Single-storey, double-storey, rear and side extension drawings for Camden homes — measured to Camden Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check before you commit.
Camden Council granted 88% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 1 point above the 87% England-wide householder average. The council runs one of London's strictest basement regimes, capping depth and demanding a Basement Impact Assessment, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Georgian (1714–1837) and Victorian (1837–1901) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Class A and Class B set the thresholds — a rear dormer to 40m³ on a terrace or 50m³ on a semi or detached, and a single-storey rear extension to 3m on a terrace or 4m on a detached house — beyond which Camden Council needs a full application. Camden carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Hampstead, Fitzroy Square and Bloomsbury remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Camden is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Hampstead (Georgian and Victorian houses inside a tightly protected conservation area), Belsize Park (grand Victorian villas and red-brick mansion blocks), Camden Town (dense Victorian terraces around the market), Primrose Hill (pastel-painted Victorian terraces beside Regent's Park), Kentish Town (Victorian terraces and converted flats) and Bloomsbury (Georgian squares and formal terraces) — these are the Camden pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Hampstead, Fitzroy Square, Bloomsbury, Camden Town and Primrose Hill. Camden Council weighs each proposal against Camden Local Plan and the Camden Planning Guidance (CPG) on home improvements, where mansard and roof additions in conservation areas are measured against the terrace's original roofline and rhythm. Purpose-built mansion flats and converted terraces are widespread, and flats and maisonettes carry no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is London butterfly / valley roofs behind parapets and mansard roofs on the taller terraces, over Georgian and Victorian terraces, purpose-built mansion flats and converted period flats.
Camden homes come in a handful of recurring shapes, and each one points to a different extension. The borough is built largely from Georgian and Victorian terraces, purpose-built mansion flats and converted period flats, so a Victorian terrace usually wants a rear or side-return infill, while an interwar semi has room for a wider single-storey wrap or a two-storey side addition. Camden Council judges every one of them against Camden Local Plan and the Camden Planning Guidance (CPG) on home improvements, weighing footprint, height and the impact on the house next door before it looks at the elevations.
That is why the drawings decide the outcome. We set the extension depth against the permitted-development limits precisely, keep the eaves and ridge within the allowances, and plot the 45-degree daylight lines to the neighbours' windows so the case officer can see the amenity test is passed. The council runs one of London's strictest basement regimes, capping depth and demanding a Basement Impact Assessment, so we design around it from the first sketch rather than discover it at validation.
Camden also protects whole streets — Hampstead, Fitzroy Square, Bloomsbury, Camden Town and Primrose Hill among them. Much of Camden — the Hampstead and Fitzroy Square conservation areas among them — sits under Article 4 directions that strip out permitted-development rights, and the borough's basement rules pile on a further layer of control. On designated land the larger-home extension route and most side extensions stop being permitted development, so we confirm your address against those layers before drawing a line.
Plenty of Camden extensions are permitted development and need no planning application — a single-storey rear extension within the depth and height limits is the common case. You will normally need to apply to Camden Council if any of these apply:
We draw the footprint, the ridge and eaves heights and the neighbours' daylight on the page — the relationships Camden Council's officers weigh first — and submit a validation-complete pack, whether that is a lawful development certificate, a prior-approval notification or a full householder application.
Below is Camden Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Camden approves the large majority of householder applications, though its basement policy and dense conservation coverage are the decisive constraints on many schemes. A complete, policy-literate extension pack anticipates those pressure points before submission, which is why professionally drawn applications are decided faster and refused less often than DIY ones.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, rolling year). Compare every borough on our London approval-rate league table.
Tell us about your project and get a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. If you don't need planning permission at all, we'll tell you that too — for free.
Across Hampstead, Belsize Park and Camden Town, the extension that lands most often is the single-storey rear addition — a glazed kitchen-diner across the back of the house, kept within the permitted-development depth or taken to a full application where the ground floor wants more. On the borough's georgian and victorian terraces, a side-return infill frequently pairs with it to square off the plan; on wider converted period flats, a two-storey side or rear extension can add a bedroom above without swallowing the garden.
Mansard and roof additions in conservation areas are measured against the terrace's original roofline and rhythm. We size the extension to the amenity and daylight tests, match the roof and materials to the host house, and keep enough garden to satisfy Camden Council's space standards — so the scheme answers the borough's questions before an objection can raise them. Where permitted-development rights are used up or removed, we prepare the householder application to the council's extension design guidance instead.
