Kitchen Extensions Paddington

A kitchen extension in Paddington is a narrow brief. 92% of homes here are flats and 8% are houses, and the houses are terraced, so the realistic job is a rear addition to a W2 terrace or a reworked lower ground floor rather than a wraparound. Westminster City Council is the planning authority and runs its own building control service. Its conservation area guidance says full width rear extensions are generally not acceptable, except in certain circumstances at basement level. We build the shell, the steel into the back wall and the kitchen itself as one programme.

In Paddington, 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 Paddington: 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.

Which Paddington homes can take a kitchen extension

Only the houses can, and in Paddington the houses are terraces: the VOA counts 8% of homes as terraced houses and 0% as semi-detached or detached. Westminster's guidance works against full width additions, so the realistic shapes are a part width rear room, or an infill beside a rear outrigger where the terrace has one. Either way the new room sits between two party walls. Steel bearing on a party wall is notifiable under the Party Wall Act, and you, as building owner, serve the notices. Access is often through the house, which sets how spoil leaves and how steel and glazing come in.

If you own a flat, the picture changes. Householder permitted development for extensions applies to houses only, not to flats and maisonettes, so any addition to a flat needs a planning application from the start. A ground floor or lower ground flat with its own garden can still gain a kitchen room. The drawings, the planning decision and the landlord's consent, normally a licence to alter under the lease, all come before we set out a trench.

Housing in Paddington

Around 11,790 homes make up Paddington on the valuation list; 92% are flats and 8% houses, and 47% date from before 1919, 11% from between the wars and 42% from after 1945. Only a ground floor flat in Paddington with its own garden can extend its kitchen, which matters here because most homes are flats.

How the Bayswater conservation area limits a rear kitchen

Westminster's Bayswater conservation area takes in the area around Paddington Station, and conservation areas cover over 76% of the City, so your designer should confirm the designation for your address before the drawings are fixed. Inside one, planning permission is needed for some alterations or extensions that would not need it elsewhere. If the house is on the statutory list, heritage consent is needed as well. The planning drawings then become the contract drawings: we price and build to the approved depth, height and materials, so a late change goes back through the council rather than being settled on site.

Westminster's conservation area guidance says full width rear extensions are generally not acceptable, except in certain circumstances at basement level, and that extensions must be architecturally subordinate to the main building. On a terrace that points your designer towards a part width room, often stepped in from one party wall, with a roof kept low against the windows above. The kitchen layout is then planned around that footprint rather than the other way round, and we programme the build around the planning decision.

Permitted development depth limits for a Paddington terrace

A single storey rear extension on a terrace can project up to three metres beyond the original rear wall under national permitted development, and no more than four metres high, subject to the other conditions. That applies in a conservation area too, unless listing, a planning condition or a local direction has removed the right. Westminster has removed some rights in eight conservation areas. The original rear wall is the one the house was built with, so an earlier extension counts against the allowance. Confirm the history on the survey before anyone draws a kitchen island.

The prior approval route lifts the limit to six metres for a terraced house, subject to neighbour consultation, but it is not available on Article 2(3) land such as a conservation area. On that land every side extension also needs householder planning permission. Outside it, a short garden may leave the deeper figure with little outdoor space to spare. Before the drawings are fixed, the proposed footprint can be pegged out on the ground, so you and the neighbours can see where the new wall and the roof edge will land.

Building control, steel and the start notice in Westminster

Building control checks the structure, drainage and glazing, and you can use Westminster's own District Surveyors service or a registered building control approver. If Westminster checks the work, a full plans application is the safer route for a kitchen extension on a Paddington terrace, because the steel, drainage and glazing are approved before we build. Westminster aims to contact applicants within 5 weeks with a decision on full plans, and says it may take longer. We build that wait into the programme and order steel and glazing only once the plans are approved.

Where Westminster is the building control body, it must be told the start date at least 2 days before work begins, and we give that notice. We then open the back wall under temporary props once the structural engineer we appoint has specified the beam. New drainage is laid and tested before the slab, and roof lights are set to the approved positions. The kitchen units, worktops and appliances go in as the last stage of the same programme, with one team on site from trench to handover.

• New kitchen circuits, with Part P certification from a registered electrician
• Wet underfloor heating laid in the new screed
• Kitchen-diner layouts planned before the foundations

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Paddington & St George's Fields and Bayswater East. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Work in Paddington rarely sits on its own, so you may also want kitchen renovation in Paddington, kitchen extensions across Westminster, a side return kitchen infill, the Party Wall Act on a boundary build, kitchen extensions anywhere in London and Extend or Move?.

Why Paddington Homeowners Choose GS Renovation

A Paddington kitchen extension has to work within a narrow plot, planning drawings that leave little room for change, and a building control sequence. We keep all of that in one programme with one team. We survey the terrace and its party walls, bring in the structural engineer we appoint for the steel, and build strictly to the approved drawings. The same people who lay the drainage and form the opening also fit the kitchen, so you are not coordinating a builder and a kitchen fitter who each blame the other for delays.

• Waste cleared as we go, not left piled up outside
• Screed left to dry before the kitchen floor finish goes down
• One contract for the groundworks, the steel and the kitchen fit

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.