Camden, London

Wraparound extension drawings in Camden

A wraparound extension in Camden is a rarity: only a small share of households live in a house, and many of those sit in conservation areas that rule out the side arm as permitted development. We draw wraparound extensions for Camden from £1,195 including VAT, and we say early whether yours can go ahead.

From £1,195 (VAT included)

MCIAT chartered
£2m PI insured
LABC Partnered
Fixed fees, VAT included

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Architectural model of a four-storey London stucco townhouse in its terrace, with a portico, area railings, sash windows, a cornice and chimney stacks — The house as it stands: four storeys over a lower ground floor.Existing Proposed worksAn illustrative model, built for this page.

The house as it stands: four storeys over a lower ground floor.Existing Proposed worksAn illustrative model, built for this page.

How we work on wraparound extension drawings

Nine steps from first call to approval.

The same model cut through the middle: every floor, the stair, the chimney breasts, the new mansard, rear extension and basement in section — Section through the model: every floor on one datum.

Enquiry and constraints check
We check the property against conservation areas, listed status, Article 4 directions, tree preservation orders, flood zone and planning history. We choose the right route and send a fixed quote.
Measured survey
We survey the house on one datum: rooms, levels, boundaries, drains, trees and the neighbours' windows that the 45° and 25° tests depend on.
Design options
We model the house in Revit and show you options in 3D and plan, with the planning strategy and the precedents in your street.
Design frozen
You choose an option in writing. Nothing changes after this without your say.
Independent check
A second chartered technologist checks every sheet against the council's validation checklist and the policy. A senior review signs it off before anything is submitted.
Submission
We prepare the forms, certificates, fee and documents and submit through the Planning Portal.
Officer liaison
We answer the planning officer and make any amendments within five working days, at no charge until approval.
Building regulations
Technical drawings are coordinated with the structural engineer's calculations, the drainage and the planning conditions.
Approval and hand-over
Building control approval, then a next-steps pack covering the commencement notice, party wall timing and CIL.

Free redraws until approval. Every drawing set is checked independently, and the checker is never the person who drew it.

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Brick house being extended, with a wide new opening supported over the ground floor

Camden's Home Improvements guidance and the side-and-rear case

Camden's planning guidance is split into topic documents. The one that matters most is the Home Improvements CPG (Camden Planning Guidance), which covers extensions of every kind. It is read with the Design CPG (Camden Planning Guidance) for the character of the building and street, and the Amenity CPG (Camden Planning Guidance) for the neighbour's daylight and privacy.

A wraparound meets all three at once. The side arm is a visible change to the street frontage, the rear arm affects neighbours' outlook, and the combined mass is judged against the garden left behind. In Camden's narrow terraces the garden that remains is the first thing an officer measures.

We draw the neighbour's windows and the outrigger pattern of the terrace onto the plans, so the reviewer sees the effect on the row, not only on your plot.

Extensions already approved on the same street are a useful benchmark, so the planning history of your road is worth reading alongside the guidance. We search it on the council's planning portal before drawing, and tell you which neighbours have already extended and how.

Finished white-rendered rear house extension with large glazed doors

Local figures for Camden

Figures with their unit, period and source
Measure	Value	Period	Source
Supplementary planning document	Home Improvements CPG (Camden Planning Guidance)	2021	camden.gov.uk
Conservation areas	40 named conservation areas published by the council	—	planning.data.gov.uk
Article 4 directions	21 Article 4 directions published by the council	—	planning.data.gov.uk
Listed building entries	1,971 list entries (Historic England, within the LPA boundary)	—	planning.data.gov.uk
Households living in a house	13.3 % of households living in a house or bungalow (detached, semi-detached or terraced)	Census 2021	nomisweb.co.uk
Owner-occupied households	29.7 % of households owner-occupied (owned outright or with mortgage/loan)	Census 2021	nomisweb.co.uk
Householder decisions	394 decisions	1 July 2025 - 30 June 2026	assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
Householder applications granted	89.1 %	1 July 2025 - 30 June 2026	assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
Householder applications decided in time	77.7 % decided within 8 weeks or an agreed extended period	1 July 2025 - 30 June 2026	assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
Householder appeals allowed	35.5 % of householder appeals allowed	decision dates 1 Jul 2021 to 30 Jun 2026	assets.publishing.service.gov.uk

A blank value means the figure has not been published, not that there are none. Check your own address with the council.

