Single-storey, double-storey, rear and side extension drawings for Wandsworth homes — measured to Wandsworth Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check before you commit.
Wandsworth Council granted 88% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 1 point above the 87% England-wide householder average. Side returns, mansards and dormers are judged in centimetres against the party wall and shared roofline, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant 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. Wandsworth carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Wandsworth Common, Nightingale Triangle and Tonsleys remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Wandsworth is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Battersea (Victorian terraces and mansion flats near the park), Balham (Edwardian terraces around the Nightingale Triangle), Tooting (long Victorian terraces off the high road), Putney (Edwardian villas and riverside streets), Earlsfield (compact Victorian terraces between the commons) and Southfields (the Magdalen Park grid of Edwardian houses) — these are the Wandsworth pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Wandsworth Common, Nightingale Triangle, Tonsleys, Magdalen Park and Battersea Park. Wandsworth Council weighs each proposal against Wandsworth Local Plan and the borough's Housing and Basements SPDs, where the borough applies detailed basement-development policies on top of the usual tests. Much of Battersea and Balham is converted flats and maisonettes, which carry no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is butterfly / valley roofs on the terraces and pitched roofs on the villas, over Victorian terraces, Edwardian mansion flats and Putney and Wandsworth villas.
Wandsworth homes come in a handful of recurring shapes, and each one points to a different extension. The borough is built largely from Victorian terraces, Edwardian mansion flats and Putney and Wandsworth villas, 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. Wandsworth Council judges every one of them against Wandsworth Local Plan and the borough's Housing and Basements 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. Side returns, mansards and dormers are judged in centimetres against the party wall and shared roofline, so we design around it from the first sketch rather than discover it at validation.
Wandsworth also protects whole streets — Wandsworth Common, Nightingale Triangle, Tonsleys, Magdalen Park and Battersea Park among them. Several Wandsworth conservation areas carry Article 4 directions, and the borough's dense conservation coverage means many terraced streets need a full application for works that would be PD elsewhere. 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 Wandsworth 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 Wandsworth Council if any of these apply:
We draw the footprint, the ridge and eaves heights and the neighbours' daylight on the page — the relationships Wandsworth 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 Wandsworth Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Wandsworth grants a healthy share of householder applications, but its uniform Victorian terraces mean side returns and roof alterations are assessed in centimetres against the neighbours. 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 Battersea, Balham and Tooting, 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 victorian terraces, a side-return infill frequently pairs with it to square off the plan; on wider putney and wandsworth villas, a two-storey side or rear extension can add a bedroom above without swallowing the garden.
The borough applies detailed basement-development policies on top of the usual 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 Wandsworth 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 Wandsworth projects come up most often:
Extension drawings for Battersea's Victorian terraces and mansion flats near the park — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Wandsworth Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Balham's Edwardian terraces around the Nightingale Triangle — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Wandsworth Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Tooting's long Victorian terraces off the high road — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Wandsworth Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Putney's Edwardian villas and riverside streets — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Wandsworth Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Earlsfield's compact Victorian terraces between the commons — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Wandsworth Council's guidance.
Extension drawings for Southfields's the Magdalen Park grid of Edwardian houses — footprint-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Wandsworth Council's guidance.
The right extension in Wandsworth 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 Wandsworth 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 Wandsworth Common and Nightingale Triangle and Article 4 directions can remove permitted-development rights.
A fixed process built around how Wandsworth Council validates and decides householder extension applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Tell us your Wandsworth 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 Wandsworth 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 Wandsworth 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 Wandsworth 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 Wandsworth you will need to apply to Wandsworth 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 Wandsworth Common and Nightingale Triangle.
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 Wandsworth Council and a neighbour-consultation period, and it does not apply on designated land such as Wandsworth'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 Wandsworth 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 Wandsworth 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. Wandsworth 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 Wandsworth Council's building control or an approved inspector can sign the work off.
Every house and brief is different, so we price each Wandsworth extension individually and send a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. It covers the full drawing pack with free revisions until Wandsworth 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.