You can, but you'll need permission for almost everything, and in Homerton a house is the exception to begin with. Most homes are flats. Twenty conservation areas cover the surrounding streets. One hundred and seventy-five buildings are listed. Plan on the council being involved in the design.
Historic England lists 175 buildings across Homerton: one at Grade I, 12 at Grade II* and 162 at Grade II. Listing covers the whole building, inside and out, so replacing windows, removing a fireplace or opening up a wall can all need listed building consent as well as any planning permission. Doing the work without consent is a criminal offence, and the legal liability passes to whoever owns the building next.
The council's maps put 20 conservation areas inside the area's bounds, among them Clapton Square, Driffield Road, Fremont and Warneford, Beck Road and Fairfield Road. Inside one, alterations to the front of a house, demolition and work on trees can all need consents that would be routine on an ordinary street, and the council judges new work on whether it keeps the area's character. Ask Hackney Council whether the address is in a conservation area and whether any extra restrictions apply to that street, because the answer decides what you can do without asking.
There are 3 scheduled monuments inside the area's bounds, the strictest level of heritage protection, and they matter mainly if your land is close to one.
None of this has stopped people trying. Hackney received 753 planning applications in Homerton between March 2024 and June 2026, and 309 of them in the most recent twelve months. Plenty of neighbours are altering their homes. They're doing it with the council involved.
The British Geological Survey puts the whole of Homerton in shrink-swell class 3, so every postcode in the area sits on clay that swells when wet and shrinks when dry. That's no reason to avoid extending. It means a structural engineer should decide how deep the foundations go, and nearby trees and the summer months need allowing for, because the clay moves with the seasons.
Six of the area's listed buildings are on Historic England's Heritage at Risk register, which means they are in poor repair. Their owners may get grant help to repair them and will get close attention from the council. A buyer of an ordinary house down the road can ignore all of this unless they're buying one of the six. In 1682 Prince Rupert took his new method for boring guns to the grave and the enterprise on the marshes collapsed with him. Hackney's planning department, to its credit, publishes its rules.
Most homes in Homerton are flats, and flats don't have the permitted development rights that let houses build a modest extension without an application. Extending a flat means planning permission, and usually the freeholder's consent as well. A house outside a conservation area and off the listed register has more room for small changes, but in Homerton that combination is unusual.
Your freedom to extend or alter a home in Homerton is limited: the listed buildings, conservation areas and mostly flatted stock mean nearly any change needs permission.