Kitchen Extensions Bloomsbury

A kitchen extension in Bloomsbury is a job for a small slice of the stock. The VOA count puts 97% of homes here as flats and 3% as houses, and it records those houses as terraced, with 0% semi-detached or detached. So the realistic projects are a single storey room behind a Georgian terrace off one of the garden squares, or a ground floor flat with a yard and a freeholder willing to agree. We build the room, set the steel into the old back wall and fit the kitchen in one programme.

In Bloomsbury, a rear kitchen extension of about 30 square metres typically costs £45,000 to £97,500 excluding VAT, or £60,000 to £100,000 for a side return (indicative London ranges, Resi, MyBuilder and Checkatrade, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Bloomsbury: the structural engineer we appoint designs the foundations and steel, we build the room and fit the kitchen, and a registered electrician certifies the electrics.

A Bloomsbury flat has no permitted development route

If your kitchen is in a Bloomsbury flat, an extension needs planning permission from the start. National householder permitted development rules for extensions apply to houses only, not to flats and maisonettes, so the rear yard of a garden flat cannot be built on under the rules a house owner relies on. With flats making up nearly the whole of the housing here, that is the first point to settle.

The lease adds a second layer. Camden says a leaseholder must have the freeholder's consent and must make a full plans building regulations application rather than a building notice. For your programme that means the freeholder's licence, the planning consent and the full plans approval are best in place before a start date. We price from the approved drawings and give the managing agent the method statement and sequence they ask for, so the licence is not held up by missing detail.

Housing in Bloomsbury

The Council Tax list puts Bloomsbury at about 14,890 homes, 97% flats against 3% houses; 49% went up before 1919, 13% between the wars and 37% after 1945. Most homes here are flats, and only a ground floor flat in Bloomsbury with its own garden can extend its kitchen.

Georgian terraces inside the Bloomsbury Conservation Area

A terraced house in Bloomsbury may well sit inside the Bloomsbury Conservation Area, so check Camden's map first, because that decides how the application is judged. Camden adopted the conservation area appraisal and management strategy in April 2011 and uses it to assess planning applications there. A planning application for alterations in a Camden conservation area must also include a heritage statement describing the significance of what the work affects, so your designer writes that alongside the drawings.

The practical effect is on form and materials. Brick, lintels and the junction with the old rear wall get looked at closely, and the drawings should show them at a scale the case officer can read. If the house is also listed, the extension needs listed building consent as well, which is separate from planning permission. We order bricks and glazing only once the consents fix the details, because matching Georgian stock brick is a long lead item.

How Camden's guidance shapes a Bloomsbury rear kitchen

Camden's Home Improvements CPG sets the envelope for a rear kitchen in Bloomsbury before any style decision. It says rear extensions should be subordinate to the building in location, form, footprint, scale, proportions, dimensions and detailing, and should leave a reasonably sized garden. On a terrace plot with a small yard, that points to a modest single storey room rather than a full width box. Where the back yard is shallow, the garden you keep matters as much as the room you gain.

The same guidance asks rear extensions to pass the 45 degree and 25 degree tests in the Amenity CPG, or to show BRE compliance through a daylight test. Your designer draws those lines against the neighbours' windows early, because they often fix the depth. It also says properties in conservation areas have no permitted development rights for side extensions, so a side infill on a house in the conservation area is a planning application whatever its size. The kitchen layout then follows the depth the tests allow.

Roof lights, green roofs and the kitchen fit-out in Bloomsbury

The roof of a Bloomsbury kitchen extension is where Camden's guidance gets specific. Rooflights on a ground floor extension should sit away from the building line or be obscure glazed, to avoid excessive light spillage. Where a flat sits above the extension, as it will behind a converted terrace or a mansion block, that affects where the glazing goes and whether you get clear or obscured units. We confirm the glass specification before the roof is framed.

Camden also prefers a biodiverse green roof with a 100mm substrate over a sedum mat on rear extensions. That changes the structure: the joists, deck and upstands carry a wetter, heavier build up, and the drainage outlet and access for maintenance have to be planned in. Once the roof is weathertight we run first fix services, plaster, then fit the kitchen units, worktops and appliances within the same programme, so there is no gap between trades.

• Soil stack and gully rerouting beneath the new floor
• Cooker hood extraction ducted through the roof or flank wall
• The kitchen itself fitted under the same contract as the build

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Fitzrovia East & Bloomsbury West, Holborn, St Giles & Bloomsbury South and King's Cross & Bloomsbury North. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Related reading for Bloomsbury homeowners planning kitchen extensions: kitchen renovation in Bloomsbury, kitchen extensions across Camden, a wraparound kitchen-diner, party wall notices for a kitchen extension, how we handle kitchen extensions across London and Planning a Kitchen Island.

Why Bloomsbury Homeowners Choose GS Renovation

We run a Bloomsbury kitchen extension as one job. The structural opening, the new room, the roof and the kitchen fit-out sit in a single programme under one team, with the structural engineer we appoint sizing the steel and building control inspecting the work. Our founder leads the work, you have one point of contact, and the trades are our own. A firm price follows a survey and the approved drawings. For a flat, we give the freeholder and managing agent the method and sequence they need before the licence is signed.

• Site left safe and secure at the end of every day
• Old kitchen kept in use until the new shell is weathertight
• Building control and Part P certificates handed over together at the end

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254). Structural design is by the consulting engineer appointed to your project.