Single-storey, double-storey, rear and side extension drawings for Kemp Town 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 Kemp Town estate holds one of the densest concentrations of Grade I and Grade II* listing in the city, so alterations are assessed against the original architectural set piece, 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.
Before permission is required, Class B allows 40m³ of added loft volume on a terrace and 50m³ on a semi or detached house, and Class A allows a 3m single-storey rear extension on a terrace or 4m on a detached house. Kemp Town carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Kemp Town, East Cliff and Queen's Park remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Kemp Town is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Kemp Town estate (Busby and Wilds' 1820s set piece of Sussex Square and Lewes Crescent), East Cliff (bow-fronted Regency terraces stepping up from Marine Parade), Queen's Park (Victorian terraces and villas around the park bowl), College (planned Victorian streets near Brighton College), Kemptown Village (the compact St George's Road high-street terraces) and Whitehawk fringe (later housing climbing the eastern downland slope) — these are the Kemp Town pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Kemp Town, East Cliff, Queen's Park and College. Brighton & Hove City Council weighs each proposal against Brighton & Hove City Plan (Parts One 2016 and Two 2022) and the relevant SPDs, where basement, lightwell and seafront-frontage proposals meet detailed structural and heritage tests before the usual householder considerations. Large tracts of the Regency terraces are long since converted into flats and maisonettes, which hold no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is parapet-hidden flat and shallow leaded roofs on the Regency estate, butterfly roofs behind the terrace fronts and pitched slate roofs on the Victorian streets, over Grade I and Grade II* Regency stucco terraces, bow-fronted seafront houses, Victorian bay-fronted terraces and converted flats and maisonettes.
Kemp Town homes come in a handful of recurring shapes, and each one points to a different extension. The borough is built largely from Grade I and Grade II* Regency stucco terraces, bow-fronted seafront houses, Victorian bay-fronted terraces and converted flats and maisonettes, 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 Kemp Town estate holds one of the densest concentrations of Grade I and Grade II* listing in the city, so alterations are assessed against the original architectural set piece, so we design around it from the first sketch rather than discover it at validation.
Kemp Town also protects whole streets — Kemp Town, East Cliff, Queen's Park and College among them. Kemp Town falls under the city-wide Article 4 direction removing permitted-development rights for small HMOs, and the Kemp Town and East Cliff conservation-area controls pull most external alterations to the listed Regency terraces into the application system. 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 Kemp Town 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 schemes across the city, yet in Kemp Town the concentration of high-grade listed terraces means heritage impact, not principle, decides how far a project can go. 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 Kemp Town estate, East Cliff and Queen's Park, 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 grade i and grade ii* regency stucco terraces, a side-return infill frequently pairs with it to square off the plan; on wider converted flats and maisonettes, a two-storey side or rear extension can add a bedroom above without swallowing the garden.
Basement, lightwell and seafront-frontage proposals meet detailed structural and heritage tests before the usual householder considerations. 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 Kemp Town projects come up most often:
Extension drawings for Kemp Town estate's Busby and Wilds' 1820s set piece of Sussex Square and Lewes Crescent — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for East Cliff's bow-fronted Regency terraces stepping up from Marine Parade — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Queen's Park's Victorian terraces and villas around the park bowl — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for College's planned Victorian streets near Brighton College — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Kemptown Village's the compact St George's Road high-street terraces — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Whitehawk fringe's later housing climbing the eastern downland slope — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
The right extension in Kemp Town 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 Kemp Town and East Cliff 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 Kemp Town 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 Kemp Town 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 Kemp Town and East Cliff.
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 Kemp Town'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 Kemp Town address specifically.
A householder planning application in Kemp Town 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 Kemp Town address specifically.
Every house and brief is different, so we price each Kemp Town 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.
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.