Kitchen Extensions Hackney

A kitchen extension on a Hackney house is almost always a terrace job, because 16% of homes here are terraced houses and only 1% are semi-detached or detached. With 83% of homes being flats, the ground floor flat is the other common starting point, and a flat has no householder permitted development rights. We build the side return, rear or infill extension to the approved drawings, then fit the new kitchen inside it as one programme.

In Hackney, 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 Hackney: 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 a Hackney terrace can take at the back

A Hackney terrace can normally take a full width single storey rear extension, but not one that runs past the side wall of the original house. Hackney adopted its residential extensions and alterations SPD in December 2025, and the consultation draft set that line and a 3m maximum depth for single storey rear extensions to terrace houses, measured from the original rear elevation. For a Victorian terrace with a closet wing, the side return is the space that usually decides how big the new kitchen can be.

The same draft says that outside conservation areas a wrap-around extension on a house with a rear projection will generally be acceptable, subject to depth, scale and form. That is the shape that turns a narrow galley kitchen and a dead side passage into one wide room. The designer settles the depth against the 3m guide before we price, because every extra course of brick and every metre of steel follows from that drawing.

Housing in Hackney

Hackney counts roughly 120,710 homes for Council Tax; 35% are older than 1919, 8% interwar and 56% post-war, with 83% flats and 17% houses. Since most homes here are flats, only a ground floor flat in Hackney with its own garden can extend its kitchen.

Side infills inside Hackney conservation areas

Inside a Hackney conservation area the side infill is generally still possible, but wrapping around the rear projection is not, where that is not the established character. Hackney Council says there are now 35 conservation areas across the borough, so it is worth checking the map before anyone draws a wraparound. The infill alone still gives a wider kitchen, just with the original back wall of the closet wing kept as the end of the room.

Permitted development does not cover the infill there either: on conservation area land every side extension needs householder planning permission, and an infill beside the closet wing is generally treated as one. Minor roof alterations can need consent too, so the roof and glazing detail matter as much as the footprint. We build the infill in facing brick to match the rear wall, set the parapet or eaves to the approved section, and keep the roof lights to the consented positions.

Roof height, roof lights and daylight in Hackney

The roof of a Hackney single storey rear extension should sit visibly lower than the sill of the first floor windows, according to the draft SPD. On a two storey terrace with low back bedroom windows, that fixes the roof build-up before the kitchen design starts. A shallow flat roof with a warm deck, a slim upstand and a lower ceiling at the garden end is the usual answer, and the steel depth has to fit inside it.

Light then comes from above. The draft says new or replacement roof lights should not exceed 600 mm in width and, in conservation areas, should sit flush with the roof. Before a wide lantern is drawn over the worktop, the designer should confirm how the adopted text applies that limit to an extension roof. We then frame the openings between joists at the approved widths, so the roof lights land where the lighting and extract plan expects them.

Drainage and building control on a Hackney extension

Drainage is the first thing to check on a Hackney rear extension, because a public sewer often runs along the back of a terrace. Where the proposal is within 3 metres of or over a public sewer, Hackney Building Control will not accept a building notice and a full plans application is needed instead. If Hackney is your building control body, the drainage survey and the full plans application therefore come before our start date, not after it.

Once the drawings are approved, Hackney Building Control has to be told of commencement at least 48 hours before work begins. We plan the dig, the foundation inspection and the drainage test around that notice, and any party wall notices, which the building owner serves, must already be settled. We then build out the extension and form the opening into the house on the steel the structural engineer we appoint has specified. The kitchen fit-out follows straight on, so the room is usable as soon as the shell is signed off.

• Building control inspections from footings to completion
• Wet underfloor heating laid in the new screed
• Drain diversions and build over agreements with the water company

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 30 statistical areas in Hackney. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Two or three things usually come up alongside kitchen extensions on a Hackney job: kitchen renovation in Hackney, our Hackney area guide, fitting the kitchen itself, party wall notices for a kitchen extension, kitchen extensions anywhere in London and Underfloor Heating Costs.

Why Hackney Homeowners Choose GS Renovation

We run the extension and the kitchen as one job with one programme, so the steel, the drainage runs, the roof lights and the kitchen layout are agreed together before the first dig. You get a written quotation after a site visit, a start date, and a team led by a director with more than thirty years of hands-on building work. We build to the approved drawings and keep the building control inspections on the programme.

• Old kitchen kept in use until the new shell is weathertight
• Drains surveyed by camera before the footprint is fixed
• Dust screens and floor protection in occupied homes

Reviewed jobs near Hackney

1 MyBuilder review from Stoke Newington, with each customer's own job title:

• Install new dishwasher, Stoke Newington, 24 May 2021 (5 out of 5)

Read all 31 on our reviews page.

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.