Side Return Extension

About us

Homeowners in and around London want to maximise every last corner of their investment. With building and heritage restrictions tight around the capital, finding space to expand is a challenge. But of all the ways to enlarge the footprint of a house, none delivers more function per square metre than the side-return extension. Opening up a kitchen or lounge to the side threshold, incorporating space and natural light into the floor plan, can change the entire focus of a home. This minor shift makes a huge difference to a family’s closeness, productiveness and lifestyle.

Our London practice is founded on period home extensions, going back more than a decade. Our creative solutions to city living enhance the effectiveness and flow of the most frequented, hardest working spaces in a home. Our portfolio of side-return extensions reveals our passion for functional luxury, smart storage and spaces that breathe.

Collaboration is the cornerstone of our practice. Since we founded Scenario in 2007, we’ve used our knowhow, our compassion and our technological skills to create houses with a past, present and future. Scenario homes are tailor made to the needs of each of our clients, and every finished project tells their story – not ours.

To see what we mean, take a look at our landmark residential project Scenario House, located in Stoke Newington, East London. This widely recognised Victorian terrace-house expansion showcases the potential of a Victorian side-return extension. Still as fresh and efficient today as when we put it to paper, it merges contemporary steel and glass with reclaimed wood, antique brick and eco-friendly elements.

Projects

Full renovation of a family home, exploring the connection between living spaces

The Scenario House, Stoke Newington during NLA Open house event

Starting your London project

London Architects Your London project

Most building projects in London require approval from the local authority. London architects can help you through the process, collaborating with council officials to see through your application. Scenario Architects has successfully steered clients through the permissions stage.

We’ve drawn up an illustrated synopsis to help guide you through the planning process for a London-based renovation, restoration, addition or new-build.

Focal Shift fire place, first project as local architects in Hackney E9

The Scenario House, Stoke Newington during NLA Open house event

2017

Your Side Return Extension project

We’ve compiled some general research for homeowners thinking about extending into their home’s side return, or undertaking any additional residential renovations or expansions. Click here to read our illustrated overview, outlining each stage of the process. Keep in mind that most of these architecture projects require planning permission from the local council. We’ve built a successful record securing planning permission for our clients and claim home advantage across the city. To help you determine the requirements for securing planning permission for a side-return extension, we’ve created this step-by-step guide. Download it below.

If you are thinking about starting an architectural project in London, be it a renovation, or an extension to an existing property or even a new build house we are here to help.

We created a brief and illustrated overview of the process to help you understand what to expect through the various stages of a residential, extension, renovation or new build project in London.

Most projects need planning permission from your local council.

  TIP: To find out the actual track record which any architects you may be considering has with your local council, go to the planning application search page on your local council’s website and use the search by agent option.  

Tip

Working with Scenario Architecture on your London project

London Architects Your London project

Our boutique studio specialises in residential architecture, offering bespoke services for home additions, renovations and new-builds. Based in Wandsworth, we practice across London and beyond.

A RIBA Chartered Practice, Scenario complies with the UK’s strict health and safety criteria. We collaborate closely with our clients throughout every stage of the process, from the design phase, through planning and construction. We aim to deliver every project on time and on budget.

Our skilled team works with the latest 3D design technology: real-time digital visualisations and virtual reality. We feel they are the most effective and efficient tools for seeing through our work, choosing fittings and simulating natural light.

This Chartered Institute of Building case study features a recent Scenario project, demonstrating the benefits of advanced technologies in designing for the domestic sphere.

Working with Scenario Architecture on your London project

Established in 2007, Scenario Architecture is a boutique architecture studio focused on the high-end residential sector, working extensively throughout and around London. We specialise in every scale and type of domestic project, from interior alterations, through full renovations and refurbishments to new build homes. We offer a full bespoke architecture service tailored to fit your requirements and aspirations.

Our friendly and highly skilled team has the knowledge, experience and expertise necessary to take you step-by-step through the challenging and exciting journey of creating your new home. We will work together with you in close collaboration from initial design, through detail design and planning all the way to tender, construction and successful completion of your project on time and within budget.

Scenario Architecture is an RIBA Chartered Practice, which essentially means that we are compliant with the RIBA (Royal Institute of Chartered Architects) strict criteria, covering insurance, health and safety and quality management systems.

As early adopters of latest technology, we use as a standard for all projects a verity of innovative 3D design and visualisation tools to create and communicate design with our clients. Our experience shows that Real-Time visualisations and Virtual Reality tours are extremely powerful tools to streamline the process of choosing material finishes fixtures and fittings as well as simulating realistic natural light conditions.

