L-shaped wraparound drawings for Bexley — a full-width rear extension married to the side-return infill so the whole ground floor opens up, drawn to Bexley Council's guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check first.
Bexley Council granted 88% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 1 point above the 87% England-wide householder average. Green Belt at Crayford Marshes and Foots Cray Meadows tightly limits extensions on the borough's fringes, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Victorian (1837–1901), interwar (1918–1939) and postwar (1945–1970) 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. Bexley carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Bexley Village, Danson Park and Upton remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Bexley is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Old Bexley (the historic village strung along Bexley High Street), Bexleyheath (interwar semis around Danson Park and the Upton conservation area), Sidcup (1930s houses and older streets near Old Sidcup and Foots Cray), Erith (riverside terraces and postwar housing by the Thames), Crayford (Victorian and interwar homes along the industrial edge) and Welling (dense interwar semi-detached suburbs) — these are the Bexley pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Bexley Village, Danson Park, Upton, Old Sidcup and Foots Cray. Bexley Council weighs each proposal against the Bexley Local Plan and the borough's design guidance for householder development, where hipped roofs on paired semis mean hip-to-gable and dormers are judged on bulk and the pair's balance. On roofs the borough is hipped roofs on the interwar and postwar semis and gabled roofs on the detached houses, over interwar and postwar semi-detached houses, detached houses on larger plots and riverside and Victorian terraces.
A wraparound is the ambitious ground-floor move, and Bexley has the stock that suits it — the borough is built largely from interwar and postwar semi-detached houses, detached houses on larger plots and riverside and Victorian terraces, and the terraces and semis with an L-shaped back addition give you both a side alley to infill and a rear garden to project into. Do both in one L-shaped sweep and the kitchen, dining and living space merge into a single room that runs the full width of the house and out into the garden. Bexley Council assesses the scheme against the Bexley Local Plan and the borough's design guidance for householder development, and because the footprint is large it looks hardest at what survives of the garden.
The drawings carry the argument. We show the retained private amenity space to scale, prove the rear projection sits within the depth the council accepts for the house type, and set the side leg so it clears the boundary and keeps the neighbour's daylight — a wraparound touches two boundaries, not one, so both neighbour relationships are drawn out. Green Belt at Crayford Marshes and Foots Cray Meadows tightly limits extensions on the borough's fringes, which on a footprint this size is where a scheme is won or lost.
Where Bexley's streets sit in conservation areas — Bexley Village, Danson Park, Upton, Old Sidcup and Foots Cray among them — a wraparound is never permitted development and the design is read against the area's character. Bexley applies Article 4 directions in conservation areas such as Bexley Village and Danson Park, and parts of the borough fall within Metropolitan Green Belt where extensions are firmly restricted. We settle the designation before the footprint is fixed.
A wraparound in Bexley almost always needs a full householder application, because joining a side infill to a deep rear extension takes it past permitted-development limits. You will need to apply to Bexley Council if any of these apply — and for a true wraparound, at least one always will:
We draw the L-shaped footprint against the retained garden, the rear depth within the council's limit for your house type and the two neighbour boundaries the side and rear legs touch — the things Bexley Council's officers and both neighbours check — then submit a validation-complete householder application.
Below is Bexley Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Bexley approves a strong majority of householder applications, with Metropolitan Green Belt on its edges and the symmetry of paired suburban semis the main factors shaping approvals. A wraparound stands or falls on the garden it leaves and the two boundaries it meets, so a pack that settles both 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 Old Bexley, Bexleyheath and Sidcup, the approved wraparound is a single-storey L that reads as one considered addition rather than two bolted together: the rear leg kept to the depth the council accepts, the side leg matched to the host brick and roofed with a glazed flat or lantern, and enough garden left to satisfy the borough's private-amenity expectation. On the borough's interwar and postwar semi-detached houses, this is the biggest transformation the ground floor can take in a single application.
