Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Westminster · London
Alcove Units in Charing Cross
We make alcove units for homes in Charing Cross, designed around the room you have. Your alcove unit is designed at a visit to your home and built in our workshop.
- Walls too uneven for standard furniture
- Somewhere to keep books and records
- Room to work in an alcove
Alcove units for your home in Charing Cross
How we make alcove units for Charing Cross
We work across London, including Charing Cross. It starts with a design visit, where we measure the alcoves and discuss the design. After that we send a written quote; the units are then made in our workshop and fitted in your home. We make alcove units from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted, and the usual reasons to get in touch are cupboards in keeping with an older house and walls too uneven for standard furniture.
Victorian and Edwardian houses were built with solid brick outside walls, and internal walls may be brick or lath and plaster. Since a large share of the homes around Charing Cross 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, particularly behind loaded shelves.
You get the quote in writing, so there is time to read it properly and talk it over at home. It covers the design, materials and finish agreed at the visit.
- Location
- Charing Cross (W1F, W1D, W1S)
- Borough
- Westminster
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Boards and paint
- MDF and plywood, painted to order
- Working days
- Weekdays (Saturdays if arranged)
- Get in touch
- Send us a message
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
How fitting day works
Furniture made in a workshop still has to meet the room it is going into, and that happens on fitting day. Few walls in older London homes are truly flat or square, so we scribe the edges by hand to follow the wall, closing the gaps a standard unit would leave. How long the fitting itself takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. Hallways in period houses are often narrow, and the stairs turn sharply, so the furniture comes in sections sized for the route in. Floors, stairs and doorways are covered before anything is carried through, and the sections are joined and scribed in the room.
- You contact us about the alcoves you want to fill, and we find a time for the design visit.
- A design visit follows, where we measure up and agree the layout with you.
- We put the design, materials and finish into a written quote, ready for you to check.
- We build the units in our workshop, using moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
- We bring them to your home and fit them in place. Any scribing to the walls is done on the day.
Before fitting day
- Keep pets in another room while we work
- Clear the area where the furniture is going
- Have your electrician move any sockets or switches beforehand
Ask for a quote
It’s useful to see the room before we come. Pictures of the whole wall, the corners and the ceiling line tell us a lot about the space, along with rough sizes. To send them over, get in touch through our contact form, and we will arrange a design visit.
Advice
Bespoke alcove units or ready-made?
Bespoke furniture is not instant: there’s a design visit, a quote and making time in the workshop. In return, the unit is planned for your alcove alone. Ready-made pieces are proportioned for newer homes and can look lost in an older one, whereas fitted pieces can pick up the room’s height and mouldings, with panels and details to suit the house.
How it is painted is part of the price: spray painting is done in the workshop, while hand painting can be done on site. Your choice, along with the size and the fittings, is reflected in the written quote.
Why choose Bespoke Carpentry in Charing Cross
- Moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
- Fitted tight to walls that are not straight
- A design visit, then a quote in writing
- Finished by spray or by hand
Take a look at how bespoke compares with ready-made and how to compare quotes.
Your questions about alcove units in Charing Cross
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in Charing Cross?
It can be: much of inner London is covered by controlled parking zones. A van may need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a parking bay suspension, which the council arranges, often with notice. Let us know what parking is near you during the design visit, so we can plan the day around it.
I live in a flat in Charing Cross. How will the furniture get up the stairs?
We measure the route in along with the room itself: the stairs, landings, lift and doors. The furniture is made in sections that fit the stairs and lift, and put together in the room. If your building has rules on lift booking or working hours, or your lease needs consent for alterations, it’s worth checking those early.
Can an alcove unit include a desk?
Yes. One alcove can take a desk with shelves above and a drawer or cupboard beneath. We plan the height and depth with you, with a route left for cables.
Can you add sockets inside the units?
We don’t do electrical work. If you want sockets moved or added, your electrician should do that before we fit. We can plan cut-outs and cable routes in the units around them.
