House Extension Fulham SW6 on the Lion Houses and the Alphabets
Some Fulham streets have stone lions sitting on the gables. They are on Clancarty, Settrington and Beltran Roads, part of the Peterborough Estate, and locally the whole run is known as the Lions. The streets beside them, named in order through the alphabet, are the Alphabets.
They are deep late-Victorian houses with back-addition wings and proper gardens, and they take a house extension in Fulham better than almost anything else in the postcode. Which is why so many of them have one, and why the council looks closely at the next application on the street. For homeowners and property developers in Fulham SW6, the work usually means balancing extra space against what the council will accept on a constrained site.
SW6 holds around 66,000 people across nine wards, on ground that was the Metropolitan Borough of Fulham until 1965. That history is why the postcode still behaves like a single district: Parsons Green in the north, Walham Green around the Broadway, Sands End by the river, Munster out west by Hurlingham Park. But a house extension in Fulham is rarely straightforward. Conservation controls, Article 4 directions, basement rules, tight sites and the structural quirks of local houses and flats all shape what will win permission and build cleanly.
Design And Build works across all of it, with the architects, engineers, surveyors and trades employed by us rather than found for each job. This page covers what a Fulham application involves, what the council will and will not accept, the borough rule that catches almost everyone out, and the practical issues of renovating or extending here, including flat refurbishment and the logistics around match days.
What a house extension Fulham planning application usually asks for
The council’s own description of your house
Hammersmith and Fulham’s planning guidance describes the borough’s typical home in some detail, and it is worth reading before you draw anything.
It is a narrow, single-fronted structure forming part of a terrace, of two or three floors, with or without a semi-basement, and with a narrower projecting part at the back — what the council calls the back addition — usually lower or shorter than the main house. That description covers most of SW6.
Then comes the sentence that matters. Extending these properties, the guidance says, is limited by their proximity to neighbouring properties and the impact on amenity. Where a site is confined, it may not be appropriate to permit anything at the back at all. The council has written down, in advance, that some houses here cannot be extended.
Four levels at the back on one Lysia Street application
Where a site does support it, the schemes here are ambitious. One recent application at 34 Lysia Street SW6 sets out what that looks like.
It sought a roof extension at the rear, an extension at second floor level on top of the existing back addition, another at first floor level on top of it, a further one at ground level beside it, and excavation of the front garden and part of the rear to form lightwells for a new basement. Plus a rooflight above an existing flat-roofed conversion in the roof space, and landscaping front and back.
Four levels of work at the back of one terraced house, in a single application. That is the ceiling of what SW6 asks for, and it is a long way from a straightforward job.
Others are narrower. An application at 18 Bowerdean Street sought only an extension at second floor level over part of the back addition. One at 81 Fulham Park Gardens took side extensions at ground, first and second floor together with work at the rear. Each of those is a different argument to the council, and a different set of drawings.
The Fulham Park Gardens case is worth following further. Permission came through in March 2025 for the whole scheme, including lightwells front and back for an enlarged basement. The following year the owners went back to the council to omit the rear lightwell and reduce the size of the approved basement. Consent granted is not the same as work built, and scaling back afterwards is common enough here to plan for.
Depth, height and the neighbour behind you
Three things decide most Fulham applications, and none of them is what the extension will look like.
How far back it goes, measured against what the neighbours already have. How high it stands, particularly where it sits on top of the back addition and affects light to windows next door. And what it does to the outlook from the property behind, which on these tight terraces is often only a garden’s width away.
Inside a conservation area — and the council has 44 of them covering about half the borough — the front elevation and the visible roof slopes are assessed separately and more strictly. Hurlingham, Parsons Green, Walham Green, Walham Grove, Moore Park, Sands End, Imperial Square and Gasworks, Studdridge Street, Sedlescombe Road and Putney Bridge all reach into SW6.
There is a fourth consideration on the Lions and the wider Peterborough Estate. These houses were built to a pattern, with matching detail across whole runs, and the terrace is read as one composition rather than as separate buildings. What has already been approved two doors down carries real weight.
Our architects measure the established pattern on the street before drawing, because on a terrace the question an officer asks is not whether your scheme is good. It is whether it fits what is already there. Permitted development survives on some SW6 houses, and where a scheme falls within it we obtain a lawful development certificate rather than leaving it undocumented.
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Every basement here is a planning matter: basement conversions and builders Fulham SW6
What the online checkers get wrong here
The council states it plainly on its own urban design and conservation page: Article 4 Directions have been in place across the borough since April 2018 to restrict permitted development rights for basement excavation, alongside directions restricting office and storage conversion to residential.
Borough-wide. Every property. No exceptions for houses outside conservation areas.
Here is the problem. Those directions are not held in the national planning dataset. So an online permitted development checker, working from that data, can tell an SW6 homeowner their basement needs no application — and be wrong. The only reliable source is the council’s own Article 4 register. We check there, not on a map.
When the council will not allow anything at the back
The guidance quoted above is not a formality. On a confined site, with neighbours close on both sides and behind, the council reserves the position that no rear addition is acceptable.
That is worth knowing before money is spent on drawings. It does not mean nothing can be done — internal reconfiguration, the roof, the existing lower ground floor and the front all remain — but it changes where the effort goes. Establishing which category a site falls into is the first thing we do.
Estate agent boards, and what else is restricted
There is a second set of Article 4 directions in SW6, and they cover something most people would never guess.
The council restricts the display of estate agent boards in all or parts of a list of conservation areas that includes Moore Park, Parsons Green and Walham Green. Not extensions. Boards. It is a small thing, but it tells you how closely this borough manages the appearance of its streets, and it is a fair warning about what else will be looked at.
