Kitchen Extensions Canary Wharf

A kitchen extension in Canary Wharf is a job for the minority of owners who hold a house. The VOA puts flats at 92% of homes here and houses at 8%. Its figures take in Millwall North, Millwall South and Cubitt Town as well as Canary Wharf itself. The houses are in those residential streets, not among the towers. Householder permitted development applies to houses only, so a flat owner in a riverside block cannot extend under it. For a terrace owner in E14 we build the rear room, open the back wall on steel and fit the new kitchen in the same programme.

In Canary Wharf, 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 Canary Wharf: 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.

The Canary Wharf houses that can take a kitchen extension

The houses that can take one are almost all terraces. The VOA counts 8% of Canary Wharf homes as terraced houses and 1% as semi-detached or detached, so a house kitchen extension here is nearly always a single storey room across the back of a terrace. Where a terrace has a flat back, the new room runs full or part width from the rear wall. A side return infill only arises where the house has a narrower rear wing, so the first site visit establishes which of the two your house is.

Only 2% of homes in the area were built before 1919 and 2% between 1919 and 1939, against 95% after 1945, so at least half of the area's houses must be post-war. Do not assume a Victorian terrace. A post-war rear wall is likely to be cavity masonry, which changes how the steel bears and how the new wall ties in, and the drains are likely to be newer and easier to trace. We survey the rear wall and the manholes on the first visit, because those two things decide where the new sink and the opening can go.

Housing in Canary Wharf

Of the 22,070 homes the valuation list records in the Canary Wharf, Millwall and Cubitt Town statistical areas, 2% were built before 1919, 2% between the wars and 95% since 1945; 92% are flats and 8% are houses. Since most homes here are flats, only a ground floor flat in Canary Wharf with its own garden can extend its kitchen.

Permitted development depth and height on a Canary Wharf terrace

On a Canary Wharf terrace the national permitted development limit for a single storey rear extension is three metres beyond the original rear wall, and four metres for a detached house. The extension also cannot exceed four metres in height. The depth is measured from the original house, so a later back addition may already use part of the allowance. On a house built in recent decades, read the original planning permission too, because a condition on it can remove permitted development rights altogether.

With prior approval, and outside Article 2(3) designated land, the rear limit rises to six metres for a terrace or semi and eight metres for a detached house. Your designer decides whether that route or a full householder application suits the plan. For you the difference is in the programme: prior approval and planning both add a decision period before steel and glazing are ordered, so we set the build start from the decision date, not the drawing date.

Flood risk and building control for an E14 ground floor room

In Canary Wharf, a ground floor extension that needs a planning application may also need a Flood Risk Assessment. Tower Hamlets' householder checklist requires one for applications in Environment Agency Flood Zone 2 or 3 relating to basement or ground floor extensions. Your designer checks the flood zone for your address early, because the assessment can shape floor levels, the threshold to the garden and where sockets sit. If the finished floor has to rise, the step down to the garden and the door threshold change with it.

Building regulations approval is needed for the extension itself, and Tower Hamlets says the total charge is the same whether you deposit full plans or give a building notice. The structural opening into the new room is charged as part of the extension rather than as a separate item. Where the council is your building control body, it needs a commencement notice at least two working days before work starts, and its inspectors then visit at the start, at stages and at the end.

Steel, glazing and the kitchen fit in one Canary Wharf programme

On a Canary Wharf terrace the order of work is foundations and below-ground drainage first, then the slab, then the steel into the rear wall. The structural engineer we appoint designs the beam and its bearings, and we prop the floor above before the opening is cut. The new foundations and the steel sit on or near the party walls, so the Party Wall etc. Act is likely to apply, and you as building owner serve the notices. Until the room is weathertight the old back wall stays in place and the existing kitchen keeps working.

Roof lights and sliding or folding doors are made to measure, so their lead time sets the middle of the programme. We use that window for first fix: the waste, water, cooker circuit and extract are placed from your kitchen layout while walls and floor are still open. A registered electrician certifies the electrical work and an engineer on the Gas Safe Register makes any gas connection. Then we plaster, lay the floor and fit the units.

• Building control inspections from footings to completion
• Drain diversions and build over agreements with the water company
• Floor levels matched through the old opening

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for the Canary Wharf, Millwall and Cubitt Town statistical areas, which together cover the Isle of Dogs. Counts rounded by the VOA.

People planning kitchen extensions in Canary Wharf may also want kitchen renovation in Canary Wharf, kitchen extensions across Tower Hamlets, fitting the kitchen itself, sign-off by building control on a kitchen extension, our London kitchen extensions page and Bifold or Sliding Doors.

Trusted Kitchen Extensions in Canary Wharf

We run the extension and the kitchen as one job, so the drains, steel, roof, glazing and units follow a single sequence with one team on site. The structural engineer we appoint designs the steel and we build to that design. Your designer or agent handles any planning or prior approval route, and we give them drawings and a programme to work from. You get a single point of contact from the first trench to the last worktop.

• New floor level matched to the existing house, with no step at the opening
• One point of contact on the phone, not a call centre
• Drains surveyed by camera before the footprint is fixed

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.