Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Barking and Dagenham · London
Becontree Heath Alcove Units
Walls in older London homes are rarely straight, so we scribe the furniture to follow them. Our work on alcove units in Becontree Heath starts with a design visit, and everything is built in our workshop.
- Shelving for books and records
- A place for a small desk
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
Alcove units designed for your room
The problems alcove units solve
A bedroom’s alcoves are often the best place for a wardrobe. A fitted alcove cupboard holds clothes without filling the floor.
Typical reasons people contact us include:
- Worn or badly fitted alcove units
- Shelving for books and records
- Cupboards in keeping with an older house
- Walls too uneven for standard furniture
For a flat near Chadwell Heath station, alcove units are made in sections sized for the stairs, landings and lift, so measuring the route matters as much as measuring the room.
What to check before you book
- Which materials they’ll use, named in the quote
- How parking will work on your street
- How the doors are hung and adjusted
- Whether the quote follows a visit to your home
How we make alcove units for Becontree Heath
One alcove can be given over to a desk, with shelves above and a drawer or cupboard below. It is a neat way to work from home without giving up a whole room. Desk height and depth are agreed with you. If your home has bare alcoves beside the fireplace and units that sit well with original features, alcove units made from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted can solve it.
Ceilings in interwar houses tend to be lower than in Victorian ones, and the proportions of alcove units are set to match. If yours is one of the interwar houses, semis or detached homes that make up much of the housing around Becontree Heath, there may be little or no cornice, which lets the furniture run straight up to the ceiling. Any skirting is cut around neatly.
We write quotes in plain English. You’ll see what will be made, the boards used and the finish.
- Place
- Becontree Heath (RM8, RM10, RM7)
- Area
- Barking and Dagenham
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Made from
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Fitting days
- Monday to Friday; Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Enquiries
- Our contact form
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Flat-pack or bespoke?
Where bespoke earns its keep is in rooms that are not square. Older London rooms tend to have leaning walls, sloping floors and alcoves of different widths, which leaves standard units with gaps at the sides and top.
Long shelves are where off-the-shelf often struggles. Span, depth and the weight on it decide whether a shelf sags, so a long run needs a thicker shelf, a stiffening lip or a support. That’s something we plan for in the design.
How fitting works for alcove units
Period rooms often have skirting boards, picture rails, cornices or coving for the furniture to meet. We cut and scribe the furniture around them on site. The time the fitting takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and we confirm the fitting days in your quote. If you have a driveway, it can make unloading simpler, so let us know during the design visit. Otherwise, a visitor permit or a nearby bay helps. Floors and doorways are protected while the pieces come in.
- You contact us about the alcoves you want to fill, and we find a time for the design visit.
- We come to measure and talk through cupboards, shelves, heights and doors. If one alcove needs a desk or a TV space, this is when we plan it.
- A written quote follows, with the finish set out.
- The units are made at our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood. A spray-painted finish is applied there too, if that’s what you chose.
- The units are fitted in your home, ready to fill. Any scribing to the walls is done on the day.
How to prepare
- Clear the area where the furniture is going
- If you live in a block, book the lift and tell the building manager
- Take down pictures, mirrors and shelves from the wall
Arranging a design visit
It’s useful to see the room before we come. A few pictures showing the walls, the corners and where the ceiling meets them tell us a lot about the space, especially with rough sizes. To share them, get in touch through our contact form, and we’ll arrange a design visit.
Read more
Alcove units for homes in Becontree Heath
In the area around Becontree Heath, the largest groups of homes date from between 1919 and 1939 (about 55%) and between 1945 and 1972 (about 29%), on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. We take that into account during the design visit, since older and newer walls take different fixings. Near the centre of Becontree Heath, Historic England’s list includes Bentry Heath House (Grade II), about 0.5 miles south-west. If you live in a listed building, fixing into or taking out original features like panelling can require listed building consent. It’s worth speaking to the council’s conservation officer before the design is final. About 29% of homes in the area around Becontree Heath were built between 1945 and 1972, in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. Rooms from that era are often squarer, with fewer alcoves and sometimes no chimney breast, so alcove units often run along a full wall, fixed to suit the wall, which may be concrete or block.
