Can I Get Electric Gates on a Short London Driveway? What Your Options Are

s Park, New Malden, Mitcham, and Morden. These areas have some of the most active gate enquiry volumes in our service area and also the highest proportion of short driveways. The problem is genuinely widespread and the solutions are well-established.

Why Swing Gates Need Driveway Depth

A swing gate operates by opening on hinges fixed to a gatepost, swinging through a 90-degree arc from the closed to the fully open position. The bottom corner of each gate leaf traces a curved path as the gate opens. For the gate to open fully, nothing can be in the path of that arc: not the ground, not a parked car, not the house wall.

For a pair of inward-opening swing gates with 1.5-metre leaves (a 3-metre opening), each leaf needs 1.5 metres of clear depth behind the gate line to fully open. If the car is already on the driveway when the gate is operated, the car must be parked at least 1.5 metres behind the gate’s fully open position to avoid the gate leaf contacting the vehicle.

On a driveway with 2 metres of depth from gate to house, a 1.5-metre swing leaf opens to within 0.5 metres of the house wall. This is a workable clearance for a skilled driver but creates a daily stress point for anyone who parks instinctively rather than precisely. On a driveway with 1.5 metres of depth, the swing gate physically cannot open fully without contacting the house wall.

Outward-opening swing gates are sometimes considered as an alternative but create a different problem in London: a gate leaf that swings outward over the public pavement raises both a safety issue and a legal one under the Highways Act 1980. An outward-opening gate that obstructs the pavement when open is a highway obstruction. Outward-opening gates can be installed where the boundary sets back sufficiently from the pavement edge for the leaf to open without encroaching on the pedestrian path, but this condition is rarely met on Victorian terrace properties where the boundary wall sits at or close to the pavement.

Solution 1: Sliding Gates, The Most Common Fix

A sliding gate moves parallel to the boundary wall rather than swinging into the driveway. It needs zero depth behind the gate line to operate. The car can be parked immediately behind the gate post and the gate will still slide open freely alongside the boundary wall.

This makes sliding gates the most common and most practical solution for short London driveways. The gate slides open along the side of the driveway opening rather than swinging across it. From the driver’s perspective the experience is the same as any other electric gate: approach, press the button on the remote, the gate opens, drive through, the gate closes behind you.

What a sliding gate needs instead of depth is lateral space: a run of clear wall or fencing alongside the entrance opening for the gate to slide into when open. For a gate that covers a 3-metre opening, the gate leaf is 3.2 to 3.4 metres long (slightly longer than the opening to allow for the overlap at the closed position and the hinge bracket at the opening end). This means approximately 3.2 to 3.4 metres of clear wall space is needed on the side of the entrance where the gate slides open.

On most London Victorian terrace properties with a boundary wall running along the street frontage, this lateral space is available. The boundary wall continues well past the entrance opening on at least one side, and the gate slides along it. Where the boundary wall terminates at or close to the entrance, a sliding gate may be impractical and an alternative solution is needed.

Track or cantilever for a London sliding gate. Most residential sliding gates in South West London run on a ground-level track set into a channel at the base of the boundary wall. The track must be kept clear of leaves and debris, which requires seasonal attention on streets with mature trees across Wimbledon, Richmond, Putney, and Kew. A cantilever sliding gate is suspended from an overhead beam and has no ground track at all, eliminating the debris problem at additional cost. See our guide on sloped driveways for more on the cantilever option, which is also the right answer when the ground at the entrance is uneven or has a significant cross-fall.

Cost of a sliding gate in London (2026):

For a full breakdown of sliding gate costs, see our driveway gates cost guide.

Solution 2: Single Leaf Gate

Where the entrance opening is narrower than typical, a single leaf swing gate is worth considering. A single leaf gate has half the swing arc of a double leaf pair: for a 3-metre opening with a 3-metre single leaf gate, the leaf swings through 3 metres of arc. But for a 1.5-metre or 2-metre opening where a single leaf is wide enough, the leaf only needs 1.5 or 2 metres of driveway depth to open fully.

The practical limitation is opening width. Most cars need at least 2.8 to 3 metres of clear opening to drive through comfortably, accounting for mirror width and driver visibility. A single leaf gate for a 3-metre opening is a 3-metre-wide leaf, which needs 3 metres of driveway depth to open inward and provides no space advantage over a double leaf pair. A single leaf gate is only a genuine space-saving solution where the entrance itself is narrower than 2 metres, which allows a shorter leaf and therefore a shorter required depth.

Single leaf gates are most commonly used for pedestrian access rather than vehicle access, side gates, or entrances to off-street parking where the car enters at a sharper angle and the gate opening is narrower than a standard double leaf would require.

Solution 3: Bi-Fold Gates

A bi-fold gate is a swing gate where each leaf is divided vertically and joined with a hinge in the middle. When the gate opens, each leaf folds at its central hinge, concertina-style, so the effective arc required to open is approximately half that of a solid leaf of the same width.

