Rear and side-return extension to a Victorian terrace, Hampstead

The property is a four-storey Victorian terrace within the Hampstead Conservation Area, where an Article 4 direction withdraws permitted development rights for rear and side alterations facing shared gardens. The original ground-floor plan separated a narrow rear kitchen in the outrigger from the front reception rooms, leaving a damp side return and a stepped threshold down to the garden.

Our measured survey established the neighbouring outrigger projections, boundary wall heights and 45-degree daylight angles to adjoining ground-floor windows. Rather than pushing beyond the established rear building line, the design infills the side return with a sloped lead-and-glass roof set below the existing party-wall parapet and steps the rear elevation back by 300mm from the adjoining outrigger.

Materials were specified to match the host terrace: reclaimed London stock and red multi brickwork laid in lime mortar, a yorkstone coping along the boundary parapet, and dark bronze-anodised aluminium glazing frames with slim sightlines. A green sedum roof over the flat rear portion satisfied Camden policy on urban greening and surface-water attenuation.

Camden granted householder planning permission subject to standard materials and tree-protection conditions. The technical Building Regulations and structural steelwork package followed immediately, coordinating a concealed cranked box-frame so the internal ceiling plane runs flush from the dining room to the garden threshold.