Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Tower Hamlets · London
Spitalfields Alcove Units
Alcove units for your home in Spitalfields: cupboards and shelves built into the alcoves beside a chimney breast. We visit to measure and discuss the design, make the furniture in our workshop and fit it.
- Walls too uneven for standard furniture
- A desk that tucks into an alcove
- Somewhere to keep books and records
Alcove units designed for your room
Questions from Spitalfields
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 does not normally need planning permission. If your home is listed, changes inside that alter its character can require listed building consent, so check with the council first. If you’re unsure, the council can confirm.
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in Spitalfields?
It can be: much of inner London is covered by controlled parking zones. A van may need a visitor’s permit, a paid parking bay or a bay suspension, which the council arranges, often with notice. It is useful to let us know about parking at the design visit, and we’ll plan around it.
Can the two alcove units be different?
That depends on how you use the room. Alcoves are often different widths anyway, so each unit is made to its own measurements. They can match in style while doing different jobs.
Can you build alcove units for alcoves that are not square?
Yes. Each alcove is measured at the measuring visit, make the units in our workshop and trim the edges on site to meet the wall, which closes the gaps you’d see with standard furniture.
Which finishes are there for alcove units?
There are two options: a spray-painted finish done in our workshop, or a hand-painted finish done on site. Both are in a colour agreed with you. Spray painting is smooth and even, while hand painting is easy to touch up.
How long are you in the house for the fitting?
It depends on the size of the alcoves and what goes in them, and we confirm the fitting days in your quote. We will explain what to expect before we arrive.
Alcove units in Spitalfields: what you get
Period rooms often have skirting boards, picture rails and cornices. We can cut units around these details, stop beneath them or run up to meet them, whichever suits the room. The plinth height can match the skirting. These details are settled when we visit, before anything is made. Typical reasons to get in touch are shop-bought shelving that doesn’t fill the recess and a desk that tucks into an alcove; the furniture is made from birch ply and moisture-resistant MDF, painted by hand or sprayed.
Homes built since 2000 are often open-plan, with the kitchen, dining and living space in one room, and many homes around Spitalfields were built in that time. Alcove units can give the sitting end of an open-plan room its own identity, without putting up a wall. Floors are protected throughout, as newer finishes mark easily.
The written quote is your record of the job. It sets out the alcove unit designed for your room, what it is made from and how it’s finished, and it is what the workshop builds to.
- Place
- Spitalfields (E1, EC2A, E1W)
- Area
- Tower Hamlets
- Prices
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Boards and paint
- Painted MDF and birch ply
- When we fit
- Weekdays; Saturdays on request
- Contact
- Our contact form
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Boards, parts and paint
Moisture-resistant MDF
With no grain to show through, MDF keeps the painted surface smooth and even. Moisture-resistant MDF is what we use for fitted work.
Spray-painted finish
Because the units are sprayed before they come to you, there is less painting to do in your home, in the colour agreed with you. Give the paint time to cure fully once fitted.
Neighbourhoods near Spitalfields
More for homes in Spitalfields
Bespoke alcove units or ready-made?
In fairness, standalone furniture comes with you when you move. Built-in units become part of the room and are left behind when you go. It depends on how long you expect to stay. Separate ready-made pieces can make an open-plan room feel unplanned, while fitted furniture can give the space structure.
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 near your home. It is useful to talk about parking at the measuring visit.
What you get with us
- Over 300 projects completed
- We work across all London boroughs
- Edges scribed to follow your walls
- Made in our workshop, then fitted in your home
How fitting day works
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 your quote sets out the fitting days. In a newer development, the lift, the concierge and set working hours may all need checking, so it is useful to sort them out in advance. The furniture is built in sections that fit the lift and doorways.
- You let us know which room it is and roughly what you’d like in the alcoves.
- We visit to measure, look at how the walls run and note the skirting, picture rail and any vent.
- We send a quote in writing setting out the layout, materials and finish. If anything needs changing, just tell us.
