Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Newham · London
Greengate Alcove Units
We make alcove units for homes in Greengate, 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
- Worn or badly fitted alcove units
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
Alcove units for your home in Greengate
Alcove units in Greengate
Some alcoves suit a full-height unit, with doors from floor to ceiling. In a bedroom, it can become a small wardrobe or a linen cupboard, and in a dining room a home for china and glass. At the design visit we ask what you plan to keep there, so shelves and rails go where they’re needed. If your home has empty alcoves either side of the chimney breast and space for a growing book collection, that is what alcove units are for, made from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, finished by spray or by hand.
Victorian and Edwardian houses were built with solid brick outside walls, and internal walls may be brick or lath and plaster. With so many homes around Greengate built before 1919, the wall type is checked before any fixing for alcove units is chosen. Lath and plaster in particular needs fixings chosen for it, especially behind loaded shelves.
The quote names the materials: moisture-resistant MDF, birch plywood or both, depending on the design. It also says how the furniture will be finished: spray painted or hand painted.
- Place
- Greengate (E13, E6, E16)
- Area
- Newham
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- First step
- We visit, measure, then quote
- Where it’s made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Boards and paint
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- When we fit
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by arrangement
- Get in touch
- The contact form
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
The problems alcove units solve
Sometimes there are old units already, worn, badly fitted or the wrong size for how you live. Starting again lets you rethink the layout.
A few of the things people ask us to solve are these:
- Worn or badly fitted alcove units
- Empty alcoves either side of the chimney breast
- Somewhere to keep books and records
- Room to work in an alcove
If you live near West Ham Park, alcove units can be planned to frame a window with a view rather than block it.
Questions to ask before you hire anyone
- Whether the quote says what the furniture is made from
- Whether the route into your home has been checked
- Whether the quote follows a visit to your home
- Where they’ll park and unload
Places near Greengate
Also in Greengate
Common questions about alcove units
Can you make alcove units for a home in Greengate?
Yes, we work across Newham, Greengate included, and across the rest of London. To get started, you can tell us about the room on our contact form with a few details.
Can you fit alcove units to the uneven walls of an older house in Greengate?
Yes, that is normal in older houses: each piece is scribed to the wall and levelled at the base. We also work around skirting boards, picture rails and cornices. Older walls can be solid brick or lath and plaster, and the fixings are chosen to suit.
What affects the price of alcove units?
Each room is quoted on its own: size, internal fittings, the finish and how awkward the walls are all play a part. The written quote follows the design visit.
How do I get a quote?
Just drop us a line using the contact form. Rough measurements and a few pictures help, and then we arrange a visit to measure and discuss the design, followed by a quote in writing.
Can you fit furniture on an external wall?
An outside wall can be colder and damper than an inside one, so ventilation behind and inside the furniture helps, which helps avoid condensation and mould. Any damp needs sorting by the right specialist before fitting.
What happens when you come to measure?
We take full measurements, look at the walls and floors and work through the design together. Access and parking are worth talking about too, and a written quote follows.
When is bespoke worth it?
Cost matters, and it’s fair to say so: off-the-shelf furniture typically costs less up front. Bespoke makes more sense where the room is tricky, the space is valuable or you want the furniture to look built in.
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.
Greengate homes and alcove units
About 56% of the homes in the neighbourhood around Greengate went up before 1919, and about 15% between 1945 and 1972, going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. We take that into account during the design visit, since older and newer walls take different fixings. The National Heritage List records 12 entries within half a mile of the centre of Greengate. You can check whether a particular building is listed on Historic England’s list. Terraced houses are home to about 39% of households in the area around Greengate, in the ONS Census 2021 figures. Terraced houses in London often have alcoves beside a chimney breast, and alcove units are made to those widths.
If your home is as old as some of the listed buildings nearby, like Essex Lodge, original features like shutters, panelling and fireplaces are worth designing around. For a listed home, fixing into original features may need listed building consent. Living in a block of flats near West Ham station? Then it’s useful to book the lift and tell the concierge before fitting day.
Greengate is about 1 mile south-west of Plaistow, in the London Borough of Newham. Whether your home in Greengate is a terraced house, a flat or a newer build, the furniture is designed around the room as we find it. We cover places right across Newham, large and small.
Postcode districts we cover here for alcove units: E13, E6 and E16. Our area takes in homes on streets like May Road, Emma Road and Cave Road, along with the roads around them, for alcove units and any of our other fitted furniture. Close by, we also work in Plaistow (1 mile south-west), Upton Park (1 mile north-east), Upton (1 mile north), West Ham (1 mile north-west) and Canning Town (1 mile south). Other parts of Newham we cover include Stratford (2 miles north-west), Forest Gate (2 miles north), Maryland (2 miles north-west), East Village (2 miles north-west), Wallend (2 miles east) and Manor Park (2 miles north-east).
What’s near Greengate
Our area takes in the homes around Lister Community School, The Service for Deaf and Partially Hearing Children and Coach And Horses Public House, among other places. The closest station to Greengate is West Ham station, about 1 mile west of the centre. Other landmarks nearby include Stratford Centre (1.5 miles north-west) and Newham University Hospital (0.5 miles south-east).
Fitting day, step by step
Period rooms often have skirting boards, picture rails, cornices or coving for the furniture to meet. On fitting day, we cut and scribe the furniture around these details, so it looks as though it was always there. How long fitting takes depends on the size and number of units, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. Original hallway tiles and old floorboards are worth protecting, so they’re covered before anything comes in. Fixings into older walls are made carefully, as lath and plaster can crack if treated roughly. Decorating around the furniture afterwards is for your decorator.
- You contact us with a short note about the room and the units you have in mind, and a rough sketch helps if you have one.
- We come to measure the alcoves, look at the walls and agree the design with you, noting the skirting, picture rail and any chimney vent.
- Your quote follows, with the design, materials and finish set out.
- The units are made at our workshop, ready for a spray-painted finish or for hand painting on site.
- The units are fitted in your home and scribed to follow the walls. Then we go through the doors and shelves with you.
How to prepare
- Clear the area where the furniture is going
- Book any lift and let the concierge or building manager know
- Keep pets in another room while we work
Ask for a quote
To make a start, fill in our short enquiry form and tell us a little about the room and roughly what you’d like. From there, we arrange a design visit to measure up and talk through your ideas, and a written quote follows.
Read more
Boards, parts and paint
Plinths and scribe strips
Scribing means trimming the edges on site so they follow the wall. This closes the gap between a straight unit and a bowed alcove.
Moisture-resistant MDF
MDF in a moisture-resistant grade is stable and paints beautifully, so we use it for doors, panels and the faces you see. It is a sensible choice where an alcove sits against an external wall.
What we don’t do
Before you plan the job, it helps to know what we don’t do:
- Curing damp, which needs the right specialist
- Taking out a chimney breast or opening up a fireplace
- Making good damaged walls before fitting
Not sure whether your space suits alcove units? You can send us a few details through our contact form and we’ll tell you before you arrange a visit. How it works.
What it is made from
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Spray-painted finish
- Scribed side panels
- Panelled or flat doors
- Hand-painted finish
- Birch plywood
- Adjustable shelves