Example photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash, not our project
Camden · London
Alcove units in Vale of Health, Camden
Planning alcove units for a home in Vale of Health? We start with a design visit and a quote in writing, before anything is made.
- Old alcove cupboards that have seen better days
- Shelving for books and records
- Bare alcoves beside the fireplace
Ask about alcove units in Vale of Health
Why people ask for alcove units in Vale of Health
Sometimes there are old units already, worn, badly fitted or the wrong size for how you live. New units are a chance to rethink how the space works, from the doors to what goes inside.
These come up often when people first get in touch:
- Storage that suits a period room
- Bare alcoves beside the fireplace
- Everyday clutter left on show
- Bowed walls and sloping floors
Near listed buildings like Fenton House, under half a mile south-west of the centre of Vale of Health, older homes may keep original joinery that alcove units can be designed around. For a listed home, fixing into original features can require listed building consent.
Choosing a carpenter
- Whether the route into your home has been checked
- Real projects you can actually look at
- How doors and drawers are fitted
- Is it spray painted or hand painted?
How we make alcove units for Vale of Health
In a tall room, a full-height alcove cupboard holds a great deal. In a bedroom, it can become a small wardrobe or a linen cupboard, while in a dining room it can keep china, glass and table linen. We ask what you want to store before we plan the inside, so shelves and rails go where they’re needed. We make alcove units from moisture-resistant MDF and strong birch plywood, with a painted finish, and people most often get in touch about alcoves that aren’t square and worn or badly fitted alcove units.
In streets where so much of the housing went up before 1919, as it did around Vale of Health, plenty of living rooms are two reception rooms knocked into one, each with its own chimney breast. One pair of alcoves might take shelves and the other cupboards, a TV or a desk. Older internal walls can be lath and plaster rather than brick, which changes how shelving is fixed.
Where other trades are needed, for example an electrician to move a socket, we point that out. Our quote covers the carpentry: the design, the materials and the finish.
- Place
- Vale of Health (NW3)
- Borough
- Camden
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Where it is made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Boards and paint
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- When we fit
- Monday to Friday; Saturdays by prior arrangement
- Contact
- Send us a message
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Practical tips
Getting the most from alcove units starts with the planning and carries on after fitting day. These are worth keeping in mind:
- Check whether there’s a vent in the chimney breast
- Deal with any damp on the chimney breast first
- Decide whether the units stop at the picture rail or run to the ceiling
- Make a rough list of what the cupboards need to hold
Paint is dry to the touch well before it has fully cured. At first, go gently with the new paintwork: lift things onto the shelves rather than sliding them, and don’t scrub the surfaces.
Avoid placing a heater hard up against the units, as strong heat can mark paint over time.
Your questions about alcove units in Vale of Health
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in Vale of Health?
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 is useful to let us know about parking at the design visit.
I live in a flat in Vale of Health. How will the furniture get up the stairs?
We measure the route in not just the room: the stairs, landings, lift and doors. Alcove units are made at our workshop in sections sized to fit that route, then assembled in your flat. It helps to check any building rules and your lease before fitting day.
Do you move sockets for alcove units?
We don’t do electrical work. New or moved sockets are a job for your electrician, ideally before fitting, and some electrical work in homes is covered by Part P of the Building Regulations. We can plan cut-outs and cable routes in the units around them.
What paint finish can I have on 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.
Can alcove units be fitted to uneven walls?
Yes. Few alcoves in older houses are truly square, so we scribe each unit to follow the wall. Adjustable feet or a plinth take care of a floor that slopes.
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.
Nearby places to Vale of Health
What else we make in Vale of Health
Alcove units for homes in Vale of Health
In the neighbourhood around Vale of Health, the largest groups of homes date from before 1919 (about 64%) and between 1919 and 1939 (about 10%), going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. Knowing roughly when a home was built helps, because walls and fixings change from one era to the next. 10 conservation areas have at least part of their area within a mile of the centre of Vale of Health. England has around 10,000 in all, and their controls are largely about how buildings look from outside. About 64% of homes in the streets around Vale of Health were built before 1919, in the VOA’s 2025 council tax stock figures. Most London houses of that age have chimney breasts with an alcove either side in the main rooms, the classic place for alcove units.
Heath House, about 0.1 miles west, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. For a period home anywhere nearby, walls that bow and floors that slope are why alcove units are scribed to fit rather than pushed into place. Living in a block of flats near Hampstead Heath station? Then the lift, the stair turns and the front door all set the largest piece that can come in.
Vale of Health is in the London Borough of Camden, about 4 miles south-east of St Pancras. Anywhere in Vale of Health, the process is the same: we visit and measure, send a written quote, make the furniture in our workshop and fit it. Our work takes in places right across Camden, from the busiest high streets to quiet residential roads.
Here we cover the NW3 postcode area for alcove units. You’ll find streets here like Well Road, Cannon Lane and Holford Road, and homes on each of them are within our area for alcove units. The A502 run close to Vale of Health, so if your home is on a main road, mention it when you get in touch. Other places close to Vale of Health include North End (1 mile north-west), Greenhill (1 mile south), Hampstead (1 mile south), West Hampstead (1 mile south-west) and Childs Hill (1 mile west). Other parts of Camden we cover include St Pancras (4 miles south-east), West End (4 miles south-east), St Giles (4 miles south-east), Seven Dials (4 miles south-east), Holborn (4 miles south-east) and Bloomsbury (4 miles south-east).
What’s near Vale of Health
Around Vale of Health, we cover homes near South Hampstead High School, Jack Straw's Castle pub and St Vedasts School For Boys. The nearest railway station is Hampstead Heath station, roughly 0.7 miles south-east of the centre. A little further out are New End Hospital (a few minutes’ walk south) and Kenwood House (0.7 miles north-east). For a walk, there’s Parliament Hill and Turner's Wood.
Flats, leases and landlords
In a flat, the route in matters as much as the room. At the design visit, we measure the stairs, the landings, any lift and the doors, so each section is sized to get through without a struggle.
Landlords furnishing a let use fitted furniture too, often to make the most of a small or 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.
Bespoke or off-the-shelf?
Cost matters, and it is fair to say so: off-the-shelf furniture usually 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 are 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, because scribing and the right fixings start to matter.
What happens on fitting day
Getting everything level comes first. Where the floor slopes, we bring the furniture up to level on adjustable feet or a plinth, and that keeps the doors and shelves true. After that, it’s fixed to the wall using fixings that suit the wall, whether that’s solid brick, lath and plaster or plasterboard. Terraced streets in London are often lined with parked cars, so details of permits, bays and any loading restrictions help. Unloading is kept short, with sections taken straight inside. Saturday fitting can be arranged.
- You get in touch and tell us about the room and the alcoves, and a rough sketch helps if you have one.
- We visit to measure the alcoves and talk through the design.
- Your quote follows, with the design, materials and finish set out.
- We make the cupboards and shelves in our workshop, using moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
- We install the units, set them level and scribe them to the alcoves, so they sit tight to the chimney breast.
Getting ready for fitting day
- Mention any parking restrictions on your street
- Arrange any electrical changes with your electrician ahead of time
- Take down pictures, mirrors and shelves from the wall
Arranging a design visit
Every quote follows a design visit. At the visit, we measure, look at the walls and floors and go through the design with you, and the written quote comes after. There’s no price list: each design is priced in writing after we’ve seen the space. To arrange a visit, tell us about the room on our contact form.