- The cupboards and shelves are then built in our workshop, using moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
- Fitting day: the units go in, are scribed to the alcoves and levelled on a plinth or feet. The finish is sprayed in our workshop or hand-painted on site, as agreed.
Before fitting day
- Keep pets in another room while we work
- Take anything hanging off the wall we’re fitting to
- Empty the space we will be working in
Getting a quote
The design visit is where every quote starts. We take full measurements, see how true the walls and floors are and work through the design together. A written quote follows the visit. To arrange the visit, drop us a line using the contact form.
Related advice
Flat-pack or bespoke?
Cost matters, and it is fair to say so: flat-pack is normally cheaper to buy. Bespoke makes more sense where the room is awkward, the space is valuable or you want the furniture to look built in.
Where bespoke earns its keep is in rooms that are not 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.
What affects the cost of alcove units
Not every room costs the same, and it comes down to:
- The internal fittings
- How square the room is
- The overall size of the piece
- The finish: spray painted or hand painted
The finish affects the cost: spray painting happens in the workshop, and hand painting can be done in your home. Your choice, along with the size and the fittings, is reflected in the written quote.
What we need to know
The more you can tell us at the start, the better the design visit goes. It’s useful to include:
- Any ideas or images you’ve saved
- The type of home and how the room is reached
- What the furniture needs to hold
- Radiators, sockets, pipes or meters on or near the wall
Photos help us understand the room before we visit. Pictures of the whole wall, the corners and the ceiling line tell us a lot about the space, especially with rough measurements. To send them over, get in touch through our contact form, and we will suggest a time for a design visit.
Spitalfields homes and alcove units
Homes built since 2000 make up about 45% of the housing in the streets around Spitalfields, with about 19% built before 1919, based on the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax data. It is a good starting point, though every room is still measured, as two homes of the same age rarely match. 36 conservation areas have at least part of their area within a mile of the centre of Spitalfields. England has around 10,000 in all, and their controls are largely about how buildings look from outside. Red routes, run by TfL, have strict rules on stopping and loading. Where a home in Spitalfields is on or beside a main road, it helps to mention that at the measuring visit. We will plan where the van can stop.
If your home is as old as some of the listed buildings nearby, like Church of St Botolph, original features like shutters, panelling and fireplaces are worth designing around. For a listed home, fixing into original features can need listed building consent. Close to Finsbury Circus? Alcove units can be planned to frame a window with a view rather than block it. If you live in a period home close to Christ Church, picture rails and cornices give alcove units a line to finish at.
Spitalfields is within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, about 1 mile east of Whitechapel. Anywhere in Spitalfields, it works the same way: a design visit, a written quote, furniture made in our workshop and fitting in your home. Across Tower Hamlets, we cover Spitalfields and the places around it.
Design visits and fitting in E1, EC2A and E1W work the same way as everywhere else we cover. If your home is on a street like New Road, Mark Lane and Bell Lane, or close by, we can arrange a design visit for alcove units. Spitalfields sits close to the A10 and A1202. If your home is on one of them, tell us at the measuring visit, as some main roads have strict stopping rules. We also cover Whitechapel (1 mile east), Aldgate (1 mile south-west), Bishopsgate (1 mile west), Tower Hill (1 mile south) and Shoreditch (1 mile north). Across the rest of Tower Hamlets, our area takes in Cambridge Heath (2 miles north-east), Mile End (2 miles east), Bow Common (2 miles east), Bromley (3 miles east), Limehouse (2 miles east) and Old Ford (3 miles north-east). As one of the bigger places in Tower Hamlets, Spitalfields is covered for all of our fitted furniture.
What’s near Spitalfields
The streets we cover here include those near Kings Stores pub, Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives and St Mary-at-Hill. Nearby too are Canon Barnett Primary School (close by, under half a mile east) and London Enterprise Academy (0.5 miles east). Spitalfields has its own railway station: London Liverpool Street station. Nearby you’ll also find Tower of London (0.6 miles south) and Gabriel's Wharf (1.5 miles west). Green spaces nearby include Tower Hill.