Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Lewisham · London
Alcove units in Forest Hill, Lewisham
Cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast, for homes in Forest Hill. After a design visit and a written quote, it is built in our workshop and fitted in your home.
- Shop-bought shelving that does not fill the recess
- Clutter with nowhere to go
- Old alcove cupboards that have seen better days
Ask about alcove units in Forest Hill
Your questions about alcove units in Forest Hill
I live in a flat in Forest Hill. How will the furniture get up the stairs?
At the design visit, we measure the way in along with the room itself. Alcove units are built in our workshop in sections sized to fit that route, then assembled in your flat. If your building has rules on lift booking or working hours, or your lease needs consent for alterations, it’s worth checking those early.
I live near Honor Oak Park station. Is that in your area?
Yes. We cover all of Lewisham and the rest of London. To get started, you can drop us a line using the contact form with a few details about the room, and tell us about parking and access at the same time.
How do I get a quote for alcove units in Forest Hill?
Just fill in our short enquiry form. Rough measurements and a few photos help, and we will arrange a design visit.
Should both alcoves have the same units?
That depends on how you use the room. Alcoves are often different widths anyway. They can share a style while doing different things.
Is an outside wall a problem for fitted furniture?
It can be done with some care: leaving ventilation behind and inside helps stop condensation. We do not treat damp, so any damp should be sorted before fitting day.
What happens at the design visit?
We measure the space and discuss the design, materials and finish. We also check the walls and floors and note radiators, sockets and other things in the way, and the written quote comes afterwards.
About our alcove units in Forest Hill
Period rooms often have skirting boards, picture rails and cornices. Units can be cut around them, stop just below them or run neatly up to them, whichever suits the room. A plinth can be set to line up with the skirting so the units feel part of the room. These details are settled when we visit, before anything is made. We make alcove units from birch ply and moisture-resistant MDF, painted by hand or sprayed, and people most often get in touch about everyday clutter left on show and tired cupboards in the alcoves.
Older houses tend to come with picture rails, tall skirtings and cornices, and alcove units need to meet those lines neatly. Homes built before 1919 make up a large share of the housing around Forest Hill, so mouldings are something we expect to talk about at the design visit. The top line can stop at the rail or run on to the cornice, depending on the room.
A quote in writing is the clearest record of what we’ve agreed. It describes the alcove unit we have designed for the room, its materials and its finish.
- Location
- Forest Hill (SE23, SE22, SE26)
- Borough
- Lewisham
- Price
- Quoted for your room
- First step
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Making
- In our workshop, then fitted in your home
- Boards and paint
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- Fitting days
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Enquiries
- Our contact form
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
Made for the room, or bought in a box?
Bespoke furniture isn’t instant: it needs a design visit, a quote and time in the workshop. What you get is a unit planned for your alcove, not the nearest catalogue size. The two recesses beside a chimney breast are seldom an identical size, and standard units bought as a pair rarely suit both. Each side can be made to its own size.
We quote each job for the room it’s going into, after the design visit. Bigger pieces use more board and take longer to make and fit. After that, the number of doors and drawers, the internal fittings and the finish all play a part.
Why choose Bespoke Carpentry in Forest Hill
- Every London borough and the City of London covered
- Spray painted or hand painted, in the colour you choose
- Made in moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
- Fitted tight to walls that aren’t straight
See bespoke vs off-the-shelf and what to look for in a quote.
Neighbourhoods near Forest Hill
More for homes in Forest Hill
Built-in living-room furniture in Forest Hill
The biggest shares of homes in the area around Forest Hill were built before 1919 (about 57%) and between 1945 and 1972 (about 17%), according to Valuation Office Agency council tax figures (2025). That matters for alcove units, as the build era decides whether a wall is solid brick, lath and plaster, block or plasterboard. The centre of Forest Hill is within about a quarter of a mile of the Forest Hill Conservation Area. Conservation area rules mainly cover the outside of buildings, so fitted furniture inside a house does not normally need planning permission. If you want to be certain, ask the council’s planning team. In inner London, a large part of the street parking sits inside borough-run controlled parking zones. For fitting in Forest Hill, a van typically needs a visitor permit, a paid bay or a bay suspension, which the council arranges, often with notice. Parking is worth mentioning during the design visit, so the day can be planned around it.
