Wraparound extension drawings in the City of London

Conservation areas and the one Article 4 direction

The City has 28 conservation areas across a small, dense area, so most addresses sit inside one. It also has 1 Article 4 direction.

The national rule on this ground: 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 needs a side arm, so it cannot use these rights in a conservation area, and a planning application is required.

Historic England lists 637 entries and records 5 on its risk register. A wraparound touching a listed building also needs listed building consent, which is a separate application.

The City's planning guidance for the Barbican and for listed buildings is detailed, and it is the document set that decides almost every residential alteration. We read it with you before any drawing, so the scope matches what the council will entertain.

What the planning statistics show

The council recorded 1 householder decision in its latest published year, granted in time. One decision is not a trend, and we would not use it to guess your own outcome. It shows that householder extensions are very rare in the borough.

Domestic gardens make up only 0.1 per cent of the land. A wraparound needs a garden to wrap into, and few City addresses have one.

If your property has no garden, a different service is likelier to fit. A rear extension or an internal remodel may be what you want.

The alternative for most City owners is an internal remodel, a new mezzanine, or a roof-level addition within the rules of the building's management guidelines. Those are different services with different drawings, and we are glad to scope them once we know what your building allows.

Gardens are not only rare, many are shared courtyards owned by a management company. If the space you want to build on is not solely yours, consent from the other owners is needed before any application, and we ask for the title plan early to confirm who owns what.

National limits that would apply

Where a house does exist, the national tests are the same as elsewhere. The side arm: Side extension: single storey, max 4 m high, max half the width of the original house. The rear arm: 3 m (attached) / 4 m (detached) beyond the original rear wall, single storey. And the total: Limits apply to the total enlargement (new part plus any existing enlargement it joins).

The council's householder fee is £548. If the extension touches a shared wall, remember: Line-of-junction (new wall) notice at least 1 month before work.

In practice we would also look at whether a new addition could be seen from a public highway or walkway. In a dense district that view can weigh heavily, so we draw the addition as seen from the street, the courtyard and the buildings around it.

Allow time for every consent. Planning and listed building consent usually run side by side, and building regulations approval and party wall notices follow before work starts.

Wraparound extension drawings in the City of London: the package

Our drawings start at £1,195 including VAT. A second chartered technologist checks every sheet, and we redraw at no charge if the council asks for amendments.

Related pages: house extension drawings in the City of London, architectural drawings in the City of London, and the same service in Westminster and Southwark.

A short call is enough for us to say whether a wraparound is realistic at your address. We then quote the fixed fee for the drawings, or tell you honestly that another route fits better.

Where an addition is realistic, we survey the existing building first so that the proposed drawings sit on accurate existing ones. That step matters more in the City than almost anywhere, because the buildings are old, irregular and often heavily altered inside.