Single-storey, double-storey, rear and side extension drawings for Hanover homes — measured to Brighton & Hove City Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check before you commit.
Brighton & Hove City Council granted 89% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 2 points above the 87% England-wide householder average. The loss of family houses to further HMO conversion is actively resisted through the Article 4 regime and is frequently the deciding issue, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant 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. Hanover carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Hanover Crescent, Round Hill and Queen's Park remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Hanover is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Hanover (the steep grid of colourful artisan terraces above Elm Grove), Hanover Crescent (the early-Victorian stucco crescent set behind gardens), Elm Grove (tall Victorian terraces climbing the ridge toward the racecourse), Queen's Park (Victorian terraces and villas ringing the park to the south), Round Hill fringe (curving Victorian terraces on the western slope) and Coombe Road (dense terraces in the student-heavy valley bottom) — these are the Hanover pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Hanover Crescent, Round Hill, Queen's Park and Valley Gardens. Brighton & Hove City Council weighs each proposal against Brighton & Hove City Plan (Parts One 2016 and Two 2022) and the relevant SPDs, where the fine grain and modest scale of the original artisan terraces limits how far roofs and rear additions can grow. Much of Hanover and the Lewes Road belt is already shared houses, flats and maisonettes, which hold no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is pitched slate roofs on the artisan terraces and gabled and pitched roofs on the larger Victorian streets, over small Victorian artisan terraces, later Victorian bay-fronted terraces with front gardens and the stucco set piece of Hanover Crescent.
Hanover homes come in a handful of recurring shapes, and each one points to a different extension. The borough is built largely from small Victorian artisan terraces, later Victorian bay-fronted terraces with front gardens and the stucco set piece of Hanover Crescent, 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. Brighton & Hove City Council judges every one of them against Brighton & Hove City Plan (Parts One 2016 and Two 2022) and the relevant SPDs, 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 loss of family houses to further HMO conversion is actively resisted through the Article 4 regime and is frequently the deciding issue, so we design around it from the first sketch rather than discover it at validation.
Hanover also protects whole streets — Hanover Crescent, Round Hill, Queen's Park and Valley Gardens among them. Hanover lies at the heart of the Lewes Road 'academic corridor', where the 2013 and later Article 4 directions removed permitted-development rights to convert family houses to small HMOs, so shared-house changes here need planning permission on top of the city-wide direction. 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 Hanover 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 Brighton & Hove City Council if any of these apply:
We draw the footprint, the ridge and eaves heights and the neighbours' daylight on the page — the relationships Brighton & Hove City 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 Brighton & Hove City Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. The council approves most householder work city-wide, but in Hanover the HMO Article 4 controls and the tight artisan grain mean protecting family housing and terrace scale shapes most refusals. 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, England, 1 April 2025 - 31 March 2026). 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 Hanover, Hanover Crescent and Elm Grove, 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 small victorian artisan terraces, a side-return infill frequently pairs with it to square off the plan; on wider the stucco set piece of hanover crescent, a two-storey side or rear extension can add a bedroom above without swallowing the garden.
The fine grain and modest scale of the original artisan terraces limits how far roofs and rear additions can grow. 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 Brighton & Hove City 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 Hanover projects come up most often:
Extension drawings for Hanover's the steep grid of colourful artisan terraces above Elm Grove — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Hanover Crescent's the early-Victorian stucco crescent set behind gardens — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Elm Grove's tall Victorian terraces climbing the ridge toward the racecourse — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Queen's Park's Victorian terraces and villas ringing the park to the south — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Round Hill fringe's curving Victorian terraces on the western slope — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Coombe Road's dense terraces in the student-heavy valley bottom — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
The right extension in Hanover 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 Brighton & Hove City 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 Hanover Crescent and Round Hill and Article 4 directions can remove permitted-development rights.
A fixed process built around how Brighton & Hove City Council validates and decides householder extension applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Tell us your Hanover 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 Brighton & Hove City 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 Brighton & Hove City 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 Brighton & Hove City 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 Hanover you will need to apply to Brighton & Hove City 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 Hanover Crescent and Round Hill.
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 Brighton & Hove City Council and a neighbour-consultation period, and it does not apply on designated land such as Hanover'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 Brighton & Hove City 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. This applies to your Hanover address specifically.
A householder planning application in Hanover 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. Brighton & Hove City 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 Brighton & Hove City Council's building control or an approved inspector can sign the work off. This applies to your Hanover address specifically.
Every house and brief is different, so we price each Hanover extension individually and send a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. It covers the full drawing pack with free revisions until Brighton & Hove City 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.