Councils bordering Camden

Householder applications by street in Camden

Streets in Camden with the most householder applications, and the share approved
Street	Applications	Approved
Crediton Hill	22	91%
Belsize Lane	19	94%
Elliott Square	17	100%
Constantine Road	16	100%
King Henry's Road	16	91%
Camden Mews	14	90%
Elsworthy Road	14	77%
Solent Road	14	92%
Sumatra Road	14	93%
Goldhurst Terrace	13	100%
Dartmouth Park Road	12	90%
Hillfield Road	12	82%
Hollycroft Avenue	12	80%
Meadowbank	12	82%
Patshull Road	12	100%

Counts of householder applications by street; no individual applications are shown. Streets with fewer than five applications are left out.Source: GLA Planning London Datahub, householder applications, all years held. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Single-storey rear extension: the permitted development limits

The house in section with a rear extension; the dashed lines mark the zone near the boundary.

A · Depth beyond the original rear wall: 3 m (attached) / 4 m (detached) beyond the original rear wall, single storey
B · Maximum height: 4 m
C · Within the zone near the boundary: Eaves no higher than 3 m where within 2 m of the curtilage boundary
D · Larger extension under prior approval: 6 m (attached) / 8 m (detached), single storey, height max 4 m; not on article 2(3) land or an SSSI

The borough's heritage layer

Camden publishes 40 conservation areas and 21 Article 4 directions, and Historic England lists 1,971 entries inside the borough.

Permitted development does not reach most of this land: On article 2(3) land (conservation areas etc.): no side extensions, no cladding, no rear extension of more than one storey under Class A. A wraparound includes a side arm by definition, so in a conservation area it needs a full application and the design is read against the character appraisal for the area.

A listed house also needs listed building consent, which is a different service. If you are in that position, ask us first and we will point you to the right route.

The practical advice for a Camden owner is to read the conservation area appraisal for your street before sketching anything. It names the features the council wants kept on your street, and a good wraparound design works with those features instead of against them.

How few Camden households own a house

Only 13.3 per cent of Camden households live in a house, and just 29.7 per cent own their home. Most residents are in flats or rented accommodation, which means most Camden wraparounds are on the small stock of terraced houses and are surrounded by neighbours living in flats with their own windows facing the extension.

That context raises the stakes on daylight. A side infill beside a lower-ground-floor kitchen window, for example, takes light from a neighbour who may be a leaseholder. We test the angle of light from each affected window, and put the results on a sheet that goes in with the application.

Another Camden quirk is the front and back being very different in character. A terrace may present a plain Georgian face to the street and a ragged collection of outriggers behind. Where that is the case, the rear arm may have more room for change than the side arm, which alters what the street sees.

Decisions, speed and appeals

Camden decided 394 householder applications in its latest published year and granted 89.1 per cent, but decided only 77.7 per cent in time. Plan for a longer wait than the statutory eight weeks, and do not book builders until a decision is issued.

On appeal, the Planning Inspectorate decided 76 householder cases for the borough and allowed 35.5 per cent. That gives a sense of how hard a refusal is to overturn.

If the application is refused, you may redesign and resubmit, usually at a reduced scale. We keep the model so that a revised version is a quick change rather than a fresh set of drawings, and we keep you informed of the council's comments as they arrive.

Party walls, basements and the fee

Camden terraces share their walls, so a wraparound nearly always needs notices: Line-of-junction (new wall) notice at least 1 month before work. The council also has its own Basements CPG (Camden Planning Guidance), which applies if your design drops the floor level for a lower kitchen.

The householder fee paid to Camden is £548. Our drawings start at £1,195 including VAT; a second chartered technologist checks each sheet, and we redraw at no charge if the council asks for amendments.

Because Camden's streets are so close, we recommend telling both neighbours before notices arrive. A short conversation with the people next door, and a set of plans they can read, resolves many objections before they are written.