Back-of-house extension drawings for Kensington and Chelsea homes — the glazed kitchen-diner across the rear, drawn to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's depth and daylight limits, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check first.
the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea granted 85% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 2 points below the 87% England-wide householder average. The borough runs the strictest basement policy in London — broadly one storey deep, under no more than half the garden, with a construction traffic management plan, 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.
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. Kensington and Chelsea carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Chelsea, Kensington and Holland Park remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Kensington and Chelsea is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Chelsea (stucco terraces and mews streets off the King's Road), Kensington (grand stucco terraces and mansion blocks), Notting Hill (the Ladbroke Estate's stucco terraces around communal garden squares), Holland Park (large detached villas and substantial mansion flats), Knightsbridge (red-brick mansion blocks and stucco terraces) and Earls Court (tall Victorian terraces widely subdivided into flats) — these are the Kensington and Chelsea pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Chelsea, Kensington, Holland Park, Ladbroke and Brompton. the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea weighs each proposal against the RBKC Consolidated Local Plan and the Basements SPD, where with the roofscape closely protected, mansard and roof additions are judged against the prevailing profile of each terrace group. Subdivided period houses are common around Earls Court and Notting Hill, and converted flats hold no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is concealed butterfly roofs behind the terrace parapets and mansard roofs added to the stucco terraces, over stucco-fronted Georgian and Victorian terraces, purpose-built mansion blocks and mews houses behind the main streets.
The rear extension is the workhorse of Kensington and Chelsea home improvement — it is how a dark back kitchen becomes an open family room facing the garden. Because the borough is built largely from stucco-fronted Georgian and Victorian terraces, purpose-built mansion blocks and mews houses behind the main streets, most back walls sit close to a neighbour on at least one side, and that proximity, not the design, is what the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea scrutinises. The council reads the proposal against the RBKC Consolidated Local Plan and the Basements SPD, and the first line an officer draws is the 45-degree splay from the neighbour's nearest window.
So the drawings live or die on geometry. We set the depth against the exact permitted-development figure, hold the eaves and the flat-roof or lantern build-up under the 4-metre height ceiling, and show the projection tested against both the 45-degree plan angle and the 25-degree section angle to the neighbouring windows. The borough runs the strictest basement policy in London — broadly one storey deep, under no more than half the garden, with a construction traffic management plan, so the rear elevation is composed around it rather than corrected after an objection.
Where the property sits in a conservation area — Chelsea, Kensington, Holland Park, Ladbroke and Brompton among Kensington and Chelsea's — the larger-home extension route is switched off and even a modest rear addition needs consent. Almost the entire borough falls within a conservation area, and Article 4 directions strip out permitted-development rights so even minor external changes on the Ladbroke or Chelsea streets need consent. We confirm the designation before the survey.
Many single-storey rear extensions in Kensington and Chelsea are permitted development and need no application. You will normally need to apply to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, or use the larger-home prior-approval route, if any of these apply:
We draw the depth, the roof build-up and the daylight splays to each neighbour on the page — the tests the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's officers apply first — and submit a validation-complete pack, whether that is a lawful development certificate, a larger-home prior-approval notice or a full householder application.
Below is the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's real householder decision record, taken from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. The Royal Borough grants a fair share of householder applications but under exacting design control, with borough-wide conservation status and its restrictive basement policy the defining constraints. Rear extensions turn most often on neighbour daylight and depth, so a drawing pack that proves those tests upfront is decided faster and refused less often than a DIY submission.
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 Chelsea, Kensington and Notting Hill, the approved rear extension is typically a single-storey glazed box within the depth limit, roofed either flat with a lantern or in a shallow mono-pitch, and finished in brick or render to match the host wall. On the borough's stucco-fronted georgian and victorian terraces, keeping the projection to the permitted-development figure often avoids an application entirely; where owners want the full 6 metres, the larger-home route succeeds when the neighbour-consultation period passes without a sustained objection.
