Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Westminster · London
Alcove units in Chinatown, Westminster
In Chinatown, we design alcove units around the room you actually have. We design your alcove unit at a visit to your home, make it in our workshop and fit it.
- Everyday clutter left on show
- Bowed walls and sloping floors
- Room to work in an alcove
Alcove units in Chinatown
Materials and finishes
Spray-painted finish
A sprayed coat covers edges and corners evenly, which suits panelled doors. You choose the colour at the design stage.
Hand-painted finish
Hand painting lets the colour be judged in the room itself as it goes on. It also means any filling around scribed edges is painted in one go.
Alcove units for homes in Chinatown
Period rooms often have skirting boards, picture rails and cornices. We can cut units around these details, stop beneath them or run up to meet them, depending on the look you want. The plinth height can match the skirting. We agree these details during the design visit, before anything is made. Most enquiries start with furniture that doesn’t fit the alcove and somewhere to keep books and records; the furniture is made from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted.
With a large share of homes around Chinatown built before 1919, lots of living rooms are two reception rooms knocked into one, each with its own chimney breast. One pair of alcoves might take shelves and the other cupboards, a TV or a desk. Some internal walls in houses of that age are lath and plaster, so fixings are chosen to suit what’s behind the paint.
The furniture is made at our workshop after you’ve had the quote and decided to go ahead. The quote sets out the agreed design, materials and finish, so every detail can be checked first.
- Location
- Chinatown (W1F, W1D, W1T)
- Borough
- Westminster
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- First step
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Making
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Materials and finish
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Fitting days
- Weekdays (Saturdays if arranged)
- Contact
- Our contact form
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
Bespoke or off-the-shelf?
Cost matters, and it’s fair to say so: off-the-shelf furniture typically costs less up front. Bespoke earns its place where the room is tricky, space is tight or you want the furniture to look part of the house.
Off-the-shelf cupboards come in fixed sizes, so there is often a strip of wasted space at the side or above. Fitted furniture is made to the room’s measurements, so it can use the full height and width.
Questions we’re often asked
Do you make alcove units for homes in Chinatown?
Yes. We cover all of Westminster and the rest of London, and Chinatown is part of that. The first step is a design visit, where we measure and talk through the design, followed by a quote.
Can you fit furniture in a home close to Tottenham Court Road station?
Yes, homes across Westminster and the rest of London are within the area we cover. You can message us from the contact page to arrange a design visit, and tell us about parking and access at the same time.
Can you fit furniture on an external wall?
An outside wall can be colder and damper than an inside one, so we allow for ventilation behind and inside the furniture, which helps avoid condensation and mould. If there’s damp, it should be sorted before anything is fitted.
Which finishes are there for alcove units?
We offer spray painting in the workshop and hand painting on site. A sprayed finish is very smooth and even. We talk through both at the design visit.
Can you build alcove units for alcoves that are not square?
Yes. Few alcoves in older houses are truly square, so we scribe each unit to follow the wall. A plinth or adjustable feet set it level on a sloping floor.
Do I need planning permission for fitted furniture?
Not usually. Conservation areas mostly control changes to the outside, and furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need it. In a listed building, check with the council’s conservation officer before any work.
Looking after your furniture
These points come up often when people plan alcove units. They’re worth knowing before and after fitting:
- Book your electrician first if sockets need moving
- Bring the sizes of anything that has to fit in the cupboards
- Consider whether the units should reach the ceiling
- Deal with any damp on the chimney breast first
Keep any chimney vent clear once the units are in. Ventilation helps keep the chimney breast dry.
Spread heavy loads and keep the heaviest things on lower shelves. Most sagging comes from shelves carrying more than they were planned for, so mention heavy collections when we plan the unit.