When we produce accurate and reliable construction information we use the latest 3D BIM technology, (BIM stands for Building Information Modelling) which means that all project information is derived from a single accurate and coordinated 3D model. Using this cutting-edge technology collaboratively with other consultants as well as contractors has proven to save time and cost for our clients.

A case study featuring one of our projects was published by the Chartered Institute of Building, demonstrating the great benefits of this advanced technology specifically with domestic projects.

Scenario Architecture in London deliver design and architectural expertise for residential projects. We were established in 2007 by Ran Ankory and Maya Carni who both trained with the AA School of Architecture. Scenario have grown to an award-winning team of nine. We have been featured in Dezeen and Elle Decoration UK.

Our highly experienced team of architects Stoke Newington work with clients using innovative 3D and Virtual Reality technology that simulates your new home before the first brick is even laid. This simulation technique allows you to see beautiful scenarios, designed to fit your life. An organic process, it often influences the choice of materials and design methods.

If you are looking for a top architects London, we can help with your project. We are a RIBA Chartered Practice and we operate across the following areas and postal districts: Camden, Dalston, Hackney, Hampstead, Highgate, Haringey, Islington, East London, Knightsbridge, Kensington and Chelsea, Mayfair, Notting Hill, North London, West London, West Hampstead, Shoreditch, Southwark, Stoke Newington, N1, N6, NW3, N16 and E5.

Start your London project

Full-width extension opens to the beautiful garden of this Victorian property

Complete renovation and extension of a family home

A glazed roof draws daylight deep into the plan

Scenario is an established architecture practice focusing on contemporary residential design. We take on projects of every scale and scope, from home refurbishment, renovation and expansions to new-builds.

Victorian renovations are more compassionate today than they’ve ever been, with homeowners striving to preserve architectural elements like decorative cornicing, ceiling roses, skirting boards and dada rails. Sash windows are being replaced by specially made wood reproductions and wood-burning fireplaces recouped after being sealed off for decades. Paint companies like Farrow & Ball have built multinationals out of replicating the de rigueur colours of Victorian times. And new tile ceramicists are bringing back traditional motifs with contemporary silhouettes, for front gardens and foyers. Hardwood floors have made a comeback, with timber salvage and reproduction going strong.

Most renovations focus on transforming the core of the home, and revolutionise the kitchen and bathrooms in the process. To recoup the extra floor area today’s families have become accustomed to, London architects are extending into voids in the lofts and side returns common in Victorians. Small period kitchens can open up into the side return without eradicating period features; in the recovered space, a corner can be reserved for a powder room or utility room. Ditto the loft: pushing up the ceiling and pushing out dormer windows can make new space available for an en suite bathroom.

With extending out into dead space comes the welcoming in of natural light. Upward-facing Velux windows become possible once the upper floor is properly extended and the main floor pushed out beyond the confines of the original footprint. If a second-storey extension is permitted in your plans, an internal void can bring natural light from the top floor downwards, and vice versa.

London Architects In our clients words

We wanted to renovate our house in a conservation area in central London. Given this involved a complete demolition and new build with an extra floor on top, getting planning approval was always going to be tricky. Scenario did an amazing job on the new house 'envelope' and throughout the planning phase. We couldn't have wished for better from them and having succeeded in gaining planning approval owe them a very big 'thank you'.

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Scenario designed a kitchen extension for us, and we are delighted with the results. The process was well organised, planned and delivered, and the whole team were a pleasure to work with. I would highly recommend them for their design, planning and project management skills.

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Worked with these guys on the internal development of our office. From start to finish they were great. They got what we wanted first time and really made working with them very easy. Their aftercare has been great too helping us deal with something that they were not involved with in the first place. Will highly recommend them to anyone. See all Google reviews

Working with Scenario Architecture

Scenario is a boutique architecture studio based in London, focusing on residential extensions, new-builds and renovations. Our bespoke service tackles high-end projects of every scale and scope, making city-living more accessible, comfortable and enjoyable long term.

We work closely with all our clients through every stage of every project, consulting regularly from the drafting phase through moving day. We work on site with contractors and builders with the goal that all our projects finish on time and on budget.

We pride ourselves on adopting cutting-edge architectural technology as soon as it’s available. Our experience shows that real-time visualisations are the most efficient tools for choosing fixtures and fittings, and for simulating natural light, so state-of-the-art 3D design and visualisation tools are standard on all our projects.

We produce reliable construction information ahead of breaking ground with 3D building information modelling (BIM) technology. All our project data derives from accurate, coordinated 3D models, and saves our clients time, money and worry. The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has published this case study featuring a Scenario Architecture project. It demonstrates the benefits of advanced technology for domestic architecture.

