Kitchen Extensions Soho

In Soho a kitchen extension is a narrow job. The VOA counts 98% of homes as flats and 2% as houses, and the VOA records no semi-detached or detached houses at all. So the typical Soho brief is a flat whose kitchen needs more room inside a period building on a tight W1 street, or a rare terraced house with a rear yard. We build the new structure, the drainage and the kitchen in one programme, to the consent your designer obtains.

In Soho, 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 Soho: 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.

Where the extra kitchen space comes from in Soho

For a Soho flat, the extra space comes from inside the flat or from an extension that needs planning permission, because householder permitted development rights for extensions apply to houses only and not to flats or maisonettes. Taking in a hallway or box room, or opening the kitchen into the living room, is internal work that normally needs no planning application. It does need the landlord's licence to alter under your lease. If the building is on the statutory list, internal works that affect its special interest need a separate consent from Westminster too, which the owner obtains. Enclosing space at the rear of an upper-floor apartment is an extension, so it needs both planning permission and the freeholder's consent.

A listed building is the exception: work that affects its character, inside or out, including an extension or taking out a wall or chimney breast, needs listed building consent from Westminster City Council, and doing it without consent is a criminal offence.

For the small number of terraced houses, the rear yard is normally the only place to go, and it can be hemmed in by neighbouring buildings. Access for materials is often through the front door or from the pavement, with little room to store anything. We plan the order of trades around that single route: strip out, steel and drainage first, then the envelope, then first fix for the kitchen, so each delivery arrives the day it is needed.

Housing in Soho

Roughly 6,840 dwellings sit on the valuation list for the Fitzrovia West & Soho statistical area. 2% are houses and 98% flats, and by age 48% predate 1919, 5% are interwar and 47% post-war. Only a ground floor flat in Soho with its own garden can extend its kitchen, which matters here because most homes are flats.

The Soho Conservation Area and what it means for a rear addition

Check first whether the address is inside the Soho Conservation Area, because that changes the brief. The Soho Conservation Area was designated in 1969 and extended in 1976, 1979, 1983, 1990 and 2005, and in a Westminster conservation area some alterations and extensions need planning permission that would not need it elsewhere. Your designer should draw the addition to that standard from the start, because a scheme that has to be redrawn and resubmitted after a refusal can cost months of programme before any work starts.

Westminster's conservation area guidance says full width rear extensions are generally not acceptable, except in certain circumstances at basement level, and that extensions should be architecturally subordinate to the main building. In Soho that points to a part width addition, a lower roof line and materials that match the rear elevation. For the build it means brick matching, lead or zinc detailing on the roof and a lighter steel frame than a full width box would need.

Why digging down for a Soho kitchen needs planning permission

Digging out below a Soho building to create or enlarge space below ground is basement development, and Westminster's city-wide Basement Development Article 4 Direction came into force on 31 July 2016, removing permitted development rights for basement work throughout the city. That matters for the few Soho houses, because a flat has no householder permitted development rights to lose. Either way the dig needs a planning application, and the City Plan asks for a structural methodology statement and self-certification from a suitably qualified engineer with it.

On site that turns into underpinning in short sequenced bays, a pumped or gravity drainage decision made before any concrete goes in, and waterproofing chosen for the ground conditions. The structural engineer we appoint sets the bay sequence and the temporary works. Excavation near a neighbour's foundations is usually notifiable under the Party Wall Act, and the building owner serves those notices before we dig. We then build to that design, keep the monitoring records the engineer asks for, and only start the kitchen fit-out once the waterproofing has been tested and the new floor is proven dry.

Fitting the Soho kitchen in the same programme as the build

Running the kitchen fit-out inside the extension programme saves you a second strip out and a second round of building control visits. Westminster has a separate minor works charge for the fit out of a bathroom or kitchen in one property, on a building notice or full plans application, so it is worth deciding early whether the kitchen is part of the main application. On a Soho job we settle that with your designer before the drawings are issued.

The practical order matters in a flat. Waste runs and extract ducting are set out at first fix, while the floor is open, so the new sink can sit where the plan wants it rather than where the old stack allows. Roof lights and glazing go in before the units, and the worktop is templated once the walls are plastered. The gas and electrics are certified by the registered gas engineer who does the gas work and by a registered electrician, not by us.

• Foundations, drainage and slab with the kitchen services cast in
• Rear, side return and wraparound kitchen extensions
• Flat roofs with rooflights or a roof lantern over the kitchen

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for the Fitzrovia West & Soho statistical area, which also covers west Fitzrovia. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Two or three things usually come up alongside kitchen extensions on a Soho job: kitchen renovation in Soho, kitchen extensions across Westminster, a wraparound kitchen-diner, how building control inspects an extension, our London kitchen extensions page and Bifold or Sliding Doors.

The GS Renovation Difference in Soho

We run the structure, the drainage and the kitchen fit-out as one job under one programme, so there is a single point of contact from strip out to handover. We work from your designer's consented drawings and bring in a structural engineer to size any steel. You get a written programme that shows when noisy work happens, when deliveries arrive and when each inspection falls, which is what a freeholder and the neighbours in a shared building want to see.

• Fully insured, with cover in place on every site
• One contract for the groundworks, the steel and the kitchen fit
• Boiler flue, soil pipe and gully moved off the rear wall in the right order

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.