House
extensions
in Pimlico, SW1V
Architects, Engineers, Surveyors & Builders Under One Roof.
One Studio. One Contract. One Team.
Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building ConsultancyThomas Cubitt took leases from the Grosvenor Estate in the mid 1830s and built Pimlico's straight streets of stucco-fronted terraces. A rear addition here is drawn to the plan and proportions those terraces still share.
Pimlico is Cubitt's other great stucco estate, and its uniformity is exactly what an extension must respect. The area lies in the City of Westminster, inside the Pimlico Conservation Area, on Thomas Cubitt's grid of white-stucco terraces and garden squares south of Victoria. Cambridge Street and Tachbrook Street carry uniform white-fronted runs, and the conservation area guards that consistency, so external change stays subordinate to the rhythm of the terrace.
The squares add grander candidates for work. Warwick Square and Eccleston Square are period houses on leafy garden squares, suited to whole-house refurbishment and reconfiguration, while much of the surrounding stock — around St George's Square, Lupus Street and Tachbrook Street — is now mansion flats, Edwardian facades and mews-like streets. Where a house is divided into flats, leasehold consents run alongside Westminster's decisions.
Cost reflects detailing and tenure rather than plan area, whether a Pimlico scheme is a rear extension, side return or wraparound.
Extending a Pimlico terrace house without losing its rear
The 2006 audit describes Pimlico as Thomas Cubitt's creation: stucco-fronted terraces of mid-19th century Classical design laid out along straight streets and around three squares. Those continuous fronts leave the back of the house as the only place to add space.
Many of the narrower streets have yellow stock brick terraces in Flemish bond with stucco ground floors, and some, such as those in Cumberland Street, are stuccoed throughout. A rear extension is detailed to match whichever the house actually has: brick laid in Flemish bond at the back of a brick house, stucco where the rear is rendered.
The audit also notes that most of the area's mews properties have been converted to homes, so the back of a Pimlico house can face another home only a few metres away. Daylight and outlook for those windows shape the depth and glazing of an addition as much as the needs of the house itself.
For a family house in a terrace, the audit says single family dwellings are still the main type of home here, though some houses have been divided into flats. Where the house you are extending has been subdivided, the freeholder and the other flats have a say in anything built at the rear.
Excavation and piling for an extension's foundations are not allowed on Saturdays in Westminster without special permission, so we programme groundwork for weekdays.
We record the rear elevation in full, including later additions, and survey the boundary walls with the neighbours before the design is fixed, because in these terraces a rear wall is often shared on both sides.
Where the house sits in a listed group, such as Nos 1 to 23 Warwick Square, Grade II, we check with Westminster whether the rear work needs listed building consent as well as planning permission, and prepare both together if it does.
The closest related case study is outside Pimlico: Holland Avenue, Wimbledon, a completed rear extension in Wimbledon. We point to it because the work is comparable; the project itself is outside Pimlico.
Sources: Westminster City Council: Pimlico conservation area audit (SPG, adopted 10 April 2006) ; Westminster City Council: noise problems we can investigate ; Historic England: Nos 1 to 23 Warwick Square SW1, list entry 1066137, Grade II.
House Extensions in Pimlico: Questions
How does Pimlico's Cubitt stucco grid shape an extension?
Pimlico lies in the City of Westminster, inside the Pimlico Conservation Area, on Thomas Cubitt's grid of white-stucco terraces and garden squares south of Victoria. That uniformity is precisely what the conservation area protects, so on the Cubitt terraces an addition is measured against a highly consistent streetscape and external change is kept subordinate to the run.
Which Pimlico streets have the classic stucco terraces and garden squares?
Cambridge Street and Tachbrook Street carry uniform white-fronted Cubitt runs, while Warwick Square and Eccleston Square are period houses on leafy garden squares suited to whole-house refurbishment and reconfiguration. Those addresses are the natural candidates for ambitious work within Pimlico's coherent grid.
What does an extension cost in Pimlico?
A Pimlico rear extension, side return or wraparound is priced after a feasibility visit. On the uniform Cubitt terraces, conservation detailing and, where relevant, leasehold coordination decide where a scheme lands.
Are many Pimlico houses divided into flats?
A good number. SW1 here takes in Victorian terraces, mansion flats, Edwardian facades, mews-like streets and garden-square homes around St George's Square, Lupus Street and Tachbrook Street. Where a house is in flats, the leasehold consents run alongside Westminster's decisions, so an addition is planned for both.
What is the property stock like in Pimlico?
Pimlico is Cubitt's other great stucco estate: stucco Cubitt terraces, garden-square houses and large mansion flats. Its characteristic streets include Warwick Square, Eccleston Square, Cambridge Street and Tachbrook Street, and getting Westminster's stucco and conservation rules right early keeps a Pimlico scheme on track.
