Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Bexley · London
Crossness Alcove Units
Walls in older London homes are rarely straight, so we scribe the furniture to follow them. We make alcove units for homes in Crossness, each designed at a visit to your home.
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
- Alcoves that aren’t square
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
Need alcove units in Crossness?
Alcove units in Crossness
Some alcoves suit a full-height unit, with doors from floor to ceiling. In bedrooms, this often becomes a compact wardrobe or a place for bedding, and in a dining room a home for china and glass. We ask what you want to store before we plan the inside, and set out the shelves and rails around it. If you’re living with bare alcoves beside the fireplace and standard units leaving gaps at the sides, that is what alcove units are for, made from birch plywood and moisture-resistant MDF with a spray-painted or hand-painted finish.
In a part of London with mixed housing, like much of the city, living rooms vary a lot in shape. Some have alcoves either side of a chimney breast, some a bay window, and some neither. The design for your home in Crossness starts from its own walls, and long shelves are sized not to sag.
The furniture is made in our workshop after you’ve had the quote and decided to go ahead. It describes the design, the materials and the finish agreed at the visit, so every detail can be checked first.
- Location
- Crossness (SE2, SE28, DA18)
- Borough
- Bexley
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Made
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Materials and finish
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Fitting days
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by arrangement
- Get in touch
- Send us a message
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
What prompts alcove units in Crossness
Often the alcoves are simply the biggest unused space in the room. Off-the-shelf furniture rarely fits them, leaving gaps at the sides and above. Built-in units use the whole recess from wall to wall.
Here’s what alcove units can help with:
- Cupboards in keeping with an older house
- Tired cupboards in the alcoves
- Furniture that doesn’t fit the alcove
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
If you live near Lesnes Abbey Woods, alcove units can be planned to frame a window with a view rather than block it.
Before you hire any carpenter
- Are the boards named, like MDF or plywood?
- Who does any electrics, plumbing or gas work
- Will the doors close with even gaps?
- How they handle walls that aren’t straight
How fitting works for alcove units
However carefully a piece is made in the workshop, it still has to meet the room, and fitting day is where that happens. 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. We measure the hall, stairs, doors and any lift along with the room itself, so alcove units arrive in sections that fit through. We cover floors and doorways on the way in.
- You get in touch about alcove units and the room they’re for.
- At the design visit we measure up, agree the layout and talk about colour and finish. You can choose a spray-painted finish from our workshop or a hand-painted one done in your home.
- The written quote then sets out the design, the materials and the finish you’ve picked.
- We make the units in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF, which takes paint well, and birch plywood. If you chose spray painting, that’s done in the workshop too, for a smooth, even surface.
- We fit the units in your home and scribe them to the walls.
- New paintwork takes a while to cure fully, so treat the surfaces gently at first.
Getting ready for fitting day
- Let us know where the boiler and meters are
- Get any new sockets or wiring done by your electrician before fitting day
- Take down pictures, mirrors and shelves from the wall
Getting a quote
For a quote for alcove units in Crossness, drop us a line using the contact form. Let us know the room and the rough idea, with sizes if you have them. Next comes a design visit, followed by a written quote.
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Crossness homes and alcove units
About 63% of the homes in the streets around Crossness went up between 1973 and 1999, and about 20% between 1945 and 1972, 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. TfL’s red routes have strict stopping rules. If your home in Crossness is on or near a main road, tell us during the design visit. That way we can plan where to load and unload. All of London, Bexley included, is inside the ULEZ. It applies to the vans that deliver and fit furniture in Crossness, as it does anywhere else in London. How the van gets to your door is planned during the design visit.
If your home is one of the older houses near Church of the Cross, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at. The wider area includes historic houses like Rainham Hall, about 2.8 miles north-east. If your own home is a period one, walls that bow and floors that slope are why alcove units are scribed to fit rather than pushed into place.