Scenario is a RIBA Chartered Practice complying with the strict criteria of the Royal Institute of Chartered Architects. Our relationship with RIBA helps to protect our clients against health and safety issues with quality-management systems.

In our client's words

Dalston is less a defined London territory than it is a neighbourhood of like-minded people. Roughly defined in the west by the A10, the city’s oldest Roman-dug road, it floats between Clapton, Hoxton and Islington. But more than its geographical location, it expresses itself with its liberal, tolerant, international attitude.

The working-class population that first settled here in the 19th-century, rippling out from the Regents Canal, converted farmland into industrial sites and small Victorian cottages. They were joined by immigrants from multiple countries and religions, together building up a modest community outside the confines of the City of London. After a postwar slump, the neighbourhood came alive toward the end of the last century. Artists began settling here, spilling out from Hoxton and Shoreditch, seeking inexpensive post-industrial workspace, artistic freedom and places to exhibit their art. As per the rules of gentrification, young professionals and families followed. They’ve transformed the old warehouses, factories and stables into appealing and spacious homes. And in the brownfields between them, architects have designed experimental contemporary homes, creating housing where none existed while pushing the boundaries of their craft.

Live-work spaces, purpose-built apartment blocks and modern terrace housing have sprung up among the historic brick and contemporary timber constructions, giving the neighbourhood a dynamic and unpredictable character. People of all cultures and brackets live side-by-side, and businesses are popping up to serve them. They combine to make Dalston an area of great potential, for people who seek a multicultural atmosphere and an unconventional lifestyle.

If you’re a fan of heritage housing, look to the streets radiating east off Stoke Newington High Street and Kingsland Road. Streets like Forest Road and Richmond Road, leading to Gayhurst Community School and London Fields, are chock-a-block with tall, broad Victorian family homes and repurposed factories. With the old brick and ironwork maintained, new residents are slowly fixing them up and maximising their potential. Further north, Shacklewell Lane, Sandringham Road and St Marks Rise are attracting new buyers to the grand tree-lined streets. Homes here rise to four storeys, many of them in need of an upgrade. Buyers seeking a fixer-upper, or a tired family home on which to put a personal stamp, would have lots of opportunity here. At the heart of this enclave sits St Marks Dalston, one of the largest neighbourhood churches in the country – larger in area than Southwark Cathedral. Its Gothic rose window and French-inflected tower, built a century ago, dominate the road.

Loft extensions are more of a rule than an exception in Dalston, as are side-return kitchen extensions. Local architects like Scenario are well versed in the expansion and renovation process here, and manoeuvre their designs successfully through the planning and heritage departments. The results are often stripped-back, light-filled versions of the original Victorian architecture, offering vast entertaining spaces and private nooks for growing families.

Further Reading

The housing market in Britain’s southeast is hot. Trading up to accommodate a growing family is particularly daunting, and in many areas in and around London the saying “Don’t Move, Improve” has caught on. Recouping space from a house’s side return – the empty void at the rear that separates the kitchens and gardens and many attached terrace homes – is particularly common. With this option available to most Victorian homeowners comes the ability to plumb new areas of the home. Small period kitchens can open up into the side return of an attached house without eradicating the period look of the place. And in the recovered space, a corner can be reserved for a small guest toilet or utility room. In some neighbourhoods around London, side-return extensions are grouped under “permitted development”, which means they don’t require planning permission from the local council if the final plans heed the extended volume requirements of the area. Avoiding time-consuming planning applications will save you money in the short run.

Extending your house only a few metres can open up any space in a dramatic way – particularly if you find an architect whose drawings integrate the adjoining rooms. A side-return extension can turn several poky rooms into a so-called Great Room in just a few months. It can enable a family to include a kitchen island or peninsula in their plan where, previously, counter space was at a premium. Where once cupboards and uppers crowded the room, a good side-return extension can deliver clean, uncluttered walls hung instead with art. In a typical Victorian terraced house – still the most common style of family home, at least in London – a side-return extension has the greatest potential for transformation for the price. Many Victorian homes – particularly in London and some of the market towns within the Home Counties – sit in conservation areas with strict planning regulations. Applying for a side-return extension in one of these areas should be fairly straightforward, as long as the project complies with vernacular elevations. Anyone seeking to undertake a side-return extension in one of these areas would be wise to hire an architect to help ease them through the planning process. On top of this, they will have to undertake a Building Regulations application to make sure your design complies with national standards in fire safety, ventilation, plumbing and structural integrity. Better architects have relationships with most building and planning commissions and will be able to tackle these responsibilities for their clients. If you’re interested in taking on a side-return extension, contact your preferred architect or visit the Projects page of this website for more information.

