Kitchen Extension Architects in Greenwich

The first project record is the complete address. For a property inside the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Royal Greenwich is the local planning authority and its planning register, adopted policies and validation requirements are the relevant council records. A Greenwich or SE10 description alone is not a legal boundary check: addresses around Blackheath and other edges can sit in a neighbouring authority. We use the postcode in GOV.UK’s council finder, confirm the premises in the planning register and retain that evidence before applying a local policy, conservation document or application form.

The next distinction is the legal planning unit. Royal Greenwich’s 2025 local validation list separates a householder planning application for work to a house from a full planning application for work to a flat. The national Part 1 householder permitted-development rights apply to dwellinghouses rather than flats. We therefore confirm whether the site is one dwellinghouse, a self-contained flat or maisonette, or another use before discussing permitted development. That public-planning classification is separate from title and lease questions about who owns a garden, rear wall, roof or shared service.

The policy hierarchy also needs a date. Royal Greenwich’s adopted borough plan remains the 2014 Core Strategy with Detailed Policies, read alongside the London Plan 2021. The council opened a Regulation 19 consultation on a replacement Local Plan on 27 July 2026, but that publication plan is a draft rather than an adopted decision framework. We record both statuses so a current application is not assessed only against an old conservation document or, at the other extreme, against emerging wording presented as though it were already adopted.

For a qualifying dwellinghouse, a rear kitchen extension is tested against every relevant Class A limitation and condition, including the original house, earlier joined enlargements, height, depth, boundary relationship and designated-land rules. Conservation-area land changes some permitted-development limits, while a planning condition or an operative Article 4 direction can remove specified rights. None of those facts is inferred from the word Greenwich. Where the complete evidence supports permitted development, a proposed lawful development certificate can give a formal decision; otherwise the appropriate planning application is prepared.

Local design assessment follows the current adopted material. Royal Greenwich adopted its Urban Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document in October 2023, and the adoption statement says its household-extension guidance superseded the former Residential Extensions, Basements and Conversions Guidance SPD. The Core Strategy requires residential extensions to be appropriate in scale and design to the host building and locality. We therefore compare the measured proposal with the current guide and adopted policy, explaining footprint, height, roof form, materials, retained garden and neighbouring effects rather than quoting a withdrawn document as a current rule or promising approval from one dimension.

Royal Greenwich’s local validation list identifies the baseline drawings and evidence for householder work and full applications to flats. The exact package can include location and block plans, existing and proposed plans, elevations and sections, photographs, ownership information and other site-specific evidence where the current list requires it. Validation requirements do not decide the merits of a proposal, and a longer document list is not automatically better. We prepare the information required by the actual site, designation and work, while labelling technical matters that still depend on survey or specialist design.

Conservation status is mapped, not assumed. The council’s Greenwich and Blackheath management guidance addresses West Greenwich, Greenwich Park and East Greenwich as separate conservation areas, alongside Blackheath and Blackheath Park. Ashburnham Triangle has its own appraisal and Article 4 documents. Royal Greenwich’s colour guidance explains that Greenwich town centre forms part of West Greenwich Conservation Area and is also subject to a separate town-centre Article 4 direction for exterior colour at scheduled premises. The town centre is therefore not treated as a standalone conservation-area designation. Once the exact boundary is confirmed, the relevant appraisal is used for the external work and no neighbouring area’s character is copied across it.

The Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site is another mapped layer, not an area-wide label. UNESCO publishes a defined inscribed property and buffer zone, and the adopted Core Strategy explains that development within the setting can affect its Outstanding Universal Value. We check the address against the current map and then test whether the extension’s scale, roof, materials or visibility could affect the identified attributes or setting. A rear kitchen extension outside those mapped or evidenced relationships is not described as World Heritage development merely because the postal address says Greenwich.

Article 4 is checked separately from conservation designation and from the World Heritage map. Royal Greenwich publishes distinct instruments and guidance for specified properties in places including West Greenwich, East Greenwich and Ashburnham Triangle. Each direction identifies the land and classes of development withdrawn; one direction can concern particular front or flank alterations, another a wider schedule, and town-centre colour control does not automatically govern a residential rear kitchen. We read the operative instrument and property schedule before choosing the public-consent route for a proposed extension, opening, rooflight, terminal or material change.

