Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Kensington and Chelsea · London
Alcove Units in Bayswater
Cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast, designed for your room in Bayswater. We measure, design and quote first, then make it in our workshop and fit it.
- Cupboards in keeping with an older house
- Alcoves that aren’t square
- Room to work in an alcove
Alcove units in Bayswater
Alcove units in Bayswater
Period rooms often have skirting boards, picture rails and cornices. Units can be cut around them, stop just below them or run neatly up to them, whichever suits the room. The plinth height can match the skirting for a tidy line around the room. These details are settled when we visit. We make alcove units from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, finished by spray or by hand, and the things people most often want solved are a place for a small desk and somewhere to keep books and records.
Solid brick external walls are standard in Victorian and Edwardian houses, and internal walls may be brick or lath and plaster. Since a large share of the homes around Bayswater date from before 1919, the wall type is checked before any fixing for alcove units is chosen. Lath and plaster needs a lighter touch and the right fixings.
The written quote puts the design visit in writing: the layout, what goes inside, the materials used and the finish. If you’d like to change anything, it’s easier before the furniture is made.
- Location
- Bayswater (W2, W8, W11)
- Area
- Kensington and Chelsea
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- First step
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Made from
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Working days
- Monday to Friday; Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Contact
- The contact form
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
Materials and finishes
Birch plywood
Birch plywood is stiff, strong and grips screws firmly, which makes it a good choice for shelves and carcasses. Its layered edge can be painted or left to show.
Plinths and scribe strips
Scribing means trimming the edges on site so they follow the wall. This closes the gap between a straight unit and a bowed alcove.
What affects the cost of alcove units
Several things affect the price:
- How big the furniture is
- Walls and floors that are out of level or out of square
- How easy it is to get the furniture into the room
- What goes inside: rails, shelves, drawers and dividers
Parking is part of the price picture in London. Much of London is covered by controlled parking zones, so we may need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a suspended bay near your home. It is useful to talk about parking during the design visit.
Getting in touch
The more you can tell us at the start, the better the design visit goes. It’s useful to include:
- Pictures of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling
- Your postcode and the borough
- The type of home and how the room is reached
- Approximate measurements of the space
A quote begins with some details from you: which room it is, rough measurements and a couple of photos if you can take them. When you are ready, use our contact form. After that, we arrange a visit to measure and go through the design, then send a quote in writing.
Alcove units for homes in Bayswater
In the streets around Bayswater, the largest groups of homes date from before 1919 (about 71%) and between 1945 and 1972 (about 10%), in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. The age of a home tells us a lot about its walls, floors and ceilings, and so about how alcove units are fixed and fitted. There are 267 entries on the National Heritage List within half a mile of the centre of Bayswater. Older homes nearby may have original joinery, shutters or panelling worth keeping, and the furniture can be designed around them rather than over them. Red routes, run by TfL, have strict rules on stopping and loading. If your home is on or just off a main road, it is useful to mention it. It lets us plan the stop before fitting day.
Kensington Palace, about 0.4 miles south-east, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. For a period home anywhere nearby, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at. If your home is one of the older houses near Essex Street Chapel, walls that bow and floors that slope are why alcove units are scribed to fit rather than pushed into place.
Bayswater is within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, about 1 mile south-west of Kensington. We design and make alcove units for homes in Bayswater and across Kensington and Chelsea, as part of our work in every London borough. Our work takes in places right across Kensington and Chelsea, large and small.
Every home in W2, W8 and W11 is within our area for alcove units. Streets in the area include Dukes Lane, Salem Road and Aubrey Road, and homes on each of them are within our area for alcove units. The A4204 and A4206 runs close to Bayswater; on busy main roads, unloading alcove units takes a little planning. We also cover the places around Bayswater: Westbourne (1 mile north), Westbourne Green (1 mile north), Little Venice (1 mile north-east), Paddington (1 mile north-east) and Paddington Green (1 mile north-east). Other parts of Kensington and Chelsea we cover include Brompton (2 miles south-east), Chelsea (2 miles south-east), World's End (2 miles south), North Kensington (2 miles north-west) and Little Chelsea (2 miles south).
