Kitchen Extensions Camden

A kitchen extension in Camden is shaped less by the size of the garden than by the house and the guidance the borough applies to it. Only 12% of homes here are houses, and 9% of all homes are terraced houses, so the usual candidate is a terrace where the new room has to sit quietly behind the original rear wall. With 88% of homes flats, the other common case is a ground floor flat, which always needs planning permission. We build the shell, bring the drainage and steel into the house, and fit the kitchen in one programme.

In Camden, 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 Camden: 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.

What Camden asks of a rear kitchen extension

Camden wants a rear kitchen extension to look like the smaller partner of the house it joins. Its Home Improvements CPG says rear extensions should be subordinate to the building being extended in location, form, footprint, scale, proportions, dimensions and detailing. That is a design test rather than a fixed size, and on a terrace it tends to lead designers to a single storey, a roof that does not compete with the original brickwork and openings that respect the windows above. We read those drawings before pricing so the brick, parapet and glazing details are costed as drawn.

The same guidance asks that a reasonably sized garden is kept. On a narrow Camden plot that is a real design limit, so the length of the kitchen, the depth of any patio step and the space left for bins and a bike store are worth settling with your designer early. A room that fills the garden may look good on plan and then struggle once planners weigh it against that test.

Housing in Camden

Take the 113,890 or so homes the valuation list gives Camden: 88% flats, 12% houses, 48% from before 1919, 9% interwar and 42% post-war. Since most homes here are flats, only a ground floor flat in Camden with its own garden can extend its kitchen.

Daylight tests next door decide how deep and tall you go

The neighbour's window is often what fixes the depth of a Camden kitchen extension. The Home Improvements CPG says rear extensions should comply with the 45 degree and 25 degree tests in the Amenity CPG, or demonstrate BRE compliance through a daylight test. On a terrace, the kitchen window next door can sit only a metre or two from the party wall, so a few hundred millimetres of wall height can be the difference between passing and failing.

That is why the parapet, the roof build-up and the finished floor level matter so much here. Part L of the Building Regulations sets how well the new roof must be insulated, and a deeper insulated roof raises the wall on the boundary. A lower floor inside can win height back at the cost of a step and more digging. We price both routes when the drawings leave the choice open, and set out the boundary wall height on site to match the figure your designer tested.

Side returns, wraparounds and the conservation area limit in Camden

In a Camden conservation area a side return infill needs planning permission, because properties there do not have permitted development rights for side extensions. Camden has 40 conservation areas covering about half of the borough, so whether your address sits inside one is the first thing to check. The borough's Home Improvements CPG also says side extensions should be confined to a single storey, though a taller one could be permitted in some instances.

A wraparound, joining the side return to a rear extension, therefore goes through planning as one scheme in these streets. For the build it means a long beam or a pair of beams picking up the back wall and the flank wall together, sized with the corner post by the structural engineer we appoint. A new wall on the boundary, or steel bearing into the party wall, brings in the Party Wall etc. Act. You, as building owner, serve the notices, and we programme around the agreement.

Rooflights and green roofs on a Camden kitchen extension

Roof glazing on a Camden kitchen extension should be placed with the neighbours in mind. The Home Improvements CPG says rooflights on the roofs of ground floor extensions should be positioned away from the building line or obscure glazed to avoid excessive light spillage. A long rooflight running tight against the rear wall of the house is therefore a detail to check against the approved drawings, and the kerb and flashing positions are set out from them rather than from a catalogue.

Camden also prefers biodiverse green roofs with a substrate depth of 100mm on rear extensions rather than sedum roofs. That depth adds weight when wet, so the joists or deck, the upstand heights and the outlet positions are designed for it by the structural engineer and roof specialist from the start. We build the deck, waterproofing and edge trims ready for planting, and route the rainwater outlet so it does not drain across the new kitchen ceiling.

• Cooker hood extraction ducted through the roof or flank wall
• Island units with power and waste run through the slab
• Utility rooms and larders at the back of the extension

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 27 statistical areas in Camden. Counts rounded by the VOA.

If you are weighing up options for your Camden property, it is worth reading kitchen renovation in Camden, our Camden area guide, fitting the kitchen itself, party wall notices for a kitchen extension, kitchen extensions anywhere in London and Kitchen-Diner Layout Ideas.

Trusted Kitchen Extensions in Camden

We run a kitchen extension as one job: the groundworks and drainage, the steel into the house that the appointed structural engineer designs, the shell and roof, then the kitchen itself, so you deal with one programme and one point of contact. The founder, Abdelaaziz Saaid, has spent more than three decades on the tools. We build to your approved drawings and consent, give you a written quotation after a site visit, and keep the neighbours informed about access and working days.

• Kitchen layout agreed before the foundations, so the services land in the right place
• Screed left to dry before the kitchen floor finish goes down
• Free follow-up visit after completion if anything needs attention

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.