With the roofscape closely protected, mansard and roof additions are judged against the prevailing profile of each terrace group. We keep the extension inside the daylight splays, set any glazed roof below the first-floor cill, and retain the garden depth the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea expects — so the back elevation answers the amenity case before a neighbour can lodge one. Two-storey rear extensions we draw with the 7-metre boundary gap and privacy screening resolved on the plan.
We draw rear extensions on every street in the borough. A few of the neighbourhoods where Kensington and Chelsea back-of-house projects come up most often:
Rear extension drawings for Chelsea's stucco terraces and mews streets off the King's Road — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for Kensington's grand stucco terraces and mansion blocks — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for Notting Hill's the Ladbroke Estate's stucco terraces around communal garden squares — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for Holland Park's large detached villas and substantial mansion flats — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for Knightsbridge's red-brick mansion blocks and stucco terraces — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for Earls Court's tall Victorian terraces widely subdivided into flats — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's guidance.
How far you can extend at the back in Kensington and Chelsea depends on your house type and the route you take. This is how the options compare.
| Route | Depth allowed | Consent needed | What the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard permitted development | 3m terrace/semi · 4m detached | Lawful development certificate (optional) | Depth, 4m height, materials |
| Larger-home prior approval | 6m terrace/semi · 8m detached | Prior-approval notice + neighbour consultation | Neighbour objections on amenity |
| Full householder application | Beyond the above, or two-storey | Full planning permission | Daylight (45°/25°), bulk, garden retained |
| Conservation area | Case by case | Full planning permission | Character, roof form, boundary treatment |
The larger-home route is switched off on designated land — conservation areas such as Chelsea and Kensington and Article 4 streets need a full application.
A fixed process built around how the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea validates and decides rear-extension applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Send us your Kensington and Chelsea postcode and house type. We confirm your conservation and Article 4 status, how much rear-extension depth you have under permitted development, and score your odds against live the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea decisions.
We measure the original rear wall, floor and eaves levels, side and rear boundary distances and the neighbours' window positions — the numbers the depth limit and daylight splays depend on.
Chartered designers develop the single or two-storey rear extension to your brief, drawn inside the permitted-development limits or to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's extension design guidance, with the daylight angles shown.
We submit the certificate, prior-approval notice or application, handle validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea issues its decision.
Often not. 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 Kensington and Chelsea. You will need to involve the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for anything deeper via the larger-home route, for two-storey rear extensions, and for any rear extension in a conservation area such as Chelsea and Kensington, where those permitted-development rights fall away.
The larger-home extension scheme lets a single-storey rear extension reach 6 metres on a terrace or semi, or 8 metres on a detached house — double the standard allowance. It is not automatic: you submit a prior-approval notification to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, neighbours are consulted, and if one objects on amenity grounds the council rules on it. It also does not apply on designated land such as Kensington and Chelsea's conservation areas.
It is the daylight test the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea applies to protect neighbours. Drawn on plan, a line at 45 degrees from the midpoint of the neighbour's nearest ground-floor window should not be crossed by your extension; a companion 25-degree line is checked in section. If the projection breaches it, the extension is likely to be shortened or refused, so we test and prove it on the drawings before submission.
A two-storey rear extension almost always needs a full householder application to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, as it sits outside permitted development on most homes. The council checks that it stays at least 7 metres from the rear boundary, does not overbear the neighbours and avoids new overlooking. We resolve the boundary gap, privacy and daylight on the plans so the application is decided on its merits.
Frequently, yes. If the rear extension involves work to a shared wall, building up to the boundary, or excavating foundations near a neighbour's structure, the Party Wall etc. Act applies and you must serve notice — this is separate from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's planning decision. We flag it early and can prepare the drawings a party-wall surveyor needs alongside the planning set.
We price each Kensington and Chelsea rear extension on its own footprint and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. It covers the full drawing pack with free revisions until the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea approves, and we confirm at the outset whether your extension is permitted development, needs prior approval, or a full application. Call 020 7864 7245 to begin.
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Same fixed quotes, same fast drawings — wherever your project is.