House extension in Streatham

Connect the added space to the existing home.

Start with the house extension brief

Begin with how the new space will meet the old rooms, garden and circulation. A measured brief should record boundaries, levels, existing drains, neighbouring windows and the parts of the building you intend to keep.

Develop daylight, structure and services alongside the floor plan. Agree which openings and finishes are included, how the existing home will be protected during construction and which decisions need surveys or approval before a quotation.

The local building context

Streatham Common Conservation Area, first designated on 16 June 1994, lies on Lambeth’s southern boundary; the adjoining Norwood Grove is in Croydon. Its April 2017 appraisal describes an eclectic mix of historic housing round a historic open space, in stock, red and gault brick, with timber sliding sashes the usual 19th-century window. Leigham Court Road (South), designated in 1981 and wholly residential, adjoins it at its own south-west corner and has smart detached houses in large gardens; unusually, it takes in some front gardens but not the houses behind them.

The Streatham High Road and Streatham Hill area, first designated on 7 December 1999 with boundary changes in January 2024, has a busy town-centre character: shops and entertainment buildings beside churches and residential mansion blocks. Immediately east of the High Road, Sunnyhill Road has modest terraced and semi-detached Victorian brick cottages, and Leigham Court Road (North), designated in 2002, has villas widely spaced in ample grounds. The Leigham Court Estate, first designated on 18 February 1981, was built between 1889 and 1928 as long terraces of flats and houses on a grid.

On Lambeth’s south-western edge, the Streatham Park and Garrads Road area, designated as Garrads Road in 1969 and extended in 1999 and 2002, is roughly bounded by Garrads Road, Bedford Hill, Ockley Road and Rydal Road; its November 2023 statement describes leafy suburban development of 1880 to 1930, including large Queen Anne-style semi-detached houses on ample plots. Streatham Lodge, designated on 8 June 2009, centres on an estate of late 19th and early 20th-century houses in a mature suburban setting, and Telford Park, from 1994, covers houses laid out between 1878 and 1882.

Local design and consent context

Lambeth’s documents give these first designations: Garrads Road, 1969, renamed Streatham Park and Garrads Road in 1999; Sunnyhill Road, 2 April 1973, part of which moved to the High Road area in 1999; Leigham Court Estate, 18 February 1981; Leigham Court Road (South), 1981; Streatham Common, 16 June 1994; Telford Park, 9 September 1994; Streatham High Road and Streatham Hill, 7 December 1999; Leigham Court Road (North), 2002; and Streatham Lodge, 8 June 2009.

The documents vary in age. Leigham Court Road North and South have appraisals of September 2016, Streatham Common one of April 2017 and Sunnyhill Road one of May 2017; the Streatham Park and Garrads Road statement of November 2023 is a material planning consideration. Telford Park’s guidance is its 1994 designation report, Streatham Lodge’s 2009 designation report sets out the case for that area, and the High Road area has a conservation area statement.

The Lambeth Local Plan 2021, adopted on 22 September 2021, covers 2020 to 2035, and under its Policy Q23 the council keeps a local heritage list. Lambeth has two borough-wide supplementary planning documents and one for a single area. Its Design Guide SPD was adopted on 8 August 2023: Part 4 guides alterations, extensions and retrofit, and Part 5 guides basement schemes. The Leigham Court Estate guidelines of 2001 are not among the current SPDs, so treat them as dated guidance.

Access and site planning

In Lambeth only skip companies can obtain skip licences, applying on the customer’s behalf, and the council asks them to confirm first that the address is in Lambeth, which matters at Streatham’s edges with Wandsworth and Croydon. The largest skip allowed is six yards; anything bigger counts as a container under a highways licence, which also covers scaffolding, hoarding, materials storage and cabins and is not granted until the fee and any deposit are paid. A standard parking suspension, including one for a skip, needs at least 10 working days’ notice.

Continue planning

The Streatham area guide · House extension across London · Hampstead Architecture & Planning · Hampstead Chartered Surveyors

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