L-shaped wraparound drawings for Hackney — a full-width rear extension married to the side-return infill so the whole ground floor opens up, drawn to Hackney Council's guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check first.
Hackney Council granted 89% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 2 points above the 87% England-wide householder average. Parapet-fronted terraces mean rear roof extensions are scrutinised harder than the concealed front slope suggests, 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.
The permitted-development ceilings are fixed: 40m³ of new roof volume for a terraced loft and 50m³ for a semi or detached house under Class B, plus a 3m single-storey rear extension on a terrace or 4m on a detached house under Class A. Hackney carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including De Beauvoir Town, Clapton Square and Stoke Newington Church Street remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Hackney is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
De Beauvoir Town (grid of early-Victorian villas inside a tightly protected conservation area), Stoke Newington (Georgian and Victorian frontages along Church Street with heavy heritage control), Clapton (Victorian terraces and squares around Clapton Square), London Fields (dense Victorian terraces framing the park), Dalston (mixed Victorian stock with warehouse conversions off the high street) and Shoreditch (former industrial and warehouse buildings turned residential) — these are the Hackney pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include De Beauvoir Town, Clapton Square, Stoke Newington Church Street, London Fields and Well Street Common. Hackney Council weighs each proposal against Hackney Local Plan 2033 (LP33) and the Development Management supplementary guidance, where warehouse conversions are read against the borough's employment-floorspace and character policies before residential gains are weighed. A large share of Hackney's terraces and warehouses are split into flats and maisonettes, none of which carry householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is London butterfly / valley roofs behind parapets and pitched slate roofs on the villas, over Georgian and early-Victorian terraces, later Victorian terraces and villas and warehouse and industrial conversions.
A wraparound is the ambitious ground-floor move, and Hackney has the stock that suits it — the borough is built largely from Georgian and early-Victorian terraces, later Victorian terraces and villas and warehouse and industrial conversions, 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. Hackney Council assesses the scheme against Hackney Local Plan 2033 (LP33) and the Development Management supplementary 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. Parapet-fronted terraces mean rear roof extensions are scrutinised harder than the concealed front slope suggests, which on a footprint this size is where a scheme is won or lost.
Where Hackney's streets sit in conservation areas — De Beauvoir Town, Clapton Square, Stoke Newington Church Street, London Fields and Well Street Common among them — a wraparound is never permitted development and the design is read against the area's character. Hackney is one of London's most conservation-dense boroughs, and directions such as the one covering Stoke Newington strip out permitted-development rights for shopfronts, roof alterations and frontages, so nothing on those streets is automatic. We settle the designation before the footprint is fixed.
A wraparound in Hackney 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 Hackney 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 Hackney Council's officers and both neighbours check — then submit a validation-complete householder application.
Below is Hackney Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Hackney approves the large majority of householder applications, but the borough's dense web of conservation areas is the single biggest factor shaping what design will pass. 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 De Beauvoir Town, Stoke Newington and Clapton, 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.
Warehouse conversions are read against the borough's employment-floorspace and character policies before residential gains are weighed. 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 Hackney 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 Hackney wraparounds come up most often:
Wraparound extension drawings for De Beauvoir Town's grid of early-Victorian villas inside a tightly protected conservation area — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to Hackney Council's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Stoke Newington's Georgian and Victorian frontages along Church Street with heavy heritage control — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to Hackney Council's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Clapton's Victorian terraces and squares around Clapton Square — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to Hackney Council's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for London Fields's dense Victorian terraces framing the park — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to Hackney Council's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Dalston's mixed Victorian stock with warehouse conversions off the high street — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to Hackney Council's guidance.
Wraparound extension drawings for Shoreditch's former industrial and warehouse buildings turned residential — garden-checked, boundary-detailed and drawn to Hackney Council's guidance.
A wraparound is the two smaller extensions combined — which changes what Hackney Council needs and what the ground floor gains. This is how the options compare.
| Ground-floor option | Permitted development? | What it gains | What Hackney 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 De Beauvoir Town and Clapton Square, a wraparound is never permitted development and always needs a full application.
A fixed process built around how Hackney Council validates and decides wraparound applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Send us your Hackney 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 Hackney 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 Hackney 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 Hackney 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 Hackney Council. Only the rare, very shallow case stays within the limits. On designated land — a conservation area such as De Beauvoir Town and Clapton Square — 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. Hackney'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. Hackney Council is the decision-maker.
Hackney 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 Hackney 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 Hackney 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 Hackney 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 Hackney Council approves, and we confirm the retained-garden and boundary position at the outset. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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