Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Camden · London
Dartmouth Park Alcove Units
Cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast, for homes in Dartmouth Park. We measure, design and quote first, then make it in our workshop and fit it.
- Empty alcoves either side of the chimney breast
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
- Shop-bought shelving that doesn’t fill the recess
Alcove units for your home in Dartmouth Park
Alcove units for homes in Dartmouth Park
Many people choose cupboards at low level and shelves above them. The cupboards take the things you’d rather not see, and the shelves are for books and favourite objects. The cupboard top gives you a ledge for a lamp, a speaker or a plant. We set the heights to suit the room and what you will store. People usually come to us about somewhere to keep books and records and a desk that tucks into an alcove; the furniture is made from birch plywood and moisture-resistant MDF with a spray-painted or hand-painted finish.
With a large share of homes around Dartmouth Park built before 1919, the living room is often two rooms knocked through, with a chimney breast in each half. One pair of alcoves might take shelves and the other cupboards, a TV or a desk. Older internal walls can be lath and plaster rather than brick, which changes how shelving is fixed.
Everything we agree at the measuring visit goes into the written quote: the layout and internal fittings, the materials and the finish. If something isn’t quite right, tell us before anything is made.
- Place
- Dartmouth Park (NW5, N19, N7)
- Borough
- Camden
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Making
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Made from
- MDF and plywood, painted to order
- When we fit
- Weekdays; Saturdays on request
- Contact
- Send us a message
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
Looking after your furniture
Looking after painted furniture is simple with a little care. These habits help most:
- Note the sizes of large things you want to store
- Make the alcoves easy to reach for measuring
- Think about what you will store before we meet
- Decide whether the units stop at the picture rail or run to the ceiling
Once the cupboards are filled and in daily use, a door may settle slightly. Hinges can typically be adjusted to bring a door back in line.
Every so often, check that hinges and handles haven’t worked loose.
From workshop to your room
Once the main sections are fixed in place, 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. How long the fitting takes depends on the size and number of units, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. Terraced streets in London are often lined with parked cars, so it helps to tell us at the design visit what’s outside. Unloading is kept short, with sections taken straight inside. Saturday fitting can be arranged.
- You get in touch and describe the alcoves you want to fill.
- We visit to measure the alcoves top, middle and bottom, and check the floor for level. Then we go through the design together.
- We send the design, materials and finish in a written quote.
- In our workshop the units are made from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, with a little extra left on the edges that meet the wall.
- On fitting day we level the units and scribe the edges so they follow the line of the plaster. Spray-painted units arrive finished; hand-painted ones are painted once fitted.
Getting ready for fitting day
- Book any lift and let the concierge or building manager know
- Clear the hallway and stairs so the sections can come through
- Take down pictures, mirrors and shelves from the wall
Getting a quote
Pictures help us understand the room before we visit. A few pictures showing the walls, the corners and where the ceiling meets them give us a good feel for the space. To share them, use our contact form, and we’ll arrange a design visit.
Advice
Could you do it yourself?
If you’re handy, a simple shelf or a standard wardrobe in a square room is a reasonable DIY job. It gets harder with sloping ceilings, out-of-level floors and lath-and-plaster walls, because scribing and the right fixings start to matter.
Flat-pack and off-the-shelf furniture has its place. In a room with square walls and standard sizes, it can work well, and it’s easy to buy.
Nearby places to Dartmouth Park
What else we make in Dartmouth Park
Alcove units in Dartmouth Park: local notes
About 55% of the homes in the area around Dartmouth Park went up before 1919, and about 15% between 1973 and 1999, according to Valuation Office Agency council tax figures (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. 13 conservation areas have at least part of their area within a mile of central Dartmouth Park. England has around 10,000 in all, and their controls are mainly about the outside of buildings, so fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. Parking on many inner London streets is controlled, with zones run by each borough. In Dartmouth Park, a van will typically need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a suspended bay, and the council arranges suspensions, often with notice. Tell us what parking is near you during the design visit.
