Single-storey, double-storey, rear and side extension drawings for Seven Dials 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 exceptionally complete stucco character of Montpelier and Clifton Hill is protected in fine grain, so render, glazing and roofline changes are tightly assessed, 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. Seven Dials carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Montpelier and Clifton Hill, West Hill and Prestonville remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Seven Dials is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Montpelier (cohesive 1820s–1860s stucco terraces and villas west of the centre), Clifton Hill (the salubrious hillside estate of Regency and Victorian houses), West Hill (Victorian terraces that grew with the railway station below), Prestonville (tight Victorian terraces west of the main line), Seven Dials (the busy junction ringed by tall Victorian terraces) and Dyke Road fringe (larger detached and semi-detached Victorian villas) — these are the Seven Dials pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Montpelier and Clifton Hill, West Hill, Prestonville and Stanford. Brighton & Hove City Council weighs each proposal against Brighton & Hove City Plan (Parts One 2016 and Two 2022) and the relevant SPDs, where basement and lightwell proposals on the hillside meet detailed structural and drainage policy on top of the householder tests. Much of Montpelier, West Hill and Prestonville is converted into flats and maisonettes, which carry no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is parapet-hidden butterfly and valley roofs on the stucco terraces and pitched slate roofs on the Victorian streets, over Regency and early-Victorian stucco terraces and villas, later Victorian bay-fronted terraces and converted flats and maisonettes.
Seven Dials homes come in a handful of recurring shapes, and each one points to a different extension. The borough is built largely from Regency and early-Victorian stucco terraces and villas, later 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 exceptionally complete stucco character of Montpelier and Clifton Hill is protected in fine grain, so render, glazing and roofline changes are tightly assessed, so we design around it from the first sketch rather than discover it at validation.
Seven Dials also protects whole streets — Montpelier and Clifton Hill, West Hill, Prestonville and Stanford among them. Seven Dials sits under the city-wide small-HMO Article 4 direction, while the Montpelier & Clifton Hill and West Hill conservation-area Article 4s remove permitted-development rights for external works to their stucco Regency and Victorian terraces. 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 Seven Dials 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. Brighton & Hove grants most householder schemes, yet across Seven Dials the dense stucco conservation coverage means heritage detailing, not principle, usually decides the outcome. 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 Montpelier, Clifton Hill and West Hill, 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 regency and early-victorian stucco terraces and villas, 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 and lightwell proposals on the hillside meet detailed structural and drainage policy on top of the householder tests. 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 Seven Dials projects come up most often:
Extension drawings for Montpelier's cohesive 1820s–1860s stucco terraces and villas west of the centre — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Clifton Hill's the salubrious hillside estate of Regency and Victorian houses — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for West Hill's Victorian terraces that grew with the railway station below — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Prestonville's tight Victorian terraces west of the main line — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Seven Dials's the busy junction ringed by tall Victorian terraces — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Dyke Road fringe's larger detached and semi-detached Victorian villas — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
The right extension in Seven Dials 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 Montpelier and Clifton Hill and West 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 Seven Dials 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 Seven Dials 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 Montpelier and Clifton Hill and West 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 Seven Dials'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 Seven Dials address specifically.
A householder planning application in Seven Dials 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 Seven Dials address specifically.
Every house and brief is different, so we price each Seven Dials 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.