Floor Plans in Southwark
Fixed-fee, MCIAT-chartered floor plans for Southwark homeowners — London Borough of Southwark validation and local constraints handled from the start.
Southwark runs from the riverside warehouse and wharf conversions of Bankside and Bermondsey down through the Georgian and Victorian terraces of Camberwell, Peckham and Walworth to the leafy Georgian and Victorian streets of Dulwich, with post-war estate housing woven throughout. Terraced rear and side-return extensions and loft conversions are the borough's everyday projects, but each area behaves differently in planning terms, so the right route depends heavily on where your address sits.
Dulwich carries an extra layer that is distinctive to Southwark: the Dulwich Estate scheme of management, whose consent is often needed alongside the council's, similar in effect to a covenant and satisfied separately from planning permission. Elsewhere, conservation-area control shapes external design across a spread of designations — Dulwich Village, Bankside, Bermondsey Street, Camberwell Grove, Nunhead Cemetery and Peckham's Holly Grove among them — while the borough also operates Article 4 directions covering office-to-residential change of use in designated areas and HMO conversions in parts of the borough. Toward the Thames, riverside townscape and taller-building context add their own design scrutiny to conversions in Bankside and Bermondsey.
We prepare Southwark planning drawings tuned to the specific area — terraced extensions and lofts in Camberwell, Peckham and Nunhead, carefully evidenced applications within the conservation areas, and Dulwich schemes designed to the Estate's requirements as well as the council's — flagging whether the Estate scheme or an Article 4 direction applies before we draw. Southwark determines most householder applications within the statutory eight-week period once validated, so we work validation-first to head off drawing queries. The fee is fixed and agreed up front, drawings typically follow within about seven days, and we offer free redraws until the council approves — the same council-accepted drawings as an architect, usually at around 30% less.
Planning in Southwark: what to know before you apply
A distinctive Southwark quirk is the Dulwich Estate scheme of management: many properties on the Estate need Dulwich Estate consent in parallel with planning permission, similar in effect to a covenant. Elsewhere, conservation-area control across Camberwell, Bermondsey and Bankside shapes external design. We flag whether the Estate scheme applies before drawing.
Typical Southwark housing stock
Georgian and Victorian terraces across Camberwell, Peckham and Dulwich, warehouse and wharf conversions along the Bermondsey and Bankside riverside, and post-war estate housing.
Areas we regularly draw for in Southwark
Camberwell · Peckham · Dulwich · Bermondsey · Rotherhithe · Nunhead · Walworth · Bankside
What Southwark is actually built of
Building form decides what a plan has to show. Attached housing means party walls, shared drainage runs and a narrow back addition to measure carefully; detached stock means the plan has to carry the setting as well as the building. These are measured counts from Ordnance Survey building data, not a description of the borough.
Southwark building stock
Residential building form across 7 of Southwark's 7 postcode districts, from 2,161 classified buildings. Connectivity is topology: a semi extended into its garage reads as attached on more than one side.
| Attached on more than one side | 65% |
|---|---|
| Attached on one side | 29% |
| Detached | 6% |
| Buildings attached on more than one side | 1,408 |
| Detached buildings | 125 |
| Buildings classified | 2,161 |
| Postcode districts measured | 7 |
Source: Ordnance Survey National Geographic Database (derived statistics). Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026. Extracted 2026-08-17.
Floor Plans for Southwark homes: the package and the process
A floor plan is only as good as the survey behind it. Room dimensions taken from a laser survey rather than an estate agent's sketch, wall thicknesses drawn as they actually are, and structural walls distinguished from partitions — those are what make a plan usable for design work rather than just for marketing.
We issue plans at a stated scale with a scale bar, so they stay measurable when printed or resized, and supply them in formats that work for the next stage: a PDF to share, and CAD where an architect, engineer or kitchen designer needs to draw on top of it.
The plan itself carries the building's history. Chimney breasts, blocked openings, changes in floor level and an outrigger that has been extended more than once all show up in a measured plan, and they are precisely the things a sketched plan leaves out.
What are floor plans used for?
Floor plans serve several distinct purposes in London property: estate agents use them to market a sale or letting alongside photographs, giving buyers and tenants an accurate sense of layout and scale that a floor plan on its own can convey better than photos; solicitors and lenders often require a lease plan showing the demise of a flat within a building, particularly for leasehold sales or re-mortgages; landlords use them to document a property's layout for reference, insurance or portfolio management; and homeowners use them simply to have an accurate record of their existing layout, whether for their own reference or as the first step before considering any building work.
How accurate are laser-measured floor plans?
We measure every floor plan on site using a laser distance meter rather than a tape measure or estimation from photographs, which keeps room dimensions, wall thicknesses and door and window positions accurate to within a few millimetres. This matters more than it might seem: an estate agent's marketing plan that overstates a room's size can mislead a buyer and cause problems at survey stage, while a lease plan used for legal purposes needs to accurately reflect what a leaseholder actually owns. A laser-measured plan also means that if you later want to use it as the existing-layout drawing for a planning application, it is already accurate enough to build proposed drawings on top of, rather than needing to be re-measured.
How much do floor plans cost in London?
A single floor-plan set starts from £450, which covers a laser-measured site visit and scaled, dimensioned drawings of each floor of the property. The exact fee depends on the number of floors, the overall size of the property, and whether you need elevations or a site plan in addition to the floor plans themselves — for example, for a lease plan or as the base for a future planning application. This is a fixed fee agreed upfront, with no hourly billing.
| Floor plans | Full planning drawing set | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Record of existing layout | Existing layout plus a designed proposal |
| Includes a proposed design | No | Yes |
| Submitted to the council | No | Yes, via the Planning Portal |
| Typical turnaround | A few days | Around 7 days from survey |
| Fee guide | From £450 | From £1,600 |
Floor Plans across Southwark
Floor Plans in Southwark — FAQs
How much do floor plans cost in London?+
How long does it take to get floor plans?+
Can floor plans be used for a lease or mortgage application?+
Can I reuse my floor plans if I later want to extend or convert my loft?+
Do you provide floor plans for estate agents?+
Do I need planning permission for an extension in Southwark?+
What is the Dulwich Estate scheme of management?+
Can you handle a warehouse or riverside conversion in Bermondsey or Bankside?+
How long does Southwark Council take to decide?+
How much do planning drawings cost in Southwark?+
Get your free Southwark planning assessment
Tell us your Southwark address and ambition — we'll confirm feasibility, local constraints and a fixed fee within one working day.