Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Lewisham · London
Alcove units in Lee, Lewisham
Cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast, designed for your room in Lee. After a design visit and a written quote, it is made in our workshop and fitted in your home.
- Shop-bought shelving that doesn’t fill the recess
- Bowed walls and sloping floors
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
Alcove units in Lee
Is it time for alcove units?
Moving into a period house often prompts it. New owners want storage that suits the house, and the alcoves are an obvious place to start. It is easier to do before the room fills with boxes.
These come up often when people first get in touch:
- Walls too uneven for standard furniture
- Bare alcoves beside the fireplace
- Furniture that does not fit the alcove
- Storage that suits a period room
If your home is one of the older houses near Church of the Good Shepherd, walls that bow and floors that slope are why alcove units are scribed to fit rather than pushed into place.
What to check before you book
- Real projects you can actually look at
- Which parts of the job need an electrician or a plumber
- Whether you will get a written quote, not just a figure
- Whether the finish is set out in the quote
Alcove units in Lee: what you get
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, depending on the look you want. The plinth height can match the skirting so the units feel part of the room. We agree these details at the measuring visit. If your home has a place for a small desk and shelving for books and records, alcove units made from birch plywood and moisture-resistant MDF with a spray-painted or hand-painted finish can solve it.
A large share of the homes around Lee were built before 1919, which in London mostly means Victorian and Edwardian houses. Houses of that age normally have a chimney breast in the front and back reception rooms, with an alcove either side, and those alcoves are the natural home for alcove units. Because old walls bow and floors slope, the units are scribed to follow the wall and levelled at the base, then cut neatly around the skirting and any picture rail or cornice.
After the design visit, we send you a quote in writing. It sets out the design we’ve talked through, the materials and the finish.
- Location
- Lee (SE12, SE13, SE3)
- Area
- Lewisham
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Making
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Boards and paint
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Fitting days
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by arrangement
- Get in touch
- Our contact form
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
FAQs: alcove units in Lee
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in Lee?
It can be, as controlled parking zones cover much of inner London. A van may need a visitor’s permit, a paid parking bay or a bay suspension, which the council arranges, often with notice. It’s useful to tell us about parking at the design visit.
Is Lee in the area you cover for alcove units?
Yes, Lee is within the area we cover, which takes in all of Lewisham and the rest of London. The first step is a design visit, where we measure and go through the design, and then we send a quote.
How is the price worked out?
It depends on the size, the number of doors and drawers, the internal fittings and the finish, along with access and parking. The price comes in a quote in writing after the design visit.
Do alcove units affect the chimney’s ventilation?
We plan alcove units so any chimney vent stays clear. Even a blocked chimney needs some ventilation to help keep damp away.
Do I need planning permission for fitted furniture?
Not normally. Inside a house, fitted furniture doesn’t normally need planning permission. Listed buildings can need listed building consent for works that affect their character, so check with the council first.
Can you fit furniture on an external wall?
It can be done with some care: leaving ventilation behind and inside helps stop condensation. We don’t treat damp, so any damp should be sorted before fitting day.
Why bespoke in Lee?
Off-the-shelf furniture comes in set heights, so there’s often wasted space overhead. A bespoke unit can run up to the ceiling or finish just under the picture rail, depending on the room. Alcoves and recesses in period houses are rarely a standard width or depth, so ready-made units rarely fill them properly. Furniture made for the space fills it.
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, which the quote allows for. Prices are quoted for your room, once we’ve measured and talked through the design.
Why us?
- Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Finished by spray or by hand
- Workshop-made and fitted by us
- Edges scribed to follow your walls
Take a look at how bespoke compares with ready-made and how to compare quotes.
What else we make in Lee
Flats, leases and landlords
Landlords furnishing a let use fitted furniture too, as it makes good use of an tricky room. It’s made from the same moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood as any of our work, with a spray or hand-painted finish.
If your building is on a red route or a busy main road, unloading takes some planning. Red routes are run by TfL and have strict stopping rules, so it is worth raising at the design visit.
What happens on fitting day
On the morning of the fitting, we start by protecting your floors and the route from the front door to the room. Next, we carry in the sections made in our workshop. The time the fitting takes depends on how many alcoves there are and how tall the units go, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. On fitting day in an older house, the main job is scribing to walls and levelling on floors that slope, so there’s some trimming and adjusting on site. We protect the floors and keep dust to a minimum. Parking can be tight on terraced streets, so let us know about permits and bays at the design visit.
- You tell us which room it is and roughly what you’d like in the alcoves.
- At the design visit, we measure both alcoves, check the walls and look at the skirting and picture rail.
- You receive a quote with the design, the materials and the paint finish. If anything needs changing, just tell us.
- Once you’re happy, the units are built in our workshop.
- We fit the units, scribe them to the walls and set them level. The finish is sprayed in our workshop or hand-painted on site, as agreed.
Before fitting day
- If you live in a block, book the lift and tell the building manager
- Clear the walls of pictures and shelves
- Have your electrician move any sockets or switches beforehand
Getting a quote
Every quote follows a design visit. We measure the space, check the walls and floors and discuss what you’d like, and the written quote comes after. There’s no price list: each design is priced in writing after we’ve seen the space. To book a design visit, drop us a line using the contact form.
Advice
Bespoke or off-the-shelf?
Cost matters, and it is fair to say so: flat-pack is normally cheaper to buy. Bespoke earns its place where the room is tricky, space is tight or you want the furniture to look part of the house.
Standard units come in set widths and heights, so there’s usually a gap left over at the top or at one end. Fitted furniture is made to the room’s measurements, so it can use the full height and width.
Lee homes and alcove units
In the streets around Lee, the largest groups of homes date from before 1919 (about 49%) and between 1945 and 1972 (about 19%), based on the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax data. Each era brings its own kind of wall, ceiling height and floor, so it shapes the design from the first measurement. 3 conservation areas have at least part of their area less than a mile from the middle of Lee. England has around 10,000 in all, and their controls are mainly about the outside of buildings. TfL’s Ultra Low Emission Zone covers every part of London, Lewisham included. That includes the vans that bring and fit furniture in Lee. We plan parking and access with you during the design visit.
If you live in a flat close to Lee 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 Brindishe Lee School or a school nearby, low doors that small hands can open, with books and ornaments higher up, suit a busy family room.
Lee is within the London Borough of Lewisham, about 2 miles north-west of New Cross. Lee is part of the area we cover. We cover places right across Lewisham, large and small.
In SE12, SE13 and SE3, the process is the same as anywhere else in London. We cover homes on streets like Old Road, Manor Lane and Mallet Road, along with the roads around them, whether you want alcove units or another piece made for the room. If you’re just outside Lee, we also cover Hither Green (1 mile west), Horn Park (1 mile south-east), Lewisham (1 mile north-west), Ladywell (1 mile west) and Blackheath (1 mile north). Elsewhere in Lewisham, we also cover New Cross (2 miles north-west), St Johns (2 miles north-west), Deptford (2 miles north-west), Surrey Canal (3 miles north-west), Sydenham (3 miles south-west) and Telegraph Hill (2 miles north-west).
What’s near Lee
Our area takes in the homes around The Edmund Halley pub, Trinity Church of England School and International Academy of Greenwich, among other places. Lee has its own railway station: Lee station. A little further out are Greenwich Castle (1.8 miles north) and University Hospital Lewisham (1.1 miles west). For a walk, there is Birdbrook Road Nature Reserve.