Side return and rear extension
A dark galley kitchen and an unused side return replaced with a single 22 square metre family room, inside a conservation area.
- Property
- Victorian mid-terrace
- On site
- 15 weeks
- Completed
- April 2026
- Value band
- £60,000 to £75,000
The family had outgrown the ground floor. The kitchen was a two metre wide galley in the back addition, the side return held two bins and a dead shrub, and the dining table lived in the front reception room, which meant nobody used it. The property sits inside the Blackheath Conservation Area, so permitted development rights were restricted and the rear elevation had to be right.
What we did
We filled the side return and squared off the rear, taking the ground floor out to a single 22 square metre room running the full width of the house. A steel goalpost frame carries the back addition and the original rear wall, seated on padstones sized by our structural engineer.
The planning route
Because of the conservation area we submitted a full householder application rather than relying on permitted development. The design set the new roof below the first floor cill line and kept the original rear building line legible, which is what the officer wanted to see. Consent came through without amendment.
Brickwork
Reclaimed yellow London stock, laid to the existing course heights in a lime mortar matched to the original by colour and aggregate. From the garden the join is hard to find, which is the entire point of doing it this way.
Light
A three metre roof lantern over the dining end and a four panel slide-and-turn door across the rear. The old kitchen got roughly two hours of direct light a day. The new room holds sun from mid-morning until it drops behind the terrace.
One room, three usable zones, and a family staying in the house rather than selling it. Building Control completion certificate issued at week sixteen.
Other houses we have worked on
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