Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Greenwich · London
Alcove units in Middle Park, Greenwich
Walls in older London homes are rarely straight, so we scribe the furniture to follow them. Our work on alcove units in Middle Park starts with a design visit, and everything is made in our workshop.
- Empty alcoves either side of the chimney breast
- Standard units leaving gaps at the sides
- Toys and paperwork with no proper home
Ask about alcove units in Middle Park
Questions from Middle Park
Do I need permission for fitted furniture in a conservation area?
Usually not: conservation area rules mainly cover the outside of buildings, and fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. Listed buildings are different, as works inside that affect their character can require listed building consent from the council. If you’re unsure, the council can confirm.
Can parking be tricky on fitting day in Middle Park?
It can be: much of inner London is covered by controlled parking zones. A van may need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a parking bay suspension, which the council arranges, often with notice. It’s useful to tell us about parking at the design visit, so the day can be planned around it.
Can you come on a Saturday?
Yes, by prior arrangement. Tell us when you contact us if a Saturday suits you best.
What affects the price of alcove units?
It depends on the size, the number of doors and drawers, the internal fittings and the finish, along with access and parking. We send a quote in writing after the design visit.
Should I send photos?
Yes, they help. Photos of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling, give us a good idea of the space. To send them, get in touch through our contact form.
What happens at the measuring visit?
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.
Alcove units in Middle Park: what you get
In a typical Victorian or Edwardian terrace, the chimney breast leaves an alcove on either side of it. Built-in alcove units put that space to work as cupboards and shelving that look as though they belong there. Where a room in Middle Park has a pair of alcoves, each alcove gets a unit designed for it. We make alcove units from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted, and the things people most often want solved are empty alcoves either side of the chimney breast and toys and paperwork with no proper home.
Ceilings in interwar houses tend to be lower than in Victorian ones, and the proportions of alcove units are set to match. Where your home is one of the interwar houses or semis that are a big part of the housing around Middle Park, the cornice may be plain or missing, so the furniture can run straight to the ceiling. Any skirting is cut around neatly.
The written quote is your record of the job. It describes the alcove unit we have designed for the room, its materials and its finish, and it is what the workshop builds to.
- Place
- Middle Park (SE9, SE12)
- Area
- Greenwich
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- Design visit, then a quote in writing
- Made
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Materials and finish
- MDF and plywood, painted to order
- Working days
- Monday to Friday; Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Get in touch
- Our contact form
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
Places near Middle Park
Other services in Middle Park
When is bespoke worth it?
Bespoke work comes into its own in rooms that aren’t square. Older London rooms tend to have leaning walls, sloping floors and alcoves of different widths, which leaves standard units with gaps at the sides and top.
If you’re handy, a simple shelf or a standard wardrobe in a square room is a reasonable DIY job. Sloping ceilings, uneven floors and lath-and-plaster walls make it harder, where scribing and fixings that suit the wall are important.
Materials and finishes
Birch plywood
Birch plywood is also good for drawer boxes. It’s painted to match the rest of the unit, or the edge is left as a detail.
Shelves
Shelf heights are planned around your things so tall books and records have room. A shallower top shelf can keep things within reach.
What affects the cost of alcove units
The price for your room depends on:
- What goes inside: rails, shelves, drawers and dividers
- How many doors and drawers there are
- How big the furniture is
- Spray painting or hand painting
In London, parking can affect the price. The boroughs run controlled parking zones across much of the city, so a van may need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a bay suspension. Let us know about parking during the design visit, so we can plan for it.
Helping us understand the room
These details help when you contact us:
- Pictures of styles you like, if you have any
- What the furniture needs to hold
- Whether it is a house or a flat, and if there are stairs or a lift
- Radiators, sockets, pipes or meters on or near the wall
It’s useful to see the room before we come. A few pictures showing the walls, the corners and where the ceiling meets them tell us a lot about the space, along with rough sizes. To send them over, drop us a line using the contact form, and we’ll suggest a time for a design visit.
Middle Park homes and alcove units
About 63% of the homes in the neighbourhood around Middle Park went up between 1919 and 1939, and about 31% between 1945 and 1972, in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. Each era brings its own kind of wall, ceiling height and floor, so it shapes the design from the first measurement. The National Heritage List records 18 entries within half a mile of the centre of Middle Park. Being near listed buildings doesn’t make a home listed, and you can check any address on Historic England’s list. On TfL’s red routes, the rules on stopping and loading are strict. If you live on or close to a main road in Middle Park, let us know at the measuring visit. We can then plan where the van will stop.
For a family home near Middle Park Primary School, alcove units can be planned with low cupboards for toys and higher shelves for everything else. Eltham Palace, about 0.4 miles east, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. If your own home is a period one, the alcoves beside a chimney breast are the natural place for alcove units.
Middle Park is about 3 miles north-east of Plumstead, part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Whether your home in Middle Park is a terraced house, a flat or a newer build, we measure the room as it is and design around it. Our Greenwich coverage includes Middle Park.
Here we cover the SE9 and SE12 postcode area for alcove units. Whether you live on a street such as Horsa Road, Court Road and Sidcup Road or on one nearby, we can arrange a design visit for alcove units. Middle Park sits close to the A20, and we plan where the van can stop before fitting day. We also cover Horn Park (1 mile west), Eltham (1 mile east), Mottingham (1 mile south), Well Hall (1 mile north-east) and Chinbrook (1 mile south). Elsewhere in Greenwich, we also cover Plumstead (3 miles north-east), Greenwich (3 miles north-west), Woolwich (3 miles north), Westcombe Park (3 miles north), Maze Hill (3 miles north-west) and Charlton (3 miles north).
Landmarks near Middle Park
In Middle Park, that includes homes near Colfe's School, Harris Academy Greenwich and The Banker's Draft pub, among other places. The closest station to Middle Park is Mottingham station, about 0.5 miles south-east. Nearby you’ll also find Prefab Museum (1.9 miles west) and Eltham Community Hospital (0.7 miles north-east). Green spaces nearby include The Tarn.
What happens on fitting day
Period rooms often have skirting boards, picture rails, cornices or coving for the furniture to meet. We cut and scribe the furniture around them on site, so it sits neatly against the room. How long the fitting takes depends on the size and number of units, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. Clearing the room and the way in beforehand helps the day run well. Fitting day starts with protecting the floors and setting out the pieces. Each piece is levelled, scribed where the wall wanders and fixed to suit the wall.
- 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.
- A written quote follows, with the finish written in alongside the design and materials.
- 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; a hand-painted finish is done on site after fitting and is easy to touch up later.
- New paintwork takes a while to cure fully, so treat the surfaces gently at first.
Before fitting day
- Let us know about parking near your home
- Empty the space we’ll be working in
- Take down pictures, mirrors and shelves from the wall
How to get a quote
Getting a quote starts with some details: which room it is, rough sizes and a couple of pictures if you can take them. When you’re ready, send us a few details through our contact form. After that, we arrange a visit to measure and go through the design, then send a written quote.
Advice
Why people ask for alcove units in Middle Park
A bedroom’s alcoves are often the best place for a wardrobe. Built into the alcove, a cupboard holds clothes without taking over the room, which matters in a smaller room.
Alcove units can help with:
- Somewhere to keep books and records
- Units that sit well with original features
- A place for a small desk
- Shop-bought shelving that does not fill the recess
For an older house near Church of St Saviour, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at.
What to check before you book
- Will the doors close with even gaps?
- Are the boards named, such as MDF or plywood?
- Will other trades be needed, and who arranges them?
- Is it spray painted or hand painted?