Crossness is about 5 miles south of Sidcup, part of the London Borough of Bexley. Crossness is part of the area we cover, and the process is the same everywhere we work. Our Bexley coverage includes Crossness, along with the rest of the borough.
Every home in SE2, SE28 and DA18 is within our area for alcove units. Our area takes in homes on streets like Kale Road, Haldane Road and Seacourt Road, for alcove units and any of our other fitted furniture. The A2016 run close to Crossness; on busy main roads, unloading alcove units takes a little planning. We also cover the places around Crossness: Thamesmead (1 mile north-west), Dagenham Dock (1 mile north), Barking Riverside (2 miles north-west), Hornchurch Marshes (2 miles north-east) and Dagenham Green (2 miles north). Elsewhere in Bexley, we also cover Sidcup (5 miles south), Welling (3 miles south), Erith (2 miles south-east), Bexley (4 miles south), Northumberland Heath (2 miles south-east) and Bexleyheath (3 miles south).
Landmarks near Crossness
Around Crossness, we cover homes near Belvedere Working Mens Club pub and Harris Garrard Academy and the streets around them. The nearest railway station is Abbey Wood station, about 0.8 miles south-west. Other landmarks nearby include Greenwich Borough Museum (1.7 miles south-west). Green spaces nearby include Crossness Nature Reserve.
Questions from Crossness
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in Crossness?
It depends on the street, as many London boroughs run controlled parking zones. Depending on the street, a visitor permit, a paid bay or a bay suspension through the council may be needed, and suspensions often need notice. It’s useful to tell us about parking during the design visit, so the day can be planned around it.
Can you make alcove units for a home in Crossness?
Yes. Crossness is one of the places we work, along with the rest of Bexley and London. You can drop us a line using the contact form to arrange a design visit.
Do I need to be at home on fitting day?
We need access, so someone has to let us in. You don’t need to watch us work, though we like to go over the furniture with you at the end.
Do both alcove units have to match?
It’s up to you. A matching pair balances the chimney breast, but many people put a desk or a TV in one alcove and cupboards in the other. Shared details, such as the plinth and paint colour, keep them looking related.
Can you fit furniture on an external wall?
External walls can be colder and damper than internal ones, so we allow for ventilation behind and inside the furniture to avoid condensation. Any damp needs sorting by the right specialist before fitting.
What paint finish can I have on alcove units?
There are two options: a spray-painted finish done in our workshop, or a hand-painted finish done on site. Either way, the colour is agreed with you. Spraying gives a smooth, even surface, and hand painting is easy to touch up.
Practical tips
New paint needs time to cure fully, so go gently with it for a while. After that, a few simple habits help:
- Talk to your electrician early if you want new sockets
- Decide whether the units stop at the picture rail or run to the ceiling
- Let us know about stairs, parking and access early
- Measure anything large that must fit inside, like a record player
Do not let stored things block the chimney breast vent. Air moving through the chimney helps keep damp away.
If a damp patch appears near a unit, look into it early. Damp needs its cause fixing by the right trade.
Places near Crossness
Also in Crossness
Bespoke alcove units or ready-made?
Bespoke furniture is not instant: there’s a design visit, a quote and making time in the workshop. What you get is a unit planned for your alcove, not the nearest catalogue size. Off-the-shelf furniture comes in set sizes, and real rooms rarely match them, which leaves gaps at the sides and wasted space on top. Fitted furniture is made to the room.
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. Tell us about parking during the design visit.
What you get with us
- Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Made in moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
- A spray or hand-painted finish
- Over 300 projects completed
See how bespoke compares with ready-made or what to look for in a quote.
Flat-pack or bespoke?
Long shelves are where off-the-shelf often struggles. How much a shelf bends depends on its span, depth and load, and long runs need a thicker shelf, a lip along the front or a support. We design shelves with that in mind.
What you pay for with bespoke is mainly the fit: edges scribed to the wall, a level base on a sloping floor and a neat line where the furniture meets the ceiling. Off-the-shelf furniture cannot normally do that in an older room.