If you live in a flat close to Gospel Oak 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 children go to Acland Burghley School or a school nearby, shelving with deep cupboards below keeps books, games and school things in one place. If your home is one of the older houses near Church of St Mary Brookfield, the alcoves beside a chimney breast are the natural place for alcove units.
Dartmouth Park is about 3 miles south-east of St Pancras, part of the London Borough of Camden. We work across all London boroughs and the City of London, and Dartmouth Park is part of that. Our Camden coverage includes Dartmouth Park and the places around it.
In NW5, N19 and N7, the process is the same as anywhere else in London. Our area takes in homes on streets such as Hugo Road, Ward Road and Anson Road, along with the roads around them, for alcove units and any of our other fitted furniture. We also cover the places around Dartmouth Park: Lissenden Gardens (1 mile south-west), Tufnell Park (1 mile east), Gospel Oak (1 mile south-west), Upper Holloway (1 mile north-east) and Highgate (1 mile north). We also make alcove units in nearby places like St Pancras (3 miles south-east), Hampstead (2 miles west), West End (3 miles south), St Giles (3 miles south), Seven Dials (3 miles south) and West Hampstead (2 miles west).
Around Dartmouth Park
Around Dartmouth Park, we cover homes near Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, The Dartmouth Arms and Asanté Academy of Chinese Medicine and the streets around them. The nearest railway station is Gospel Oak station, about 0.5 miles south-west. A little further out are O2 Centre (1.8 miles south-west) and Royal Northern Hospital (0.8 miles east). For a walk, there is Belsize Wood and Dartmouth Park Hill.
What affects the price in Dartmouth Park
Prices vary from room to room, and it comes down to:
- Awkward walls, sloping ceilings and uneven floors
- The finish: spray painted or hand painted
- Parking and unloading on your street
- How many doors and drawers there are
What goes inside matters as much as the outside: drawers take more making than shelves, and each rail, divider or pull-out adds to the work. We will talk through what you need inside during the design visit, then set it out in the quote.
Helping us understand the room
Some details help us understand the job before we visit. It is useful to include:
- Your postcode and the borough
- Radiators, sockets, pipes or meters on or near the wall
- Whether it is a house or a flat, and if there are stairs or a lift
- Examples of the look you are after
The design visit is where every quote starts. We measure the room properly, check how the walls and floors run and talk through the design with you. A written quote follows the visit, so you can take your time with it. To book one, drop us a line using the contact form.
Questions from Dartmouth Park
Can you make alcove units for a home in Dartmouth Park?
Yes. Dartmouth Park is one of the places we work, along with the rest of Camden and London. To get started, you can send us a few details through our contact form with a few details.
Can you fit furniture in a home close to Gospel Oak station?
Yes. We cover all of Camden and the rest of London. You can drop us a line using the contact form to arrange a design visit.
Is it possible to have a desk built into one alcove?
Yes. A desk in one alcove, with shelves above and storage below, works well in many rooms. Height and depth are agreed with you, with a route left for cables.
Can I send pictures ahead of the visit?
Yes, they help. A few pictures of the room, from floor to ceiling, tell us a lot, particularly with rough sizes. To send them, get in touch through our contact form.
Can the two alcove units be different?
That depends on how you use the room. The two alcoves are often slightly different sizes, so each unit is made to its own measurements. They can match in style while doing different jobs.
Can you come on a Saturday?
Yes, by arrangement. If a Saturday works better for you, say so when you get in touch.
Is bespoke worth it?
Off-the-shelf furniture comes in set heights, which typically leaves a gap above. A bespoke unit can run up to the ceiling or finish just under the picture rail, depending on the room. 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, with panels and details to suit the house.
No two rooms cost the same to furnish, because size, layout and finish change from job to job. Spray painting and hand painting are different processes, which affects the cost. The figure comes in your written quote after the design visit.
Why us?
- More than 300 projects completed
- Scribed to uneven walls
- Made in moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
- Work across the whole of London
Take a look at bespoke vs off-the-shelf or what a quote should include.