Two-storey extension drawings for Tower Hamlets homes — bedroom above, living space below, drawn against the 3-metre projection and 7-metre boundary rules and to Tower Hamlets Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision.
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.
Adding at first floor changes the question the case officer asks. A single-storey extension is judged mostly on daylight and garden loss; a two-storey extension is judged on overlooking, bulk against the neighbouring roofline, and whether it reads as part of the house or bolted onto it. Tower Hamlets is largely Georgian merchant terraces around Spitalfields, Victorian terraces across Bow and Poplar and warehouse and dock conversions, and parapet-hidden butterfly roofs on the Georgian terraces and pitched roofs on the Victorian stock set what a matching roof actually means here.
The permitted-development route exists but is narrow: 3 metres of rear projection, a 7-metre stand-off from the rear boundary, eaves and ridge no higher than the original, and side-facing upper windows obscure-glazed and non-opening below 1.7 metres above floor level. Most two-storey schemes fail one of those, usually the 7-metre boundary rule on a shorter garden, and go in as a full application instead. We establish which route applies before designing, because it changes the drawing set.
Georgian frontages in Spitalfields are treated as near-untouchable, pushing any addition to the rear and out of public view. 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.
Some two-storey rear extensions are permitted development. You will need a full application to Tower Hamlets Council if any of these apply:
We set the projection and boundary distance on the site plan, prove the roof-pitch match on the elevations, and specify obscure glazing on the side windows — the three things Tower Hamlets Council checks first — then submit a validation-complete pack.
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. Two-storey schemes attract more neighbour comment than any other householder work, so the overlooking and daylight case has to be made on the drawings.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, rolling year). Compare every borough on our London approval-rate league table.
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Across Spitalfields, Bow and Limehouse, the schemes that succeed set the first floor back from the ground floor, keep the ridge below the original, and treat the flank wall as blank or obscure-glazed. On georgian merchant terraces around spitalfields, matching the eaves line matters more than matching the brick: an extension that carries the existing eaves through reads as original even in a different material.
Dense back-land plots make daylight, overlooking and outlook the decisive tests on rear projections. We draw the 45-degree daylight test from the neighbour's nearest habitable window, show the window positions in section, and set out the steel and foundation implications early — a two-storey extension changes the load path, so the structural design and the planning design have to be developed together rather than in sequence.
We draw two-storey extensions across Tower Hamlets. A few of the areas where they come up most often:
Two storey extension drawings for Spitalfields — early-Georgian silk-weavers' houses under strict conservation control — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Tower Hamlets Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Bow — Victorian terraces around the Bow conservation area — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Tower Hamlets Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Limehouse — riverside warehouse conversions along Narrow Street — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Tower Hamlets Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Poplar — mixed Victorian terraces and postwar estates — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Tower Hamlets Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Bethnal Green — dense Victorian terraces and former industrial buildings — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Tower Hamlets Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Mile End — Victorian terraces facing Mile End Park — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Tower Hamlets Council's guidance.
The first-floor limits are tighter than the ground-floor ones. This is how the common cases compare.
| Scheme | Permitted development? | Deciding limit | What Tower Hamlets Council checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two-storey rear, 3m projection, 7m+ to boundary | Often yes | 3m projection / 7m boundary | Roof match, side-window glazing |
| Two-storey rear, under 7m to boundary | No — full application | Rear-boundary distance | Overlooking, daylight, garden loss |
| Two-storey side extension | No — full application | Side elevation | Gap to boundary, street rhythm |
| Two-storey wraparound | No — full application | Combined footprint | Bulk, massing, neighbour amenity |
| Any two-storey on designated land | No — full application | Designation | Character and appearance |
Limits from the GPDO 2015, Schedule 2, Part 1, Class A — two-storey rear extension conditions.
A fixed process built around how Tower Hamlets Council validates and decides two-storey applications.
Send us your Tower Hamlets postcode and garden depth. We measure the 7-metre boundary rule against your plot, confirm designation status, and score your odds against live Tower Hamlets Council decisions.
We measure the original rear wall, eaves and ridge heights, garden depth and every neighbouring window that faces the site — the inputs the daylight and overlooking case is built from.
Chartered designers develop the two-storey addition to your brief with the roof and eaves resolved, and we coordinate the load path so the structural scheme and the planning scheme are the same building.
We submit the application, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Tower Hamlets Council issues its decision.
Often, but not always. A two-storey rear extension can be permitted development if it projects no more than 3 metres, sits at least 7 metres from the rear boundary, does not exceed the existing eaves and ridge, and has obscure-glazed non-opening side windows below 1.7 metres. In Tower Hamlets, the 7-metre rule is what most commonly forces a full application to Tower Hamlets Council.
No part of a permitted-development two-storey rear extension may come within 7 metres of the boundary opposite the rear wall of the house. It exists to protect the neighbour behind you from being overlooked at first floor. On shorter Tower Hamlets gardens this is decisive, and we measure it on survey before any design work rather than discovering it at validation. Tower Hamlets Council is the decision-maker.
Not under permitted development — two-storey side extensions always need a full application to Tower Hamlets Council. They are assessed on the gap to the boundary, whether the street's rhythm of spaces between houses survives, and whether the extension is subordinate to the original. Setting the first floor back from the front building line and down from the ridge is what usually makes the difference.
Overlooking is the most common objection, and it is answerable on the drawings. We position habitable-room windows away from neighbouring gardens, obscure-glaze and fix shut anything on the flank below 1.7 metres, and show the sight lines in section. Where the geometry is tight, a rooflight or a high-level window gives the same daylight without the mutual overlooking that draws objections. This applies to your Tower Hamlets address specifically. Tower Hamlets Council is the decision-maker.
Almost certainly. Excavating within 3 metres of a neighbouring structure and building on or up to the boundary both trigger the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, and a two-storey extension usually does both. It is entirely separate from Tower Hamlets Council's planning decision, so we flag the notice period early and detail the junction on the drawings.
Yes. Adding a floor changes the load path from roof to foundation, so beams, padstones and foundation depths all need designing and calculating for building control. Planning and building regulations are separate consents, and the structural set is what building control assesses — we prepare both so the approved scheme is the buildable one. This applies to your Tower Hamlets address specifically. Tower Hamlets Council is the decision-maker.
We quote each Tower Hamlets two-storey extension individually, because plot depth, roof form and structural complexity vary house to house, and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. It covers the drawing pack with free revisions until Tower Hamlets Council approves. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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