Back-of-house extension drawings for Seven Dials homes — the glazed kitchen-diner across the rear, drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's depth and daylight limits, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check first.
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.
The rear extension is the workhorse of Seven Dials home improvement — it is how a dark back kitchen becomes an open family room facing the garden. Because the borough is built largely from Regency and early-Victorian stucco terraces and villas, later Victorian bay-fronted terraces and converted flats and maisonettes, most back walls sit close to a neighbour on at least one side, and that proximity, not the design, is what Brighton & Hove City Council scrutinises. The council reads the proposal against Brighton & Hove City Plan (Parts One 2016 and Two 2022) and the relevant SPDs, 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 exceptionally complete stucco character of Montpelier and Clifton Hill is protected in fine grain, so render, glazing and roofline changes are tightly assessed, so the rear elevation is composed around it rather than corrected after an objection.
Where the property sits in a conservation area — Montpelier and Clifton Hill, West Hill, Prestonville and Stanford among Seven Dials's — the larger-home extension route is switched off and even a modest rear addition needs consent. 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. We confirm the designation before the survey.
Many single-storey rear extensions in Seven Dials are permitted development and need no application. You will normally need to apply to Brighton & Hove City Council, 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 Brighton & Hove City Council'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 Brighton & Hove City Council's real householder decision record, taken 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. 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, 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 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 regency and early-victorian stucco terraces and villas, 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.
Basement and lightwell proposals on the hillside meet detailed structural and drainage policy on top of the householder tests. We keep the extension inside the daylight splays, set any glazed roof below the first-floor cill, and retain the garden depth Brighton & Hove City Council 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 Seven Dials back-of-house projects come up most often:
Rear extension drawings for Montpelier's cohesive 1820s–1860s stucco terraces and villas west of the centre — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for Clifton Hill's the salubrious hillside estate of Regency and Victorian houses — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for West Hill's Victorian terraces that grew with the railway station below — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for Prestonville's tight Victorian terraces west of the main line — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for Seven Dials's the busy junction ringed by tall Victorian terraces — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for Dyke Road fringe's larger detached and semi-detached Victorian villas — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Brighton & Hove City Council's guidance.
How far you can extend at the back in Seven Dials depends on your house type and the route you take. This is how the options compare.
| Route | Depth allowed | Consent needed | What Brighton & Hove City Council 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 Montpelier and Clifton Hill and West Hill and Article 4 streets need a full application.
A fixed process built around how Brighton & Hove City Council validates and decides rear-extension applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Send us your Seven Dials 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 Brighton & Hove City Council 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 Brighton & Hove City Council'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 Brighton & Hove City Council 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 Seven Dials. You will need to involve Brighton & Hove City Council for anything deeper via the larger-home route, for two-storey rear extensions, and for any rear extension in a conservation area such as Montpelier and Clifton Hill and West Hill, 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 Brighton & Hove City Council, 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 Seven Dials's conservation areas.
It is the daylight test Brighton & Hove City Council 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. This applies to your Seven Dials address specifically.
A two-storey rear extension almost always needs a full householder application to Brighton & Hove City Council, 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. This applies to your Seven Dials address specifically.
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 Brighton & Hove City Council's planning decision. We flag it early and can prepare the drawings a party-wall surveyor needs alongside the planning set. This applies to your Seven Dials address specifically.
We price each Seven Dials 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 Brighton & Hove City Council 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.