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Want more space? Adding a side extension could be the answer

A side return extension is when the house is going under development to make alterations and extend parts of the home. There are different types of house extensions available to choose from that allow for home improvement. It allows for people to get as creative as possible with their living environment and removes having to move houses. There are rules, regulations and restrictions that come with developments of side return extensions.

The planning would need to be done with certified professionals to ensure that the integrity of the area is respected and the renovations are done right with considerations to planning, design and construction. Expansion of small living spaces is made possible and it can add long-term value if done right and is considered. A side extension should make a notable and positive difference to the home by opening it up. With an extension or building insurance, you can ensure that there is protection against liabilities. This helps to reduce stress.

Permitted Development Involvement

The consent needed for certain side return extensions involves following the relevant planning development rules. When the magnitude of the project is not too big, and if neighbours have been consulted prior to submissions, the house extensions would then comply with the standards, where a lawful development certificate would be viable to apply for. This gives permission to continue with the project under national permitted development rights immediately after it has been issued. The requirements for permitted development involve a few factors.

The land and building type would need to be considered and understood. This would involve knowing the legality and restrictions of the area. In designated areas such as heritage sites or conservation areas, restrictions would be involved where article 4 may be issued. Article 4 directions remove or withdraw any permitted development rights. Flats, maisonettes and listed buildings may have development rights that would be similarly restricted or do not apply, however it can be noted that 500 square meters of office space can be rebuilt into homes if it falls under specific requirements and permitted development rights are approved.

Residential homes may gain approval for permitted rights for interior modelling, the roof that can include solar power and other house extensions. Requirements would involve needing materials that are like the rest of the house. The developments done on a single storey home can be extended up to 4 meters in height and a rear extension of up to 8 metres. Boundary limits and extensions have minimum requirements that should be consulted with the local planning authorities to ensure that permitted development can be followed.

Planning Permission Involvement

There needs to be adherence to all guidelines and regulations with a load of information when submitting your applications. There are many considerations and procedures to consider during the design phase to increase the likelihood of approval. It is recognised that in order to achieve early success; it is necessary to have a positive and professional attitude toward the planning process. As well as a collaborative experience with the planners.

It is essential to first guarantee that the drawings in the design phase are ready. The designs would need to be quite comprehensive, and if possible or desired in the relevant applications, a 3D model would be added for further guidance and evaluation. This is where interactions need to become notably collaborative with the fundamental planners, officers, and architects engaged, meaning that if risk assessments are supplied, they should be considered and the Local Development Frameworks followed. Likewise, all parties should be involved in discussions throughout the process by you or your architect.

Standards such as building regulations and possibly protected extension or building insurance must be followed. Building regulations compliance is achieved by submitting detailed design plans for a comprehensive plan application, which includes structural design standards. A full plan submission would be required depending on the scope of the project; otherwise, a building notice application would suffice, which would be reviewed by an inspector and the local authorities. If approved, it means that you comply with the building regulations.

Effects Of The Party Wall Agreement

The Party Wall Act was enacted in 1996 to avoid disputes between neighbours and neighbouring property owners. A party wall divides landowners along their relevant property borders. When building improvements or excavating beneath boundary lines, the statute requires that adjoining parties be considered. This ensures that your neighbour is notified in writing of the impending renovation plans beforehand.

The statute gives neighbours 14 days to challenge or agree with proposed plans, and if a proposal is not responded to, it becomes a dispute. The plans would have to be agreed on, and if not, a surveyor would draw out a party wall agreement. They may be entitled to take legal action if the prior warning was not supplied. The statute protects people from damage, loss, or infringement on their properties where you would then be liable to compensate them. The moral is that it is critical to minimise conflicts between you and your neighbours and to get their cooperation early on by carefully considering them when planning.

Value of Side Return Extensions

The building’s design should benefit you and your family. As previously indicated, a side return extension that is carefully built and planned may add significant intrinsic worth to the experience. The flow, character, and allure of how you want to add a modern twist with the help of the proper specialists in the development process should help provide value for you.

Within the living space, great ventilation and natural sunlight may be maximised and produced. It should clear out any superfluous space and make the room more spacious. The difficulties that are put forth may be used to drive for sustainability and distinctiveness while also allowing for possible camaraderie. If there is a rich history in the building, the constraint may be used as a guide to help create innovative, practical, and sustainable solutions.