For families living near All Saints Catholic School and Technology College, alcove units can be planned with low cupboards for toys and higher shelves for everything else. Hare Hall, about 2.9 miles north-east, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. If your own home is a period one, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at.
Becontree Heath is about 3 miles south-west of Barking, in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. We cover Becontree Heath as part of our work across Barking and Dagenham. Our Barking and Dagenham coverage includes Becontree Heath and the places around it.
Postcode districts we cover here for alcove units: RM8, RM10 and RM7. You’ll find streets here such as Bull Lane, Wood Lane and Crow Lane, and we cover homes on all of them for alcove units. Other places close to Becontree Heath include Rush Green (1 mile east), Chadwell Heath (1 mile north-west), Becontree (1 mile south), Romford (1 mile north-east) and Dagenham (2 miles south). Other parts of Barking and Dagenham we cover include Barking (3 miles south-west), Thames View Estate (3 miles south-west), Barking Riverside (3 miles south-west), Castle Green (2 miles south-west), Dagenham Green (2 miles south) and Creekmouth (4 miles south-west).
Near you in Becontree Heath
Around Becontree Heath, we cover homes near William Bellamy Primary School, St. Edward's Church of England School and Eastbrook pub and the streets around them. For rail, the closest station is Chadwell Heath station, about 1.1 miles west of the centre. Well-known places in the area include The Brewery (1.4 miles north-east) and Rush Green Hospital (1 mile east). For a walk, there’s The Chase Nature Reserve.
Common questions about alcove units
Is parking a problem for fitting in Becontree Heath?
It can be, depending on whether your street is in a controlled parking zone. A van may need a visitor permit, a pay-and-display bay or a suspended bay, which the council arranges, often with notice. It helps to tell us about parking during the design visit.
Do you cover homes near Chadwell Heath station?
Yes. We cover all of Barking and Dagenham and the rest of London. You can message us from the contact page to arrange a design visit.
How much will my alcove unit cost?
Every job is priced for its room: size, internal fittings, the finish and how awkward the walls are all play a part. You will get a written quote once we’ve measured up.
How long will the fitting take?
It depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. We will explain what to expect before we arrive.
Do both alcove units have to match?
That depends on how you use the room. Alcoves are often different widths anyway, so each unit is made for its own recess. They can match in style while doing different jobs.
Does someone need to be home during the fitting?
We need access, so someone has to let us in. After that, you do not need to stay in the room, though we like to go over the furniture with you at the end.
Bespoke alcove units or ready-made?
The depth of an alcove is set by the chimney breast. Standard cabinets can stand proud of the breast or sit too far back. Bespoke units are made to the depth you want. Standard widths rarely add up to the length of a real wall, so fitted furniture is made to the wall’s own length. It can also go up to the ceiling rather than stopping short.
The inside of the furniture affects the price as well: rails, shelves, drawers and dividers all add work. At the design visit, we work out what you need inside, and the quote follows.
Why us?
- Finished by spray or by hand
- Work across the whole of London
- Made for your room, not a standard size
- Saturdays by arrangement
See how bespoke compares with ready-made and what to look for in a quote.
Neighbourhoods near Becontree Heath
Also in Becontree Heath
Elsewhere in Barking and Dagenham
Alcove Units in all 11 places in Barking and Dagenham
Our services in Barking and Dagenham
Areas we cover
More about alcove units
What it’s made from
Birch plywood
Birch plywood is stiff, strong and grips screws firmly, so it’s ideal for shelves and the boxes behind the doors. You can paint its layered edge or leave it on show.
Hand-painted finish
A hand-painted finish suits alcove units in a period room. You choose the colour.