If you live in a flat close to Honor Oak Park station, it helps to book the lift and tell the concierge before fitting day. Near listed buildings like Fairlawn School, under half a mile north-west of the centre of Forest Hill, older homes may keep original joinery that alcove units can be designed around. If your own home is listed, check with the council before fixing into original features. If your home is one of the older houses near Honor Oak Christian Fellowship Centre, walls that bow and floors that slope are why alcove units are scribed to fit rather than pushed into place.
Forest Hill is part of the London Borough of Lewisham, about 2 miles north-east of New Cross. We cover Forest Hill as part of our work across Lewisham. Across Lewisham, we cover Forest Hill, along with the rest of the borough.
Postcode districts we cover here for alcove units: SE23, SE22 and SE26. Streets in the area include Ewart Road, London Road and Rojack Road, and homes on each of them are within our area for alcove units. If you are just outside Forest Hill, we also cover Honor Oak (1 mile north), Perry Vale (1 mile south-east), Brockley (1 mile north-east), Crofton Park (1 mile north-east) and Dulwich (1 mile west). Elsewhere in Lewisham, we also cover New Cross (2 miles north-east), St Johns (2 miles north-east), Deptford (3 miles north-east), Catford (2 miles east), Lewisham (2 miles north-east) and Surrey Canal (3 miles north).
What’s near Forest Hill
In Forest Hill, that includes homes near Harris Girls' Academy East Dulwich and Capitol Cinema pub. The nearest railway station is Honor Oak Park station, about 0.5 miles north-east. Well-known places in the area include Dulwich Community Hospital (1.5 miles north-west) and Horniman Museum and Gardens (0.5 miles south-west). Not far away are One Tree Hill.
Flats, conversions and lettings
In a managed block, the building manager or concierge may need notice before we arrive. If there is a lift, it may need booking, and its size matters when we plan the sections. Mention it when you get in touch.
Blocks of flats often have their own rules on lift bookings, entry systems and times for trades. Let us know about them during the design visit, and we will plan the fitting around them.
What we don’t do
We are carpenters, so some jobs belong to other trades. It helps to know these before you plan the job:
- Finding and fixing the cause of damp
- Taking out a chimney breast or opening up a fireplace
- Redecorating, which is for your decorator
If in doubt, you can drop us a line using the contact form and describe the room. How a job runs, step by step.
What goes into it
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Spray-painted finish
- Scribed side panels
- Adjustable shelves
- Panelled or flat doors
- Hand-painted finish
- Birch plywood
How fitting day works
Before anything is fixed, we set the furniture level. Floors are often out of level, so adjustable feet or a plinth take up the difference, which keeps the lines straight. Only then is it fixed to the wall, with fixings chosen to suit brick, lath and plaster or plasterboard. Terraced streets in London are often lined with parked cars, so details of permits, bays and any loading restrictions help. The van is unloaded quickly, with the sections carried straight in. Saturdays are possible by prior arrangement.
- To begin, get in touch through our contact form; a brief note on the alcoves is plenty.
- We visit to measure the alcoves, go through the design and check the route from the street to the room.
- We then send a quote in writing for the units.
- The units are made at our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, in sections sized to come through your door.
- On fitting day the sections come in, are joined in place and scribed to the walls. A spray-painted finish arrives done; a hand-painted one is applied once the units are in.
How to prepare
- Book any lift and let the concierge or building manager know
- Keep pets in another room while we work
- Take down pictures, mirrors and shelves from the wall
Arranging a design visit
For a quote for alcove units in Forest Hill, tell us about the room on our 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.
Related advice
When is bespoke worth it?
If you are 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.
The real difference is in the fit: scribed edges, a level base on an uneven floor and furniture that meets the ceiling, skirting and picture rail. In an older room, standard units rarely manage that.