Who we are

Islington Architects Ltd is a RIBA Chartered architectural practice based in Islington, London, specialising in planning, heritage and listed buildings.

Our business address is:

Islington Architects Ltd is registered in England & Wales, company no. 09389417. Registered office: 20–22 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, Islington Architects Ltd is the data controller responsible for personal information collected through this website and in providing our services.

You can contact us at enquiry@islington-architects.com, or by telephone on 020 7693 9572.

What information we collect

When you contact us, book a call, or appoint us, we may collect:

• Your name and contact details;
• Your property address and details of your proposed project;
• Information you choose to provide about your property, planning requirements or architectural enquiry;
• The date and time you choose when you book a call, and the answers you give on the booking form;
• Correspondence relating to your enquiry or our professional services;
• If you use our virtual reality service, a 3D model of your design and the related details described in section 06.

Our website may also collect limited technical and usage information through cookies and analytics technologies, as explained below.

How we use your information

We use personal information to:

• Respond to enquiries and discuss potential architectural services;
• Arrange and hold introductory calls, video calls and site visits, and send booking confirmations and reminders;
• Assess the nature and requirements of proposed projects;
• Prepare proposals and provide professional architectural services, including virtual reality walkthroughs of your design;
• Maintain appropriate business and project records;
• Understand how visitors use our website and improve its content and performance;
• Comply with applicable legal, regulatory and professional obligations.

We do not sell personal information.

We do not use your information for marketing without asking you first. Images of your project, or of a virtual reality model of your home, are only used in our marketing with your written agreement.

Lawful basis for processing

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), we process personal information on one or more of the following grounds:

Legitimate interests

To respond to enquiries, communicate with prospective clients, administer our business, keep our services secure and maintain professional relationships, where these interests are not overridden by your rights.

Contractual necessity

Where processing is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, such as booking a call or preparing a proposal, or to perform a professional appointment.

Legal obligations

Where we are required to retain or disclose information to comply with applicable law.

Consent

Where required for optional website analytics cookies or other technologies, or for particular communications that require your consent.

You may withdraw consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

Cookies and website analytics

Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. Our website uses essential cookies, which are needed for the site to function, and optional analytics cookies, which are only set if you agree to them. Some pages include content from other services, which may set their own cookies.

Google Analytics 4

We use Google Analytics 4, connected through Google Site Kit, to help us understand how visitors find and use our website. Depending on the settings and consent provided, this may involve information such as pages visited, approximate geographic location, device and browser characteristics, and interactions with website content.

Google Analytics 4 does not log or store individual IP addresses. We use this information in aggregate to improve the website and do not use it to identify individual visitors.

Managing your consent

We use Complianz to provide cookie information and manage visitors’ consent preferences. Optional analytics cookies are only used in accordance with your choices. You can accept, reject or change your preferences at any time, and you can also block or delete cookies through your browser settings.

For a full list of the cookies and services used on this website, please see our Cookie Policy (UK).

Our virtual reality service

If we prepare a virtual reality model of your design, we hold the 3D model, your project number, name and address, and your private access code. The model is kept on secure cloud servers in London, UK, encrypted where it is stored, and can only be opened with your access code.

We don’t record your visits. Models are deleted 12 months after your project ends, and server logs are kept for up to 90 days.

The full details, including recording on the headset we lend you, are on our Privacy & recording page.

Third-party services

We use selected third-party services to run our practice and website. These may include:

• Microsoft 365: Email, file storage, Microsoft Bookings, which manages call bookings and sends confirmations and reminders from bookings@islington-architects.com, and Microsoft Teams, which we use for video calls. We do not record calls.
• Amazon Web Services (London, UK): Hosting our virtual reality models under a data-processing contract. They store and run models on our behalf and may not use them for anything else.
• Google Maps: Showing our location on the Contact page, and supplying 3D street imagery for some virtual reality models. Google is not told who you are.
• Meta: Software on the virtual reality headsets we lend, which collects technical information about the device under Meta’s own terms. Meta does not receive your model.
• Google Analytics and Google Site Kit: Website analytics and performance reporting.
• Google Search Console: Monitoring our website’s visibility in Google Search.
• Complianz: Managing cookie consent and providing cookie information.
• WordPress.com and Jetpack: Operating, securing and maintaining the website, and, depending on the features enabled, website performance or statistics.
• Google Fonts: Providing website typography, where fonts are loaded from Google’s servers.

Our Instagram link is a plain link. Instagram receives no information from our website unless you follow it.

These providers may process limited personal or technical information in connection with the services they supply. Their processing is governed by their applicable contractual and privacy arrangements.

Sharing your information

We may share personal information with trusted professional advisers, consultants, contractors, local planning authorities and service providers where reasonably necessary to respond to your enquiry, provide architectural services, operate our business or comply with legal obligations.

Where appropriate, we take steps to ensure that personal information is handled securely and only for legitimate purposes.

We do not sell personal information to third parties.

International data transfers

Your virtual reality model is kept in the United Kingdom. Some of our other website and technology service providers operate internationally, including outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as applicable adequacy arrangements or recognised contractual protections, where required by data protection law.

How we store and protect your information

Enquiries and bookings are received by email and kept within our Microsoft 365 business correspondence and project records. Drawings and project files are kept in the practice’s secure business storage.

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse or disclosure.

Access to personal information is limited to those who reasonably require it for legitimate business or professional purposes.

How long we retain information

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.

Enquiries and bookings that do not result in a professional appointment are reviewed periodically and deleted when no longer required for legitimate business purposes.

Where we are appointed to provide architectural services, relevant correspondence and project records may be retained for longer periods to meet contractual, legal, insurance and professional obligations.

Virtual reality models are deleted 12 months after your project ends. Information collected through website analytics is retained in accordance with the settings of the relevant analytics service.

Your data protection rights

Under UK data protection law, you may have the right to:

• Request access to personal information we hold about you;
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
• Request erasure of personal information in certain circumstances;
• Object to or request restriction of certain processing;
• Request portability of information where applicable;
• Withdraw consent where processing relies on consent.

These rights are subject to applicable legal conditions and exceptions.

To exercise your rights, please contact enquiry@islington-architects.com.

Data protection enquiries and complaints

Adrian Fowler, director of Islington Architects Ltd, is responsible for overseeing data protection matters and for handling privacy-related enquiries and complaints on behalf of the company. We are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer and have not done so.

If you have any concerns about how your personal information is collected, used or protected, please contact Adrian Fowler in the first instance at enquiry@islington-architects.com. We will respond as soon as possible and in any event within one month.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent regulator for data protection: ico.org.uk, telephone 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our services, website technologies or legal requirements.

The latest version will be published on this page with its date of revision.

Contact

For questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle personal information, please contact:

Email: enquiry@islington-architects.com
Telephone: 020 7693 9572
Mobile / WhatsApp: 07775 791718