Single-storey, double-storey, rear and side extension drawings for Lambeth homes — measured to Lambeth Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check before you commit.
Lambeth 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 flat conversion is resisted and frequently the deciding issue, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Georgian (1714–1837), Victorian (1837–1901) and Edwardian (1901–1910) 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. Lambeth carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Clapham Old Town, Stockwell Park and Angell Town remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Lambeth is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Clapham (Georgian and Victorian terraces around the Old Town and Common), Brixton (Victorian terraces heavily subdivided into flats), Stockwell (Georgian and Victorian streets around Stockwell Park), Herne Hill (Victorian villas and terraces on the Dulwich fringe), Streatham (Edwardian terraces and mansion blocks along the high road) and Kennington (Georgian and Regency terraces near the river) — these are the Lambeth pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Clapham Old Town, Stockwell Park, Angell Town, Herne Hill and Leigham Court Estate. Lambeth Council weighs each proposal against Lambeth Local Plan and the council's Alterations and Extensions SPD, where mansards and roof additions on stucco-fronted terraces are measured against whatever original roofline survives on the street. Much of Brixton, Clapham and Stockwell is already converted flats and maisonettes, which hold no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is butterfly and valley roofs behind the terrace parapets and mansard and pitched roofs on the taller stucco streets, over Georgian and Victorian terraces, converted flats and maisonettes and purpose-built mansion blocks and estates.
Lambeth 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, converted flats and maisonettes and purpose-built mansion blocks and estates, 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. Lambeth Council judges every one of them against Lambeth Local Plan and the council's Alterations and Extensions SPD, 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 flat conversion is resisted and frequently the deciding issue, so we design around it from the first sketch rather than discover it at validation.
Lambeth also protects whole streets — Clapham Old Town, Stockwell Park, Angell Town, Herne Hill and Leigham Court Estate among them. Alongside the controls in conservation areas such as Clapham Old Town, Lambeth runs a borough-wide Article 4 direction removing permitted-development rights for small shared houses, pulling many HMO changes 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 Lambeth 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 Lambeth Council if any of these apply:
We draw the footprint, the ridge and eaves heights and the neighbours' daylight on the page — the relationships Lambeth 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 Lambeth Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Lambeth grants a high proportion of householder applications, but with so much of its stock already split into flats, protecting the remaining family houses is what 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, 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 Clapham, Brixton and Stockwell, 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 purpose-built mansion blocks and estates, a two-storey side or rear extension can add a bedroom above without swallowing the garden.
Mansards and roof additions on stucco-fronted terraces are measured against whatever original roofline survives on the street. 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 Lambeth 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 Lambeth projects come up most often:
Extension drawings for Clapham's Georgian and Victorian terraces around the Old Town and Common — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Lambeth Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Brixton's Victorian terraces heavily subdivided into flats — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Lambeth Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Stockwell's Georgian and Victorian streets around Stockwell Park — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Lambeth Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Herne Hill's Victorian villas and terraces on the Dulwich fringe — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Lambeth Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Streatham's Edwardian terraces and mansion blocks along the high road — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Lambeth Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Kennington's Georgian and Regency terraces near the river — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Lambeth Council's guidance.
The right extension in Lambeth 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 Lambeth 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 Clapham Old Town and Stockwell Park and Article 4 directions can remove permitted-development rights.
A fixed process built around how Lambeth Council validates and decides householder extension applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Tell us your Lambeth 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 Lambeth 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 Lambeth 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 Lambeth 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 Lambeth you will need to apply to Lambeth 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 Clapham Old Town and Stockwell Park.
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 Lambeth Council and a neighbour-consultation period, and it does not apply on designated land such as Lambeth'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 Lambeth 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 Lambeth 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. Lambeth 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 Lambeth Council's building control or an approved inspector can sign the work off.
Every house and brief is different, so we price each Lambeth extension individually and send a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. It covers the full drawing pack with free revisions until Lambeth 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.