Kitchen Extensions Golders Green

In Golders Green a kitchen extension is a question for the houses, which are 44% of homes here. Most of those are semi-detached or detached (36% of all homes), and terraced houses are only 6%. So the side return of a terraced street is the less likely brief in NW11, and a rear or wraparound addition the more likely one. Barnet Council is the planning and building control authority, and next door in Hampstead Garden Suburb a second body has a say. We build the shell, set the steel into the back wall, lay the drainage and fit the kitchen in one programme.

In Golders Green, 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 Golders Green: 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 kitchen extension a Golders Green semi tends to get

A semi or detached house in Golders Green has the width to gain its kitchen space across the full back, sometimes turning the corner into the side passage. Those two house types make up 36% of homes here, against 6% terraced. A full-width rear addition means one long opening in the original back wall, which the structural engineer we appoint sizes as a single beam or splits with a post. That choice fixes where an island can sit and how wide the bifold or sliding doors run.

A wraparound adds a second opening along the flank, so the corner of the old house has to be picked up on its own steel. On an Edwardian or interwar house the back wall may carry a chimney breast, a bay or an original back addition at ground floor, and each has to be taken out or supported before the new room can open up. The survey tells us which, and the drawings follow from it.

Housing in Golders Green

About 7,590 homes are listed for Golders Green, and the mix is 44% houses to 56% flats, with 27% built after 1945, 26% in 1919 to 1939 and 47% earlier. Since most homes here are flats, only a ground floor flat in Golders Green with its own garden can extend its kitchen.

Hampstead Garden Suburb: two consents and a width limit

If your house sits in Hampstead Garden Suburb Conservation Area, on the edge of Golders Green, an extension needs consent from Barnet Council and also from the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust. Allow for both approvals before any start date is fixed, because the Trust reviews the design separately. We programme the build from the date the second consent arrives, not the first, and keep the steel order and the kitchen lead time behind it.

The Suburb design guidance says a rear extension should generally be no wider than half the width of the rear elevation, and in most instances less. That rules out a full-width rear addition. The narrower plan changes the kitchen layout: the new room becomes a dining or cooking wing off one side, with the existing kitchen kept and opened into it. Roof lights and glazing then do more work, because less of the old back wall is removed.

When a Golders Green kitchen extension needs planning permission

Planning permission depends on whether you own a house or a flat, and 56% of Golders Green homes are flats. Householder permitted development rights for extensions cover houses only, not flats or maisonettes, so a ground floor flat owner needs a full planning application, and under most leases the freeholder's written consent as well. That adds a stage at the front of the programme that a house owner may not have, and it is worth starting early.

For a house, permitted development limits a single-storey rear extension to three metres beyond the original rear wall, or four metres on a detached house, and to four metres in height. Outside designated land, prior approval can take those depths to six metres, or eight on a detached house. The height cap governs a pitched roof or lantern, so check it against the ceiling you want before choosing a roof light. Your designer or agent confirms the route and makes any application; we build to the approved drawings.

Drainage, steel and glazing behind the new kitchen

The heavy work in a Golders Green kitchen extension sits below floor level and above the new opening. The sink usually moves further from the house, so the waste run gets longer and needs enough fall to reach the existing drain. Where a shared run passes under the footprint, the drain may need diverting, or building over under an agreement with the water company. We find this with a camera survey before the foundations are dug.

The steel goes in while the back wall is propped, then padstones and bearings are packed before the props come out. Glazing comes last in the shell because sliding doors and roof lights are made to measured openings, not drawn ones. Once building control has inspected the structure and insulation, the kitchen fitters, the electrician and a gas engineer on the Gas Safe Register for any hob follow in one sequence, so there is no second set of trades weeks later.

• Flat roofs with rooflights or a roof lantern over the kitchen
• Rear, side return and wraparound kitchen extensions
• Soil stack and gully rerouting beneath the new floor

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Golders Green North and Golders Green South. Counts rounded by the VOA.

If you are weighing up options for your Golders Green property, it is worth reading kitchen renovation in Golders Green, kitchen extensions across Barnet, a wraparound kitchen-diner, party wall notices for a kitchen extension, kitchen extensions across London and Utility Rooms and Their Cost.

Why Golders Green Homeowners Choose GS Renovation

We take a Golders Green kitchen extension from strip out to the last worktop joint as one job, with one programme and one point of contact. The structural engineer we appoint designs the steel, building control inspects each stage, and a registered electrician and a gas engineer on the Gas Safe Register certify their own work. Our director, Abdelaaziz Saaid, has three decades of hands-on building behind him and is your single point of contact. You get a written programme at the start, so you know when the back wall comes out and when the kitchen goes in.

• Registered in England, Companies House no. 14611254
• Old kitchen kept in use until the new shell is weathertight
• Cooker extract taken outside through the new roof or flank wall, not recirculated

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.