Landmarks near Bayswater
In Bayswater, that includes homes near Kensington School, The Churchill Arms and Abdus Salam Library. For rail, the closest station is London Paddington station, about 0.9 miles north-east. A little further out are Greek Orthodox Cathedral Treasury Museum (less than half a mile north) and St Mary Abbot's Hospital (0.8 miles south). For a walk, there is The Long Water and Campden Hill.
Why bespoke in Bayswater?
To be fair, a standalone bookcase or cabinet can go with you to your next home. Fitted alcove units stay with the house and remain when you move on. It depends on how long you expect to stay. Ready-made pieces are proportioned for newer homes and can look lost in an older one, while fitted furniture can follow the room’s own lines.
What goes inside matters as much as the outside: rails, shelves, drawers and dividers all add work. At the design visit, we work out what you need inside.
What you get with us
- Made for your room, not a standard size
- A spray or hand-painted finish
- Saturdays by arrangement
- Fitted tight to walls that are not straight
Read how bespoke compares with ready-made or what to look for in a quote.
Is it time for alcove units?
In bedrooms, the alcoves may be the only place for hanging space. Built into the alcove, a cupboard holds clothes without taking over the room.
People normally get in touch with us about needs like these:
- Cupboards in keeping with an older house
- Room to work in an alcove
- Alcoves that are not square
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
If your home is as old as some of the listed buildings nearby, like Church of St Matthew, original features like shutters, panelling and fireplaces are worth designing around. If your own home is listed, check with the council before fixing into original features.
What to check before you book
- Where they’ll park and unload
- Real projects you can actually look at
- How they deal with uneven walls and floors
- Whether they measure the room themselves
Places near Bayswater
Also in Bayswater
Questions from Bayswater
Do you cover homes near London Paddington station?
Yes. We cover all of Kensington and Chelsea and the rest of London. To get started, you can send us a few details through our contact form with some details about the room.
Will a conservation area stop me having alcove units fitted in Bayswater?
Not normally. Conservation area controls are largely about how buildings look from outside, so fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. Listed buildings are different, as works inside that affect their character may need listed building consent from the council. If you’re unsure, the council can confirm.
How do I get a quote?
Simply drop us a line using the contact form. Rough sizes and a few photos help, and we will arrange a design visit.
Do alcove units need to reach the ceiling?
That depends on the room and what you’d like to store. Units can stop just under the picture rail or run up to the cornice. We agree the height during the design visit.
How long will the fitting take?
The fitting depends on the size of the alcoves and what goes in them, and your quote sets out the fitting days. We will talk you through what fitting day involves before we start.
Do I need to be in when you fit?
Someone needs to be there to let us in. You don’t need to watch us work.
Fitting day, step by step
With the carcasses fixed and level, we hang any doors and fit any drawers or lids. We adjust each one so the gaps line up and it closes cleanly, then checked again. The time the fitting takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. Original hallway tiles and old floorboards are worth protecting, so they’re covered before anything comes in. Fixings into older walls are made carefully, as lath and plaster can crack if treated roughly. Decorating around the furniture afterwards is for your decorator.
- You get in touch to say you’d like alcove units, with a note of the room they’re in.
- A design visit follows, where we measure up and agree the layout with you. If one alcove needs a desk or a TV space, this is when we plan it.
- We put the design, materials and finish into a quote in writing, ready for you to check.
- The units are made in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood. A spray-painted finish is applied there too, if that is what you chose.
- We bring them to your home and fit them in place.
How to prepare
- Keep pets out of the room and the hallway
- Clear the area where the furniture is going
- Have your electrician move any sockets or switches beforehand
Getting a quote
It helps to see the room before we come. Pictures of the whole wall, the corners and the ceiling line give us a good feel for the space, particularly with rough sizes. To share them, fill in our short enquiry form, and we will suggest a time for a design visit.