeals
- Enforcement and retrospective consent
- Listed building consent and heritage
- Change of use and prior approval
- Premises, pavement and HMO licensing
- Building regulations packages
- Appeals and conditions
- AI application check
S·02
Build & Fit-Out
- Commercial and hospitality fit-out
- Principal contractor and construction management
- Heritage repair and restoration
- Conversions and extensions
- Extraction, ventilation and M&E coordination
02 — WHO WE WORK FOR
Five sectors, the same method.
Whether it’s a restaurant that needs to trade by a date, a care home that needs more rooms, or a listed house that needs to work for a family.
SECTOR · 01→
Hospitality & Licensed
Restaurants, takeaways, bars and pubs. Planning, extraction, licensing and fit-out to a trading date.
SECTOR · 02→
Care & Healthcare
Care homes and specialist accommodation, with fire, heritage and ecology reconciled in one scheme.
SECTOR · 03 ★→
Heritage & Listed
The consents other teams can’t get, from Grade I townscapes to Grade II fabric.
SECTOR · 04→
Landlords & Investors
Flats over shops, mixed use, holiday lets and change of use, plus repairs and surveys for managing agents.
SECTOR · 05→
Homes
Period, listed and constrained homes, plus extensions, lofts, annexes and new builds.
HOW WE WORK WITH YOU
Good service isn’t a slogan. It’s what happens when the council writes back.
Five habits, each taken from real emails to and from our clients this year. Names and addresses left out.
We move at the council’s pace, not ours.
Deadlines from planning, licensing and the Inspectorate get dealt with the day they land.
We chase, so you don’t have to.
Case officers, building control, the Planning Inspectorate, utility companies. We keep after them and tell you what they said.
One contact, the whole team behind it.
We bring in the structural engineer, ecologist, highways, arboricultural and fire consultants, and run them as one programme.
We sweat the small stuff.
Licence paperwork, addresses, conditions, payment runs. The admin that trips projects up is part of the job.
BEFORE · DURING · AFTER
See it change.
Real jobs from start to finish: the site as we found it, the work under way, and the finished result.
Garden room and raised deck
Frame, boards, then steps, lighting and furniture.
BEFORE
DURING
AFTERWaney-edge timber cladding
A double garage, boarded and finished.
BEFORE
AFTERRear extension
Roof structure on, then the finished kitchen-diner.
DURING
AFTERHOW WE DESIGN
From the first line to the finished room.
Every scheme starts as a measured drawing, becomes a 3D model, then a fully rendered space you can walk through before a penny is spent on site. This is a bar and dining fit-out taken from plan to interior.
FROM FIRST VISIT TO OPENING DAY
You’ll see every stage before it happens.
We see it as it is
We sketch the options
We draw it properly
We detail it
You see it before it’s built
We build it properly
Then it opens
SELECTED PROJECT · WALDITCH, DORSET
A Grade II stable block, brought back as a home for care.
Planning and listed building consent to turn a derelict stable into dementia care rooms, with heritage officers, a protected bat roost and the fire strategy all worked through in one scheme. Approved by Dorset Council, 2026.
Read the case studyON SITE NOW
Steel, timber and block, going up.
Photos from our current jobs: the structure that sits behind every set of drawings.
SELECTED PROJECTS
Consented, built, or under way.
Hyde Care Home, Walditch
A Grade II stable block brought back as care rooms.
Former Seamen’s Institute, Bristol
A bar-restaurant and holiday lets in a Grade I square.
Chicking, Bournemouth
Empty shell to trading restaurant: planning, licence, extraction and fit-out.
Nicholas James Delicatessen
Shopfront and full interior fit-out.
Victoria Arcade, London
A shopfront in a listed station arcade.
Cargo
Bar, dining and rooftop.
PROPERTY SERVICES / NEW
When a building needs putting right.
For owners, managing agents and their insurers: an independent scope after water, fire or impact damage; repairs and small works that need drawings or a consent; and condition inspections that come with a plan, not just a list of defects.
Because the same team can design, gain consent and build, a repair that turns into a project doesn’t have to change hands.
DEADLINE · 24 MARCH 2027
New building regulations are coming. Submit before they do.
The Future Homes Standard brings in new building regulations from 24 March 2027. Schemes submitted to building control before then, and started by 24 March 2028, can be built under the current rules. If you have a new-build or flats scheme in planning, now is the time to get the building regulations package in.
Building regulationsMEET THE STUDIO
The person on the other end of the phone.
Leads every project. Fifteen years designing for pubs, restaurants, care and homes.
We bring in structural engineers, ecologists, highways, arboricultural and fire consultants as each job needs them, and run them as one programme, so you still have one contact.
START HERE
Forward us the letter, the drawings, or just a photo.
That’s usually all we need to tell you the route, the rough cost and whether your timeline is realistic. No forms to fill in first if you’d rather not.