What happens when you come to measure?
We measure the space and discuss the design, materials and finish. We look at the walls, floors and anything the furniture has to work around, and the written quote comes afterwards.
Do I need to be in when you fit?
Someone needs to be there to let us in. After that, you don’t need to stay in the room, but it helps to be around at the end.
How it is made
Spray-painted finish
Spraying in the workshop means the units arrive already finished, in the colour agreed with you. Give the paint time to cure fully once fitted.
Moisture-resistant MDF
Moisture-resistant MDF is stable and takes paint well, which makes it our choice for doors and visible panels. It’s a good match for alcoves on an external wall.
Also near Charing Cross
Also in Charing Cross
Living-room storage in Charing Cross
In the area around Charing Cross, the largest groups of homes date from before 1919 (about 50%) and the years since 2000 (about 21%), on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. For carpentry, the era of a house is a useful clue to how square its rooms are and what its walls are made of. Charing Cross is partly covered by the Trafalgar Square Conservation Area, according to Historic England’s records. Fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission in a conservation area, as the controls are mostly concerned with the outside of buildings. If you’re unsure, check with the council before work starts. Parking on many inner London streets is controlled, with zones run by each borough. In Charing Cross, a van will normally need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a suspended bay, and the council arranges suspensions, often with notice. Parking is worth mentioning during the design visit, so the day can be planned around it.
For an older house near St Martin-in-the-Fields, the alcoves beside a chimney breast are the natural place for alcove units. For families living near Soho Parish CofE Primary School, a cupboard for board games and a shelf for reading books can go into the same design. Living in a block of flats near London Charing Cross station? Then alcove units are made in sections sized for the stairs, landings and lift, so measuring the route matters as much as measuring the room.
Charing Cross is about 1 mile north-west of City of Westminster, within the City of Westminster. We design and make alcove units for homes in Charing Cross and the rest of Westminster. Our work takes in places right across Westminster, large and small.
We work across W1F, W1D and W1S for alcove units. Whether you live on a street like Duck Lane, Drury Lane and Bridle Lane or on one nearby, we can visit to measure up for alcove units. The A4 and A301 run close to Charing Cross; on busy main roads, unloading alcove units takes a little planning. Neighbouring places we cover for alcove units include St James's (1 mile west), Adelphi (1 mile north-east), Chinatown (1 mile north-west), West End (1 mile north) and Covent Garden (1 mile north-east). Elsewhere in Westminster, we also cover Paddington Green (2 miles north-west), Paddington (2 miles west), Connaught Village (2 miles west), Lisson Grove (2 miles north-west), Westbourne (3 miles west) and Little Venice (3 miles west).
Near you in Charing Cross
We fit furniture in homes around Silver Cross Tavern, Westminster Abbey Choir School and London Library. Charing Cross has its own railway station: London Charing Cross station. Nearby you will also find Kingly Court (0.6 miles north-west) and Montfichet's Tower (1.2 miles east). For a walk, there’s St. James's Park Lake and Ludgate Hill.
How we price alcove units
Each piece is designed for one room, so each price is too. The things that affect it are:
- How big the furniture is
- Whether you choose a spray or hand-painted finish
- The number of doors and drawers
- How square the room is
The inside of the furniture affects the price as well: rails, shelves, drawers and dividers all add work. We’ll talk through what you need inside during the design visit, and the quote follows.
Before the design visit
What helps most when you first contact us:
- Whether it’s a house or a flat, and if there are stairs or a lift
- The postcode, so we can plan the visit
- Examples of the look you are after
- What you’d like to store or use the space for
If you know what you want, say so; if not, we can work it out together at the visit. The design is talked through at the visit, once we have measured, and the written quote then sets it out. To start, drop us a line using the contact form.
Flats, blocks and rented homes
Many London terraces have been converted into flats, which often brings a shared hall and tight turns on the stairs. Each section is sized with that in mind.
We also make and fit furniture for landlords furnishing a let. It’s made from the same moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood as any of our work.