Listed status is also property-specific. We check the National Heritage List for England and the council planning record for the exact building, while recognising that a list description is not an exhaustive inventory of protected fabric. Listed-building consent is required for works of demolition, alteration or extension that would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. A new rear opening, lost plan-form element, service penetration or extension can engage that test, including internally, but age, appearance, conservation designation or proximity to a listed building does not prove that the subject property is listed or that every alteration needs consent.

Kitchen planning begins with measured existing information. The survey records the affected walls and openings, internal and external levels, accessible structure, visible drainage and the relationship between the retained rooms and garden. It does not determine a legal title boundary or concealed construction. We compare layout options for cooking, dining, circulation, storage and daylight, then show where roof or rear glazing would enter the retained plan. A rooflight, glazed rear wall or reduced projection is an option to test against the actual geometry, heritage context, energy design and neighbour effects rather than a guaranteed way to brighten every Greenwich house.

Structural feasibility follows the building and proposal. Approved Document A covers foundations, walls, floors, roofs and other structural elements, but it neither identifies what is behind finishes nor prescribes one beam or footing. Where a wall is load-bearing or a new foundation is proposed, a competent structural engineer traces the loads and designs the support, bearings and foundation response. Unknown conditions remain marked for investigation or opening-up. We do not claim that a Greenwich terrace always needs a beam in both party walls or that a villa plot automatically makes excavation simple.

Ventilation is set by the work, building and applicable edition of Approved Document F. For a new kitchen or wet room, that guidance ordinarily provides extract ventilation to outside; the extract may be intermittent or continuous and need not be the cooker hood itself. For refurbishment only, existing extract should generally be retained or replaced, but the guidance includes a limited exception where the original room had no ventilation system, subject to the work not making ventilation less compliant. A recirculating hood alone is not Part F extract ventilation where extract is required. We confirm the edition and transitional provisions, then coordinate the dwelling ventilation system, airflow provision, terminal and any duct with the structure and external design. Planning or listed-building consent for an external alteration is checked separately.

Drainage is developed from surveyed levels, pipe routes, access and ownership. Approved Document H covers foul-water drainage, surface-water disposal and protection against sewer surcharge. It does not require every sink to use the existing route, every low connection to be pumped or every roof to discharge in one prescribed way. We identify what is known, commission investigation where the route or invert is uncertain and preserve access for the selected system. Where Thames Water is the relevant undertaker, its guidance says an application is likely for building within three metres of a public sewer or one metre of a public lateral drain; planning permission does not grant that separate agreement.

The Party Wall etc. Act is another conditional route. GOV.UK explains that it can cover specified work to a party wall or party structure, a new wall at or astride a boundary, and qualifying excavation. The three-metre excavation test also depends on going below the adjoining owner’s foundations; the six-metre test uses the statutory 45-degree line from the bottom of those foundations. Distance alone does not trigger notice. If the designed work is notifiable, the correct notice is served; written consent can resolve it, while a dispute engages the surveyor procedure and may lead to an award.

Private ownership is kept apart from the public approvals. LEASE advises reading the actual lease because it may permit some alterations, require the landlord’s prior written consent or prohibit particular work. The title, lease and any superior lease help establish ownership of the rear wall, garden, structure and shared drainage. A Licence to Alter is described only where the documents and proposed operation engage it. Planning permission, building-regulations approval, a Party Wall notice and landlord consent each answer a different question and none enlarges a leaseholder’s demise.

The resulting appointment is organised around verified gates: confirm address and council; establish the planning unit and history; check the adopted and emerging policy status; map conservation, World Heritage, Article 4 and listing records; measure the affected construction and services; then select the planning and technical route. For a valid householder or other ordinary non-major planning-permission application, government guidance gives a usual statutory determination period of eight weeks unless a longer period is agreed in writing. That period, a complete drawing set or pre-application discussion cannot guarantee approval or a construction outcome.