Wraparound extension drawings in Lambeth

What the constraint figures say about Lambeth houses

Only 24.8 per cent of Lambeth households live in a house or bungalow, which makes a wraparound a rare project and the owners who can build one a small group. Most of them will meet at least one designation: the council publishes 12 Article 4 directions covering 223 mapped areas, and Historic England records 953 listed entries inside the borough.

Trees matter more than owners expect with an L-shaped plan, because the side return is often where a mature garden tree has grown. The council lists 339 tree preservation orders, and a protected tree close to the new flank wall changes the foundation design as well as the layout.

A check against these layers is the first thing we do for an address. It costs nothing to find out that a house falls under an Article 4 direction before a design is drawn, and quite a lot to find out afterwards.

Permitted development, and why Lambeth owners rarely rely on it

National rules do allow a side and rear extension together, but the limits are counted as one total. The side element is: Side extension: single storey, max 4 m high, max half the width of the original house. The rear element is: 3 m (attached) / 4 m (detached) beyond the original rear wall, single storey. Because the allowance is shared, a wraparound that is generous at the back leaves less for the side.

In a conservation area the position is simpler and stricter: 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 side extension is therefore not available under permitted development there at all, so the wraparound needs a householder application.

The larger-home prior approval route is not much help either. In the latest year of national statistics Lambeth granted 13 such notifications and refused 18, so more were turned down than allowed. It deals with rear depth only and cannot cover the side wing.

Householder decisions in Lambeth

In its latest published year Lambeth decided 595 householder applications, granted 83.4 per cent and decided 93.4 per cent inside eight weeks or an agreed extension. Those are borough-wide figures for every kind of home project, not a forecast for a wraparound, but they show a council that processes householder cases promptly.

Gardens cover 26 per cent of the borough's land. A wraparound uses garden twice, along the side and across the back, so the plan has to leave a useful garden behind it. We set out the retained garden area on the proposed plan, and the Lambeth Design Guide SPD Part 2: Advice for All Development gives the general design tests that sit behind that judgement.

Wraparound extension drawings in Lambeth: the set and the fee

The set contains existing and proposed plans, sections and elevations, a location plan and a block plan, with the retained garden and neighbouring windows annotated. The fee is £1,195 including VAT, fixed before you commit. A second chartered technologist checks each sheet before it leaves us, and we redraw free of charge if the council asks for changes before it decides.

Lambeth's own fee for a householder application is £548, paid to the council. Notices for the neighbouring owners follow the same drawings: Line-of-junction (new wall) notice at least 1 month before work.

Projects that sit beside a wraparound

If the side wing is the part you are unsure about, side return extension drawings in Lambeth cover that element alone, and rear extension drawings in Lambeth cover the back. A roof conversion can run alongside, see loft conversion drawings in Lambeth. The wider picture is at architectural drawings in Lambeth. Over the border, Southwark and Merton apply their own guidance.