Lion Houses and artisan cottages: house renovation Fulham
Ground that changes near the river
SW6 sits on different ground at its two ends, and the failures differ with it.
Away from the water, the recurring problem is damp in solid brick walls — no cavity, lime mortar, and a century of repointing in something harder than the brick. Nearer the Thames, at Sands End and along the riverside, the ground is alluvial and subsidence is the risk. On the riverside developments of the 1970s and 1980s, it is flat roofs reaching the end of their lives.
Three areas, three different first questions. Our structural engineers survey for the one that applies rather than working from a standard checklist.
A full house renovation in Fulham usually starts by removing what earlier decades added. Artex, boxed-in cornices, a bathroom carved out of a landing, wiring run in the 1970s and never replaced. Underneath there is generally a sound Victorian house, and the work is renewing services, upgrading the fabric sensibly for solid walls, and putting a plan back that suits how the house is now used.
Match days, scaffold and parking suspensions
Two Premier League grounds sit inside SW6. Craven Cottage by the river near Bishops Park, and Stamford Bridge beside Fulham Broadway.
On a match day the streets around both fill up, and a site with scaffold, a skip and a delivery booked is a site with a problem. The council’s parking suspension process also works differently depending on how many bays you need and for how long, so it is not a form you fill in the week before.
We plan the logistics around the fixture list. It sounds like a small thing. On a narrow Fulham street with a full programme it is the difference between a job that runs and one that stops.
Flat renovation SW6, period conversion or riverside block
Period conversions and the freeholder
Flats make up the largest share of sales across SW6, and a great many of them are Victorian and Edwardian houses divided decades ago.
Two things follow from that. A flat carries none of the rights a house does, so anything visible from outside means an application to the council. And the demise stops at the plaster: the structure, the outer walls and the roof belong to the freeholder, whose written consent runs alongside the council’s and to its own timetable.
A period conversion also carries its own building problems. Sound between floors that was never designed to separate households. Services threaded through joists by whoever did the conversion. Bathrooms stacked above living rooms. Interior design joins early on these, while the layout can still move.
Riverside apartments and the lease
At Imperial Wharf, Chelsea Harbour and the newer blocks around Sands End, the picture is different again.
These are purpose-built, so the internal fabric is more predictable. What is not predictable is the management company. Access hours, lift bookings, protection of common parts, permitted working days, deliveries — all of it is set by someone other than the council, and none of it appears on a planning portal. A flat refurbishment here is a negotiation with two parties before it is a building job.
A construction company Fulham offering project management that reads the register first
Existing basements: waterproofing and fit-out
A clear statement, because it saves everyone time. We do not excavate new basements. What we do is bring existing ones into use.
A great many Fulham houses already have a semi-basement or cellar, and bringing that space into use is one way to gain living space in a terraced property when it is otherwise left damp, cold or unlit. Waterproofing, insulation, floor build-up, lighting, drainage and a proper fit-out turn it into a room. That is a design and build job like any other, and it needs no excavation.
It also usually needs no planning application, because nothing outside the building changes. Where a new lightwell or an altered opening is involved, it does, and the borough-wide direction applies.
Tanking a cellar that was never dry
Waterproofing below ground is a specification decision, not a product choice, and it is where most basement conversions fail.
A cavity drain system manages water rather than resisting it, and needs a sump, a pump and maintenance access designed in from the start. Applied tanking resists it, and is unforgiving of a poor substrate. Which suits a Fulham cellar depends on the wall construction, the water table and what the ground does near the river.
Whichever it is, it is decided before the first fix, not after. And the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 usually applies, since work below ground next to a shared wall engages the neighbour on each side. Our own surveyors serve those notices, and every trade on site is on our payroll under one contract.
Tell us the address and we will read the constraints
Send the address for a free consultation. Back comes the position in writing, before anyone quotes.
Which of the conservation areas covers the building. Whether it is listed. What the basement direction means for your scheme. Whether the property is a house with permitted development rights or a flat with none. What the neighbouring approvals on your street suggest an officer will accept. The team handles house extensions and guides clients through Fulham planning and planning permission. Architectural designers develop the initial concept, and the expert team works closely with structural engineers and interior designers. Project management is led by a dedicated project manager, supported by project managers and a dedicated team, with a comprehensive approach to delivering projects. Fulham builders and local builders bring local knowledge and local expertise as a building company and renovation company working across Fulham renovation and wider West London. Bespoke extensions can improve living space, modern functionality and property value, especially on a Victorian terrace and across Victorian terraces. Structural work can open interiors into open plan layouts, bring in natural light and support modern living. We also cover property renovation, build services and building services with high quality craftsmanship, meticulous attention and exceptional results. We use premium materials and luxury finishes to ensure durability and deliver contemporary luxury. Kitchen work can include kitchen refurbishments, bespoke kitchen installations, bespoke cabinetry and bespoke joinery. Luxury bathrooms can include underfloor heating for a hotel-standard finish. The aim of each successful renovation project and home improvement project is to help clients create their dream home.
We work across Fulham and SW6 — Parsons Green, the Peterborough Estate, Walham Green, Sands End, Munster, Fulham Broadway, New King’s Road and the streets between them — along with Hammersmith, Chelsea, Earls Court, Putney, Wandsworth, South Kensington and the rest of south west London. That includes experience with Fulham property types such as sash windows, garden flats, riverside apartments and mews properties converted from former coach houses.
Surveys cost nothing. In SW6 ours starts with the council’s register, not an online checker, and we take immense pride in that.
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