Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Islington · London
Alcove units in Nag's Head, Islington
Alcove units in Nag's Head: cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast. We make each piece in our workshop and fit it in your home.
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
- Everyday clutter left on show
- Storage that suits a period room
Alcove units designed for your room
FAQs: alcove units in Nag's Head
Is parking a problem for fitting in Nag's Head?
It can be, as controlled parking zones cover much of inner London. A van may need a visitor permit, a paid bay or a parking bay suspension, which the council arranges, often with notice. It helps to tell us about parking at the design visit, and we’ll plan around it.
Can you fit furniture in a home close to Drayton Park station?
Yes. We cover all of Islington and the rest of London. You can drop us a line using the contact form to arrange a design visit, and tell us about parking and access at the same time.
Do I need to be in when you fit?
Someone needs to be there to let us in. You do not need to watch us work, but it helps to be around at the end.
Should I send photos?
Yes, they help. A few pictures of the room, from floor to ceiling, tell us a lot. You can send them when you drop us a line using the contact form.
Does fitted furniture need planning permission?
Not normally. Conservation areas mostly control changes to the outside, and fitted furniture inside a house doesn’t normally need planning permission. In a listed building, check with the council’s conservation officer before any work.
How long will the fitting take?
The time the fitting takes depends on the size and number of units, and the fitting days are set out in your quote. Most of the making happens in our workshop, so the time in your home is mostly fitting, scribing and finishing.
About our alcove units in Nag's Head
A capped or blocked chimney should still be ventilated to help stop damp. Units are planned so any vent stays clear, rather than boxing it in. Any damp in the alcoves should be dealt with by the right trade before the units go in, as cupboards fitted over damp walls can suffer. People typically come to us about empty alcoves either side of the chimney breast and a place for a small desk; the furniture is made from birch ply and moisture-resistant MDF, painted by hand or sprayed.
In a house from the Victorian or Edwardian years, the front room usually keeps its chimney breast even where the fireplace has gone. That matters around Nag's Head, as a large share of the homes there were built before 1919. Alcove units built into the recesses either side are scribed to the plaster and cut around the skirting.
Everything we agree during the design visit goes into the written quote: the layout, what goes inside, the materials used and the finish. If something is not quite right, tell us before anything is made.
- Place
- Nag's Head (N7, N19, N4)
- Area
- Islington
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Where it is made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Made from
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Working days
- Weekdays, and Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Enquiries
- The contact form
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
Alcove units for homes in Nag's Head
About 52% of the homes in the area around Nag's Head went up before 1919, and about 19% since 2000, in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. Knowing roughly when a home was built helps, because walls and fixings change from one era to the next. 3 conservation areas have at least part of their area less than a mile from the middle of Nag's Head. England has around 10,000 in all, and their controls are largely about how buildings look from outside. About 52% of homes in the area around Nag's Head were built before 1919, going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. Houses of that age normally have a chimney breast with an alcove each side, and alcove units are built to those exact widths, scribed to walls that are rarely straight.
If you live near Whittington Park, shelving that stops short of the window keeps the view of the green. Near listed buildings like Odeon Cinema, under half a mile north-west of the centre of Nag's Head, older homes may keep original joinery that alcove units can be designed around. For a listed home, fixing into original features may need listed building consent.
Nag's Head is in the London Borough of Islington, about 1 mile south-east of Highbury. Whether your home in Nag's Head is a terraced house, a flat or a newer build, the furniture is designed around the room as we find it. Nag's Head is one of 17 places on our list for Islington.
We make alcove units across N7, N19 and N4 for alcove units. Streets in the area include Penn Road, Tabley Road and Lowman Road, and homes on each of them are within our area for alcove units. Nearby, we also make alcove units in Holloway (1 mile south), Lower Holloway (1 mile south), Tufnell Park (1 mile west), Upper Holloway (1 mile north-west) and Barnsbury (1 mile south). We also make alcove units in nearby places such as Farringdon (3 miles south), Clerkenwell (2 miles south), Finsbury (3 miles south-east), St Luke's (2 miles south-east), Angel (2 miles south) and Pentonville (2 miles south).