For a 3-metre entrance with two bi-fold leaves (each leaf 1.5 metres wide, folding to 0.75 metres), the gate needs approximately 0.75 metres of driveway depth to open fully rather than the 1.5 metres a solid leaf would require. This makes bi-fold gates the right solution for driveways where there is some depth but not enough for a standard swing gate pair, and where lateral wall space for a sliding gate is also limited.

Bi-fold gates are sometimes described as “the solution for driveways with neither the depth to swing nor the side room to slide.” This describes a small but genuine subset of London driveway situations, particularly on properties where the entrance is set into a corner, where the boundary wall terminates immediately at the entrance on both sides, or where the property sits on a corner plot with constraints on both the depth and the lateral directions.

Cost of bi-fold gates in London (2026): Bi-fold gates are more mechanically complex than standard swing or sliding gates because of the additional folding hinge mechanism and the motor geometry required to operate a gate with a mid-leaf hinge. Expect to pay a premium of 20 to 30 percent over an equivalent standard swing gate pair. Typical installed cost: £6,000 to £12,000 for a residential bi-fold pair.

Measuring Your Driveway: The Figures That Matter

Before a site survey, it is useful to know the three measurements that determine which solution is viable for your property.

Driveway depth. Measure from the gate line (the face of the boundary wall or the position of the gate post) straight back to the nearest obstacle: the front wall of the house, the edge of a step, or the front of the car when parked normally. This figure determines whether a swing gate is viable and, if so, what leaf width it can accommodate.

Opening width. Measure between the inner faces of the gate posts or boundary wall at the entrance. This is the clear width the gate needs to cover. A car needs a minimum of 2.8 metres of clear opening width to drive through comfortably. Most family driveways have openings of 3 to 4.5 metres.

Lateral wall space. Measure the length of clear wall or fencing that runs parallel to the street frontage on each side of the entrance opening. The side with the longer clear run is where a sliding gate would open. If this measurement is at least equal to the opening width plus a 200mm safety margin, a sliding gate is viable.

If you have all three measurements when we carry out the free site survey, the solution assessment takes approximately five minutes.

Common Short Driveway Scenarios in South West London

The South Wimbledon or Tooting Victorian terrace. A typical scenario across these streets: boundary wall with original or replacement brick piers, driveway depth of 2 to 2.5 metres from gate to house, opening width of 3 to 3.5 metres, and a boundary wall extending 4 to 6 metres past the entrance on the right side. In this scenario, a tracked sliding gate sliding to the right along the boundary wall is the standard solution. The driveway depth is irrelevant because the sliding gate needs none of it.

The Clapham or Wandsworth property with a short set-back. Many Victorian terrace houses in SW4 and SW18 were built with the boundary wall close to the pavement and a very short set-back to the house. Driveways of 1.5 to 2 metres are not uncommon. Again, the sliding gate is the answer wherever lateral wall space permits. Where the boundary wall terminates at the entrance on both sides, a bi-fold gate is the solution.

The Raynes Park or New Malden Edwardian semi. These properties typically have slightly more driveway depth than Victorian terraces but not always enough for a full double swing gate pair. Many Edwardian semis in SW20 and KT3 have driveways of 2.5 to 3.5 metres. At 2.5 metres, a swing gate with 1.2-metre leaves (for a 2.4-metre opening) is viable. At 3 metres, a standard swing pair for a 3-metre opening works without issue. The site measurement is the answer.

The converted garage entrance. Some properties in Surbiton, New Malden, and parts of Kingston have converted their garage to living space and created a parking area in front where the garage door was. These entrances are often narrower than a standard driveway, sometimes as little as 2.2 to 2.5 metres wide, and the set-back may be variable. Single leaf gates or bi-fold options are frequently the right specification here.

Planning Considerations for Short Driveway Gates

The planning rules for sliding and bi-fold gates are the same as for any gate. See our full planning permission guide for the detailed framework. One point specific to properties close to the pavement: a gate that opens outward over the pavement is an obstruction under the Highways Act. Sliding and bi-fold gates, which move parallel to the boundary rather than swinging outward, do not have this issue.

For properties on very short set-backs where even the gate post position is close to the pavement edge, we carry out a highway boundary check during the site survey to confirm the post positions are within the property boundary and do not encroach on the highway.

For a More Detailed Gate Type Comparison

If you are also weighing up swing versus sliding for a driveway with adequate depth, see our swing gates vs sliding gates guide for the full comparison beyond the short driveway question.

About NOVA Gates & Railings

NOVA Gates & Railings is a CAME-approved bespoke gate installer based in Wimbledon, installing electric gates, sliding gates, swing gates, and bespoke metal gates on short, standard, and constrained driveways across South West London and Surrey.

We carry out free site surveys across SW19, SW20, SW15, SW18, SW4, SW11, SW17, TW9, TW10, TW1, TW2, KT1, KT2, KT3, KT5, KT6, SM1, SM2, CR0, CR2, and surrounding areas.

Book a Free Site Survey

Call us on 020 7117 2642 or get in touch to arrange a free site survey.

NOVA Gates & Railings. Bespoke Electric Gates for London Driveways of All Sizes. Wimbledon, London and Surrey. CAME Approved. 10-Year Warranty.