We draw extensions on every street in the borough. A few of the neighbourhoods where Camden projects come up most often:
Extension drawings for Hampstead's Georgian and Victorian houses inside a tightly protected conservation area — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Camden Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Belsize Park's grand Victorian villas and red-brick mansion blocks — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Camden Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Camden Town's dense Victorian terraces around the market — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Camden Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Primrose Hill's pastel-painted Victorian terraces beside Regent's Park — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Camden Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Kentish Town's Victorian terraces and converted flats — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Camden Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Bloomsbury's Georgian squares and formal terraces — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Camden Council's guidance.
The right extension in Camden depends on your house type and how much garden you can give up. This is how the main options compare on planning route and what they add.
| Extension type | Permitted development? | What it adds | What Camden Council checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-storey rear | Often, within 3m/4m depth (6m/8m via prior approval) | Bigger kitchen-diner across the back | Depth, height, neighbour daylight (45°) |
| Side-return infill | Sometimes, if within width and height limits | Squares off an L-shaped ground floor | Width vs the original house, glazing to boundary |
| Two-storey rear/side | No — full application | Extra bedroom or bathroom above | Bulk, overlooking, 7m rear-boundary gap |
| Wraparound (rear + side) | No — full application | Whole-width open-plan ground floor | Combined footprint and garden retained |
Route depends on your street — conservation areas such as Hampstead and Fitzroy Square and Article 4 directions can remove permitted-development rights.
A fixed process built around how Camden Council validates and decides householder extension applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Tell us your Camden postcode and house type. We confirm your conservation and Article 4 status, how much permitted-development depth you have left, and score your odds against live Camden Council decisions.
We measure the existing footprint, floor and eaves levels, boundary distances and the neighbours' window positions — the numbers the depth limits and daylight tests depend on.
Chartered designers develop the single-storey, two-storey or side extension to your brief, drawn inside the permitted-development limits or to Camden Council's extension design guidance.
We submit the certificate, prior-approval notice or application, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Camden Council issues its decision.
Not always. A single-storey rear extension up to 3 metres deep on a terrace or semi, or 4 metres on a detached house, and no higher than 4 metres, is usually permitted development. In Camden you will need to apply to Camden Council for two-storey extensions, side extensions wider than half the house, anything forward of the front wall, deeper rear extensions under the larger-home prior-approval route, and any extension in a conservation area such as Hampstead and Fitzroy Square.
Standard permitted development allows 3 metres on a terraced or semi-detached house and 4 metres on a detached one. The larger-home extension scheme can double that to 6 or 8 metres, but it needs a prior-approval notification to Camden Council and a neighbour-consultation period, and it does not apply on designated land such as Camden's conservation areas. We confirm which route your property qualifies for before drawing.
Two-storey and double-storey extensions almost always need a full householder application to Camden Council, because they fall outside permitted development on most homes. The council looks closely at bulk, overlooking of neighbours and the 7-metre gap a two-storey rear extension must keep from the rear boundary. We design to those tests and show the daylight and privacy angles on the drawings.
A householder planning application in Camden runs to a statutory eight-week target, a larger-home prior-approval notification to around six weeks including the neighbour-consultation period, and a lawful development certificate to eight weeks. Incomplete submissions stall at validation, so we submit a complete pack and manage officer queries to keep the decision on schedule. Camden Council is the decision-maker.
Yes — planning permission and building regulations are separate consents, and almost every extension needs both. Planning governs whether you can build it; building control governs how it is built, covering structure, insulation, drainage and fire safety. We prepare the building-regulations drawings alongside the planning set so Camden Council's building control or an approved inspector can sign the work off.
Every house and brief is different, so we price each Camden extension individually and send a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. It covers the full drawing pack with free revisions until Camden Council approves, and we tell you upfront whether your extension qualifies as permitted development. Call 020 7864 7245 to get started.
Answer five quick questions and get a free planning score for your exact address — instantly. Then, if you want the full picture, unlock the detailed analysis: your council's live approval rates, local precedents, constraints on your street and a step-by-step route to permission.
Same fixed quotes, same fast drawings — wherever your project is.