Hipped roofs on paired semis mean hip-to-gable and dormers are judged on bulk and the pair's balance. We size the footprint so the garden that remains still works, keep the eaves and roof low enough to protect both neighbours' light, and present the whole L as a single scheme — which reads far more clearly to Bexley Council than a side return and a rear extension submitted as separate, overlapping proposals.
We draw L-shaped wraparounds on the terraced and semi-detached streets across the borough. A few of the neighbourhoods where Bexley wraparounds come up most often:
Wraparound extension drawings for Old Bexley's the historic village strung along Bexley High Street — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to Bexley Council's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Bexleyheath's interwar semis around Danson Park and the Upton conservation area — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to Bexley Council's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Sidcup's 1930s houses and older streets near Old Sidcup and Foots Cray — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to Bexley Council's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Erith's riverside terraces and postwar housing by the Thames — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to Bexley Council's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Crayford's Victorian and interwar homes along the industrial edge — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to Bexley Council's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Welling's dense interwar semi-detached suburbs — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to Bexley Council's guidance.
A wraparound is the two smaller extensions combined — which changes what Bexley Council needs and what the ground floor gains. This is how the options compare.
| Ground-floor option | Permitted development? | What it gains | What Bexley Council checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side return only | Sometimes, within width and height limits | Full-width kitchen | Width, roof glazing |
| Rear extension only | Often, within the depth limit | Deeper living space | Rear depth, neighbour daylight |
| Wraparound (side + rear) | No — full application | Largest open-plan ground floor | Combined footprint, garden retained |
| Two-storey wraparound | No — full application | Room above as well as below | Bulk, overlooking, two boundaries |
In conservation areas such as Bexley Village and Danson Park, a wraparound is never permitted development and always needs a full application.
A fixed process built around how Bexley Council validates and decides wraparound applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Send us your Bexley postcode and house type. We confirm your conservation and Article 4 status, measure the garden against the borough's amenity expectation, and score your odds against live Bexley Council decisions.
We measure the side alley, the rear building line, the garden depth and both neighbours' window heights — the numbers the footprint, rear depth and two-boundary daylight tests depend on.
Chartered designers develop the L-shaped extension to your brief, drawn to Bexley Council's extension guidance with the retained garden, rear depth and both boundary junctions detailed on the page.
We submit the householder application, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Bexley Council issues its decision.
Almost always. A wraparound joins a side-return infill to a rear extension, and that combination takes the footprint past what permitted development allows, so it needs a full householder application to Bexley Council. Only the rare, very shallow case stays within the limits. On designated land — a conservation area such as Bexley Village and Danson Park — a wraparound is never permitted development, so an application is certain.
It is an L-shaped extension that fills the side return and wraps around into a full-width rear extension in one continuous sweep, so the kitchen, dining and living space become a single open room the width of the house. Bexley's period terraces and semis with an L-shaped back addition suit it well, which is why the wraparound is the borough's biggest single-storey extension. Bexley Council is the decision-maker.
Bexley Council expects a usable amount of private garden to survive, because a wraparound is the deepest single-storey footprint and takes the most outdoor space. There is no single fixed figure — it is judged on the plot and the borough's amenity guidance — so we draw the retained garden to scale and size the extension around it, rather than maximising the build and hoping it passes.
Usually on both sides. A wraparound touches two boundaries — the side leg runs along one neighbour and the rear leg can affect the other — so the Party Wall etc. Act often applies to each, and notice must be served before work starts. This is separate from Bexley Council's planning decision. We detail both boundary junctions on the drawings and flag the notices early so surveyors can be appointed without delaying the build.
Built as one project it usually is, and it reads better to Bexley Council too. A single wraparound application covers the whole L-shaped footprint in one decision rather than two overlapping submissions, and the build shares one set of foundations, one roof and one disruption. We draw it as a single coherent scheme so the council assesses one clear proposal instead of piecing two together.
We price each Bexley wraparound individually, because garden depth, side-alley width and roof form vary house to house, and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. It covers the full drawing pack with free revisions until Bexley Council approves, and we confirm the retained-garden and boundary position at the outset. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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