L-shaped wraparound drawings for Greenwich — a full-width rear extension married to the side-return infill so the whole ground floor opens up, drawn to the Royal Borough of Greenwich's guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check first.
the Royal Borough of Greenwich granted 87% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — level with the 87% England-wide householder average. The Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site and its buffer zone add height and setting tests near the town centre, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Georgian (1714–1837), Victorian (1837–1901), Edwardian (1901–1910) and interwar (1918–1939) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Class A and Class B set the thresholds — a rear dormer to 40m³ on a terrace or 50m³ on a semi or detached, and a single-storey rear extension to 3m on a terrace or 4m on a detached house — beyond which the Royal Borough of Greenwich needs a full application. Greenwich carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including West Greenwich, Blackheath Park and Ashburnham Triangle remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Greenwich is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Greenwich (Georgian and early-Victorian terraces inside the West Greenwich conservation area), Blackheath (villas and terraces around the Cator Estate and Blackheath Park), Westcombe Park (Edwardian and Victorian villas climbing the hill above the river), Charlton (the older cottages and interwar streets around Charlton Village), Eltham (interwar semis including the Well Hall Progress Estate) and Woolwich (denser Victorian terraces amid riverside regeneration) — these are the Greenwich pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include West Greenwich, Blackheath Park, Ashburnham Triangle, Westcombe Park and Charlton Village. the Royal Borough of Greenwich weighs each proposal against the Royal Greenwich Local Plan: Core Strategy with Detailed Policies and the borough's residential extensions design guidance, where protected Thames-side views shape what roof additions are acceptable on the borough's northern edge. On roofs the borough is parapet and butterfly roofs on the Georgian terraces and pitched and hipped roofs on the villas, over Georgian and early-Victorian terraces, Victorian and Edwardian villas and riverside and interwar housing.
A wraparound is the ambitious ground-floor move, and Greenwich has the stock that suits it — the borough is built largely from Georgian and early-Victorian terraces, Victorian and Edwardian villas and riverside and interwar housing, 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. the Royal Borough of Greenwich assesses the scheme against the Royal Greenwich Local Plan: Core Strategy with Detailed Policies and the borough's residential extensions design guidance, 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. The Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site and its buffer zone add height and setting tests near the town centre, which on a footprint this size is where a scheme is won or lost.
Where Greenwich's streets sit in conservation areas — West Greenwich, Blackheath Park, Ashburnham Triangle, Westcombe Park and Charlton Village among them — a wraparound is never permitted development and the design is read against the area's character. Article 4 directions strip out permitted-development rights across Greenwich's conservation areas such as West Greenwich and Westcombe Park, so front-facing and roof alterations there need a full application. We settle the designation before the footprint is fixed.
A wraparound in Greenwich 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 the Royal Borough of Greenwich 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 the Royal Borough of Greenwich's officers and both neighbours check — then submit a validation-complete householder application.
Below is the Royal Borough of Greenwich's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Greenwich approves most householder applications, but the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site and its dense conservation coverage set the terms for what works near the town centre and the river. 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 Greenwich, Blackheath and Westcombe Park, 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 georgian and early-victorian terraces, this is the biggest transformation the ground floor can take in a single application.
Protected Thames-side views shape what roof additions are acceptable on the borough's northern edge. 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 the Royal Borough of Greenwich 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 Greenwich wraparounds come up most often:
Wraparound extension drawings for Greenwich's Georgian and early-Victorian terraces inside the West Greenwich conservation area — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to the Royal Borough of Greenwich's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Blackheath's villas and terraces around the Cator Estate and Blackheath Park — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to the Royal Borough of Greenwich's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Westcombe Park's Edwardian and Victorian villas climbing the hill above the river — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to the Royal Borough of Greenwich's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Charlton's the older cottages and interwar streets around Charlton Village — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to the Royal Borough of Greenwich's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Eltham's interwar semis including the Well Hall Progress Estate — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to the Royal Borough of Greenwich's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Woolwich's denser Victorian terraces amid riverside regeneration — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to the Royal Borough of Greenwich's guidance.
A wraparound is the two smaller extensions combined — which changes what the Royal Borough of Greenwich needs and what the ground floor gains. This is how the options compare.
| Ground-floor option | Permitted development? | What it gains | What the Royal Borough of Greenwich 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 West Greenwich and Blackheath Park, a wraparound is never permitted development and always needs a full application.
A fixed process built around how the Royal Borough of Greenwich validates and decides wraparound applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Send us your Greenwich 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 the Royal Borough of Greenwich 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 the Royal Borough of Greenwich'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 the Royal Borough of Greenwich 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 the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Only the rare, very shallow case stays within the limits. On designated land — a conservation area such as West Greenwich and Blackheath 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. Greenwich'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. the Royal Borough of Greenwich is the decision-maker.
the Royal Borough of Greenwich 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 the Royal Borough of Greenwich'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 the Royal Borough of Greenwich 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 Greenwich 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 the Royal Borough of Greenwich approves, and we confirm the retained-garden and boundary position at the outset. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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.