Local drone surveys in City of London, planned around the site and the airspace.
The Square Mile is the most restricted place we cover and the one where a drone survey is most obviously worth the effort. Restricted area R158 sits over the City, so nothing flies here without approval — but on the other side of that paperwork, a tower facade that would otherwise need a cradle drop, a rope team or a full scaffold can be recorded in a single flight. The stock ranges from the listed Barbican and Golden Lane estates and the Victorian ironwork around Smithfield to 22 Bishopsgate at close to 280 metres. City roofs are almost all flat, heavily serviced with plant, and impossible to assess properly from ground level or from the building next door.
The buildings and sites we survey in City of London
City building stock is commercial almost throughout. The Barbican and Golden Lane estates, listed and within their own conservation area designated in 2018, bring board-marked concrete, podium decks, terraces and flat asphalt roofs. Smithfield and the surrounding conservation area add Victorian market ironwork, brick warehousing and Portland stone. From Bishopsgate through Leadenhall and Fenchurch Street the stock is towers — glazed and panelled curtain walling, atria, crown plant and heavily controlled roof access. Between them sit post-war and 1980s offices with flat membrane roofs, parapet gutters and rooftop plant. Residential is a small minority of the total.
What we get asked for in City of London
Surveys we fly in City of London
Every survey is scoped to your project before we fly — you receive the outputs that are actually useful to you, and a clear, no-obligation quote first.
Drone surveys in City of London — frequently asked questions
Can anyone fly a drone in the City of London?
Not without approval. Restricted area EG R158 covers the City and applies to every unmanned aircraft, including sub-250g, so any survey here starts with a NATS Non-Standard Flight application at nsf.nats.aero. NATS ask for several weeks' notice for the central London restricted areas, and we confirm the current lead time — and whether it works for your programme — at the quoting stage. No date is promised until the approval is granted.
How do you survey a building taller than the 120m height limit?
The Drone Code sets a general 120m ceiling, but where a structure is over 105m tall and the organisation responsible for it asks for a task related to that structure, flight up to 15m above it is permitted provided the aircraft stays within 50m of the structure. That is the legal basis for City tower flights, and it requires the building owner or manager to be the instructing party, not a third party with an interest. We confirm any individual tower job against our authorisation and insurance before committing to it.
Is a drone survey a substitute for rope access or a cradle inspection?
Not a substitute — a first step. A drone pass records the whole building envelope quickly, shows you where the sealant failure, cracked panel or blocked outlet actually is, and lets you deploy rope access or a cradle to the two or three locations that need touching rather than working the entire facade blind. On a City tower that is where the money and the programme time are saved.
Can you work at weekends or outside office hours?
The City empties at weekends, which usually makes separation from uninvolved people far easier and is often the right time to fly a facade over what is normally a crowded pavement. Whether we can depends on the NATS approval, the building's own access arrangements and available daylight. Anything requiring flight at night would need to be confirmed against our authorisation first — we do not assume it.
We also cover, near City of London
Based in North Weald, Epping and covering London, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and the wider South East. If your site is not listed, check we cover it →
