Single-storey, double-storey, rear and side extension drawings for Tower Hamlets homes — measured to Tower Hamlets Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check before you commit.
Tower Hamlets Council granted 92.1% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 1.7999999999999972 points above the 90.3% England-wide householder average. Georgian frontages in Spitalfields are treated as near-untouchable, pushing any addition to the rear and out of public view, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Georgian (1714–1837), Victorian (1837–1901) and postwar (1945–1970) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Under Class B, a rear dormer stays permitted development up to 40m³ of added roof volume on a terrace or 50m³ on a semi-detached or detached house, while Class A allows a single-storey rear extension of 3m beyond the original rear wall on a terrace and 4m on a detached house before a full application is needed. Tower Hamlets carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Fournier Street, Elder Street and Narrow Street remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Tower Hamlets is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Spitalfields (early-Georgian silk-weavers' houses under strict conservation control), Bow (Victorian terraces around the Bow conservation area), Limehouse (riverside warehouse conversions along Narrow Street), Poplar (mixed Victorian terraces and postwar estates), Bethnal Green (dense Victorian terraces and former industrial buildings) and Mile End (Victorian terraces facing Mile End Park) — these are the Tower Hamlets pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Fournier Street, Elder Street, Narrow Street, Victoria Park and Bow. Tower Hamlets Council weighs each proposal against Tower Hamlets Local Plan 2031 and the borough's Residential Alterations and Extensions guidance, where dense back-land plots make daylight, overlooking and outlook the decisive tests on rear projections. Much of the borough is flatted — split houses, ex-industrial units and dock conversions — so most homes here have no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is parapet-hidden butterfly roofs on the Georgian terraces and pitched roofs on the Victorian stock, over Georgian merchant terraces around Spitalfields, Victorian terraces across Bow and Poplar and warehouse and dock conversions.
Tower Hamlets homes come in a handful of recurring shapes, and each one points to a different extension. The borough is built largely from Georgian merchant terraces around Spitalfields, Victorian terraces across Bow and Poplar and warehouse and dock 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. Tower Hamlets Council judges every one of them against Tower Hamlets Local Plan 2031 and the borough's Residential Alterations and Extensions 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. Georgian frontages in Spitalfields are treated as near-untouchable, pushing any addition to the rear and out of public view, so we design around it from the first sketch rather than discover it at validation.
Tower Hamlets also protects whole streets — Fournier Street, Elder Street, Narrow Street, Victoria Park and Bow among them. The Spitalfields conservation areas around Fournier Street and Elder Street carry some of the tightest heritage controls in London, with Article 4 directions removing permitted-development rights on their early-Georgian frontages. 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 Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets Council if any of these apply:
We draw the footprint, the ridge and eaves heights and the neighbours' daylight on the page — the relationships Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Tower Hamlets grants most householder applications, yet the exceptional heritage sensitivity of its Georgian quarters is the constraint that governs design more than anything else. 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 Spitalfields, Bow and Limehouse, 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 merchant terraces around spitalfields, a side-return infill frequently pairs with it to square off the plan; on wider warehouse and dock conversions, a two-storey side or rear extension can add a bedroom above without swallowing the garden.
Dense back-land plots make daylight, overlooking and outlook the decisive tests on rear projections. 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 Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets projects come up most often:
Extension drawings for Spitalfields's early-Georgian silk-weavers' houses under strict conservation control — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Tower Hamlets Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Bow's Victorian terraces around the Bow conservation area — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Tower Hamlets Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Limehouse's riverside warehouse conversions along Narrow Street — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Tower Hamlets Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Poplar's mixed Victorian terraces and postwar estates — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Tower Hamlets Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Bethnal Green's dense Victorian terraces and former industrial buildings — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Tower Hamlets Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Mile End's Victorian terraces facing Mile End Park — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Tower Hamlets Council's guidance.
The right extension in Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets 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 Fournier Street and Elder Street and Article 4 directions can remove permitted-development rights.
A fixed process built around how Tower Hamlets Council validates and decides householder extension applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Tell us your Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets you will need to apply to Tower Hamlets 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 Fournier Street and Elder Street.
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 Tower Hamlets Council and a neighbour-consultation period, and it does not apply on designated land such as Tower Hamlets'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 Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets 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. Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets Council's building control or a registered building control approver can sign the work off.
Every house and brief is different, so we price each Tower Hamlets extension individually and send a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. It covers the full drawing pack with free revisions until Tower Hamlets 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.