Places near Chinatown
Also in Chinatown
Fitting day, step by step
There isn’t much for you to do on fitting day. Someone needs to let us in, and the room should already be cleared. From there, we protect the floors, bring the furniture in and get on with the fitting. 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. Parking on terraced streets can be tight, especially in a controlled parking zone, so details of permits, bays and any loading restrictions help. The van is unloaded quickly, with the sections carried straight in. Saturday fitting can be arranged.
- You get in touch with a short description of the alcoves and your ideas, even if the design is only a rough idea so far.
- We visit to measure, look at how the walls run and note the skirting, picture rail and any vent.
- You receive a quote with the design, the materials and the paint finish.
- Once you’re happy, the units are made at our workshop, using moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
- We fit the units, scribe them to the walls and set them level.
Before fitting day
- Keep pets out of the room and the hallway
- Book any lift and let the concierge or building manager know
- Get any new sockets or wiring done by your electrician before fitting day
Starting with a design visit
You don’t need exact measurements to get started. Everything is measured properly when we visit, including how level the floor and ceiling are. To arrange it, send us a few details through our contact form and let us know about the room. You receive a quote in writing after the visit.
Related advice
What affects the price in Chinatown
The price for your room depends on:
- Parking and unloading on your street
- The overall size of the piece
- The finish: spray painted or hand painted
- How easy it is to get the furniture into the room
Getting to the room affects the job as well. Narrow halls, tight stairs or a small lift may mean the furniture is made in more sections, and that is part of the price. Prices are quoted for your room, once we’ve measured and talked through the design.
Helping us understand the room
A few details help us understand the job before we visit. It’s useful to include:
- Examples of the look you’re after
- Your postcode and the borough
- A few pictures of the space, taken from the doorway and from each corner
- Radiators, sockets, pipes or meters on or near the wall
To make a start, send us a few details through our contact form and let us know which room you have in mind and roughly what you’d like. We then arrange a design visit to measure and go through the design, and a quote in writing follows.
Chinatown homes and alcove units
About 50% of the homes in the area around Chinatown went up before 1919, and about 23% since 2000, on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax figures for 2025. It is a good starting point, though every room is still measured, as two homes of the same age rarely match. Within a mile of the centre of Chinatown, 32 conservation areas are recorded by Historic England. England has around 10,000 in all, and their controls are mainly about the outside of buildings. Red routes are run by TfL, with tight limits on where and when vehicles can stop. Where a home in Chinatown is on or beside a main road, it helps to mention that during the design visit. We can then plan where the van will stop.
If you live near St Anne's Churchyard, alcove units can be planned to frame a window with a view rather than block it. If you live in a flat close to Tottenham Court Road 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. If your home is one of the older houses near St Anne's Church, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at.
Chinatown is about 1 mile west of City of Westminster, within the City of Westminster. Anywhere in Chinatown, it works the same way: a design visit, a quote in writing, furniture made in our workshop and fitting in your home. Our work takes in places right across Westminster, large and small.
We make alcove units across the W1F, W1D and W1T postcode area for alcove units. If your home is on a street such as Duck Lane, Drury Lane and Bruton Lane, or close by, we can visit to measure up for alcove units. Main roads around Chinatown include the A4 and A301. If your home is on one of them, tell us during the design visit, as some main roads have strict stopping rules. We also cover Soho (1 mile north), St James's (1 mile south), West End (1 mile north-east), Seven Dials (1 mile north-east) and St Giles (1 mile north-east). Other parts of Westminster we cover include Paddington Green (2 miles west), Paddington (2 miles west), Lisson Grove (2 miles north-west), Westbourne (3 miles west), Little Venice (2 miles west) and Westbourne Green (3 miles west). Chinatown is one of the larger places we cover in Westminster.
What’s near Chinatown
We fit furniture in homes around LITE Regal International School, Harris Westminster Sixth Form and Waxy O'Connor's pub. Chinatown has its own railway station: Tottenham Court Road station. Nearby you’ll also find Leverian collection (under half a mile south-east) and Kingly Court (under half a mile west). Not far away are St. James's Park Lake and Ludgate Hill.