Landmarks near Nag's Head
In Nag's Head, that includes homes near Beacon High, Musical Theatre Academy and Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, among other places. Nag's Head’s nearest station is Drayton Park station, roughly 0.6 miles south-east of the centre. Well-known places in the area include Royal Northern Hospital (less than half a mile north-west) and Arsenal Football Club Museum (a few minutes’ walk east). Not far away are Gillespie Park and Dartmouth Park Hill.
Nearby places to Nag's Head
More for homes in Nag's Head
Do you need alcove units in Nag's Head?
Often the alcoves are simply the biggest unused space in the room. Off-the-shelf furniture rarely fits them, leaving gaps at the sides and above. A fitted unit fills the recess from wall to wall.
Typical reasons people contact us include:
- Shelving for books and records
- Clutter with nowhere to go
- Cupboards in keeping with an older house
- Bare alcoves beside the fireplace
If your home is one of the older houses near St Joseph and St Padarn's Church, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at.
Questions to ask before you hire anyone
- How the doors are hung and adjusted
- Which parts of the job need an electrician or a plumber
- How they’ll get the furniture into the room
- Will the quote be in writing?
What affects the cost of alcove units
When we put a quote together, we consider:
- Where a van can park, like a permit bay or a bay suspension
- What goes inside: rails, shelves, drawers and dividers
- Doors and drawers, and how many
- Walls and floors that are out of level or out of square
How it’s painted is part of the price: spray painting happens in the workshop, and hand painting can be done in your home. The written quote reflects your choice, along with the size and fittings.
Helping us understand the room
To give us a picture of the room, it is useful to include:
- What you’d like to store or use the space for
- What kind of home it is, and which floor the room is on
- Radiators, sockets, pipes or meters on or near the wall
- Pictures of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling
It’s useful to see the room before we come. Pictures of the whole wall, the corners and the ceiling line give us a good feel for the space, along with rough sizes. To share them, get in touch through our contact form, and we’ll arrange a design visit.
From workshop to your room
Once the main sections are fixed in place, we hang any doors and fit any drawers or lids. Each one is adjusted until the gaps are even and it closes cleanly. The time the fitting takes depends on the size and number of units, and your quote sets out the fitting days. In houses converted into flats, the route in may include a shared hall and stairs, so it’s useful to let neighbours know about fitting day. The sections are sized for the narrowest point on the route. Saturday fitting is possible by prior arrangement.
- You get in touch and let us know about the room and the alcoves, and we arrange a design visit at a time that suits you.
- We visit to measure the alcoves and talk through the design, checking how far the walls are out of square.
- You receive a quote in writing setting out the units, materials and finish, so you can look it over in your own time.
- Each unit is built in our workshop to the measurements we took.
- The units are fitted in your home and scribed to follow the walls, so they sit tight to the chimney breast.
Getting ready for fitting day
- Keep pets in another room while we work
- Clear the walls of pictures and shelves
- Leave a clear route from the front door to the room
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 are ready, tell us about the room on our contact form. After that, we arrange a visit to measure and talk through the design, then send a written quote.
Related advice
How it’s made
Moisture-resistant MDF
MDF does not have a grain to show through the paint, so a painted finish looks even and calm. Moisture-resistant MDF is what we use for fitted work.
Shelves
How thick a shelf needs to be depends on how wide the alcove is and what it holds. For a wide span or heavy books, we use a thicker shelf, a lip on the front or a support.
When you need someone else
Some parts of a job need another trade, from an electrician to a plumber or an engineer on the Gas Safe Register. Here’s what to know:
- Curing damp, which needs the right specialist
- Any structural work on the chimney breast
- Electrical work, such as new sockets or switches, which is for your electrician
If you’re not sure what’s possible in your room, you can tell us about the room on our contact form and we’ll give you a straight answer. How it works.
What goes into it
- Spray-painted finish
- Birch plywood
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Hand-painted finish
- Scribed side panels
- Panelled or flat doors
- Adjustable shelves