Single-storey, double-storey, rear and side extension drawings for Hackney homes — measured to Hackney Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check before you commit.
Hackney Council granted 89% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 2 points above the 87% England-wide householder average. Parapet-fronted terraces mean rear roof extensions are scrutinised harder than the concealed front slope suggests, 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.
The permitted-development ceilings are fixed: 40m³ of new roof volume for a terraced loft and 50m³ for a semi or detached house under Class B, plus a 3m single-storey rear extension on a terrace or 4m on a detached house under Class A. Hackney carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including De Beauvoir Town, Clapton Square and Stoke Newington Church Street remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Hackney is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
De Beauvoir Town (grid of early-Victorian villas inside a tightly protected conservation area), Stoke Newington (Georgian and Victorian frontages along Church Street with heavy heritage control), Clapton (Victorian terraces and squares around Clapton Square), London Fields (dense Victorian terraces framing the park), Dalston (mixed Victorian stock with warehouse conversions off the high street) and Shoreditch (former industrial and warehouse buildings turned residential) — these are the Hackney pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include De Beauvoir Town, Clapton Square, Stoke Newington Church Street, London Fields and Well Street Common. Hackney Council weighs each proposal against Hackney Local Plan 2033 (LP33) and the Development Management supplementary guidance, where warehouse conversions are read against the borough's employment-floorspace and character policies before residential gains are weighed. A large share of Hackney's terraces and warehouses are split into flats and maisonettes, none of which carry householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is London butterfly / valley roofs behind parapets and pitched slate roofs on the villas, over Georgian and early-Victorian terraces, later Victorian terraces and villas and warehouse and industrial conversions.
Hackney homes come in a handful of recurring shapes, and each one points to a different extension. The borough is built largely from Georgian and early-Victorian terraces, later Victorian terraces and villas and warehouse and industrial conversions, 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. Hackney Council judges every one of them against Hackney Local Plan 2033 (LP33) and the Development Management supplementary guidance, 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. Parapet-fronted terraces mean rear roof extensions are scrutinised harder than the concealed front slope suggests, so we design around it from the first sketch rather than discover it at validation.
Hackney also protects whole streets — De Beauvoir Town, Clapton Square, Stoke Newington Church Street, London Fields and Well Street Common among them. Hackney is one of London's most conservation-dense boroughs, and directions such as the one covering Stoke Newington strip out permitted-development rights for shopfronts, roof alterations and frontages, so nothing on those streets is automatic. 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 Hackney 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 Hackney Council if any of these apply:
We draw the footprint, the ridge and eaves heights and the neighbours' daylight on the page — the relationships Hackney 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 Hackney Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Hackney approves the large majority of householder applications, but the borough's dense web of conservation areas is the single biggest factor shaping what design will pass. 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 De Beauvoir Town, Stoke Newington and Clapton, 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 early-victorian terraces, a side-return infill frequently pairs with it to square off the plan; on wider warehouse and industrial conversions, a two-storey side or rear extension can add a bedroom above without swallowing the garden.
Warehouse conversions are read against the borough's employment-floorspace and character policies before residential gains are weighed. 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 Hackney 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 Hackney projects come up most often:
Extension drawings for De Beauvoir Town's grid of early-Victorian villas inside a tightly protected conservation area — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Hackney Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Stoke Newington's Georgian and Victorian frontages along Church Street with heavy heritage control — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Hackney Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Clapton's Victorian terraces and squares around Clapton Square — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Hackney Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for London Fields's dense Victorian terraces framing the park — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Hackney Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Dalston's mixed Victorian stock with warehouse conversions off the high street — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Hackney Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Shoreditch's former industrial and warehouse buildings turned residential — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Hackney Council's guidance.
The right extension in Hackney 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 Hackney 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 De Beauvoir Town and Clapton Square and Article 4 directions can remove permitted-development rights.
A fixed process built around how Hackney Council validates and decides householder extension applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Tell us your Hackney 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 Hackney 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 Hackney 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 Hackney 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 Hackney you will need to apply to Hackney 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 De Beauvoir Town and Clapton 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 Hackney Council and a neighbour-consultation period, and it does not apply on designated land such as Hackney'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 Hackney 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 Hackney 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. Hackney 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 Hackney Council's building control or an approved inspector can sign the work off.
Every house and brief is different, so we price each Hackney extension individually and send a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. It covers the full drawing pack with free revisions until Hackney Council approves, and we tell you upfront whether your extension qualifies as permitted development. Call 020 7864 7245 to get started.
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Same fixed quotes, same fast drawings — wherever your project is.