Westminster · London
Clare Market Under-Stairs Storage
Under-stairs storage in Clare Market: pull-out drawers, cupboards and coat storage under the stairs. Every piece is made at our workshop and fitted in your home.
- The low end of the space going to waste
- An under-stairs cupboard full of clutter
- A meter or fuse board buried behind clutter
Need under-stairs storage in Clare Market?
Under-stairs storage in Clare Market
In some homes the stairs rise from the living room or kitchen, so the storage beneath them is on show. That calls for clean lines, well-fitted doors and a finish that suits the rest of the room. We can make plain or panelled fronts, painted to sit with the walls or to stand out. The result should look like part of the house, not an afterthought. If you’re living with wanting a quiet corner for paperwork and a tired under-stairs cupboard that stands out, that is what under-stairs cupboards are for, made from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, finished by spray or by hand.
Around Clare Market, a large share of homes date from before 1919, and houses of that age are full of tricky spaces: under the stairs, in the bay, along the hall and under the eaves of a converted loft. Fitted storage is designed to make those spaces useful.
The written quote puts the design visit in writing: the layout and internal fittings, the materials and the finish. If something is not quite right, tell us before anything is made.
- Location
- Clare Market (WC2H, W1D, WC2B)
- Borough
- Westminster
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- How it starts
- Design visit, then a written quote
- Made
- Workshop-made, then fitted
- Made from
- MDF and plywood, painted to order
- Working days
- Weekdays (Saturdays if arranged)
- Enquiries
- The contact form
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Before and after fitting day
A few practical points help before and after fitting day. These are worth keeping in mind:
- Empty the cupboard so we can measure every corner
- Decide whether you’d like coats on hooks or on a rail
- Check whether your meters or fuse board are under the stairs
- Let us know about parking near your home
If you chose a hand-painted finish, small marks can be touched in. It’s worth keeping a note of the colour so any touch-ups match. A spray-painted finish is smooth and even, and small marks often clean off with a damp cloth.
Wet coats and shoes can mark paint and leave damp in a closed cupboard. Let them dry before they go away, and leave the door open for a while after a wet day if the cupboard feels damp.
Your questions about under-stairs storage in Clare Market
Will parking be an issue for fitting furniture in Clare Market?
It can be, as controlled parking zones cover much of inner London. Depending on the street, a visitor permit, a paid bay or a bay suspension through the council may be needed, and suspensions often need notice. It helps to let us know about parking at the measuring visit.
Will a conservation area stop me having under-stairs storage fitted in Clare Market?
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. The council’s planning or conservation team can tell you if in doubt.
Can you fit a small desk under the stairs?
It depends on the height and how open the space is. We look at it at the measuring visit and tell you honestly whether it will work. If it does, a compact desk with shelving can suit paperwork and a laptop.
Do you work in Clare Market?
Yes, we do. We work in Clare Market and across Westminster.
How long does it take to fit under-stairs storage?
How long the fitting takes depends on how much storage you want under the stairs, and the fitting days are agreed in your quote. Drawers, doors and carcasses are all made in the workshop before we arrive. Saturday fitting is possible by arrangement.
What happens at the design 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.
Boards, parts and paint
Pull-out drawers
Drawers that pull out make the back of the space easy to use. You see everything at once, without reaching into the dark. They can hold shoes, the vacuum or cleaning things.
Spray-painted finish
A spray-painted finish is smooth and even, almost like a factory finish. We spray in the workshop, so the finish is complete before fitting. The colour is agreed with you.
How fitting day works
However carefully a piece is made in the workshop, it still has to meet the room, and that happens on fitting day. Few walls in older London homes are truly flat or square, so we scribe the edges by hand to follow the wall, until the line is tight. How long the fitting itself takes depends on the size of the space and the design, and the fitting days are agreed in your quote. Parking on terraced streets can be tight, particularly in a controlled parking zone, so it helps to tell us during the design visit what’s outside. Unloading is kept short, with sections taken straight inside. Saturday fitting can be arranged.
- You contact us about the space under your stairs.
- At the design visit we measure the underside of the stairs and the floor, then talk through drawers, cupboards and coat storage.
- We send a written quote for the storage.
- The drawers, doors and carcasses are made at our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, cut to the angle of the stairs.
- We fit the storage in your home, trimming the edges so they meet the stairs neatly. The finish is sprayed in the workshop or painted by hand once it is in.
Preparing the room
- Get any new sockets or wiring done by your electrician before fitting day
- Take anything hanging off the wall we are fitting to
- Clear the area where the furniture is going
How to get a quote
To make a start, use our contact form and let us know which room you have in mind and roughly what you’d like. From there, we arrange a design visit to measure up and talk through your ideas, and send you a written quote afterwards.
Related advice
Making use of awkward spaces in Clare Market
About 48% of the homes in the streets around Clare Market went up before 1919, and about 22% since 2000, going by the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax figures. That matters for under-stairs cupboards, as the build era decides whether a wall is solid brick, lath and plaster, block or plasterboard. Entries on the National Heritage List near the centre of Clare Market include Church of St Mary Le Strand (Grade I), under half a mile south, and Church of St Clement Danes (Grade I), less than half a mile south-east. For a listed home, works inside that affect its character can need listed building consent from the council, for example removing or fixing into original panelling. The council’s conservation officer is the person to ask before work starts. Purpose-built flats are home to about 76% of households in the neighbourhood around Clare Market, according to Census 2021. In a block, each section is sized to get up the stairs or into the lift and through the door. Building management rules on lifts, deliveries and working hours are worth checking early.
For families living near St Clement Danes CofE Primary School, a place for each person’s coat and shoes stops the hallway filling up. For an older house near Enon Chapel, under-stairs cupboards are scribed to walls and stair strings that are rarely straight. Dr Johnson's House, about 0.4 miles east, is one of the historic houses in the wider area. For a period home anywhere nearby, the cupboard door under a period staircase can be kept or replaced to match the new storage.
Clare Market is about 2 miles west of City of Westminster, in the City of Westminster. We design and make under-stairs storage for homes in Clare Market and across Westminster, as part of our work in every London borough. In Westminster, Clare Market is one of the places we cover.
Every home in WC2H, W1D and WC2B is covered for under-stairs storage, from the main roads to the quieter streets. Streets in the area include Drury Lane, New Square and Old Square, and homes on each of them are within our area for under-stairs storage. Clare Market sits close to the A4 and A301, and we plan where the van can stop before fitting day. If you are just outside Clare Market, we also cover Aldwych (1 mile south), Temple Bar (1 mile east), Covent Garden (1 mile south-west), Temple (1 mile south-east) and Seven Dials (1 mile west). Elsewhere in Westminster, we also cover City of Westminster (2 miles west), Victoria (2 miles south-west), Paddington Green (3 miles west), Paddington (2 miles west), Connaught Village (2 miles west) and Belgravia (2 miles south-west).
Near you in Clare Market
The streets we cover here include those near Mercers' School, Ye Old White Horse pub and LSE Shaw Library and the streets around them. Clare Market’s nearest station is London Charing Cross station, roughly 0.6 miles south-west of the centre. Other landmarks nearby include Hunterian Museum (within half a mile north-east) and Gabriel's Wharf (0.6 miles south-east). For a walk, there’s St. James's Park Lake and Ludgate Hill.
Flats, leases and landlords
Blocks of flats often have their own rules on lift bookings, entry systems and times for trades. Tell us about them at the measuring visit, and we will plan the fitting around them.
In a flat, the route in matters as much as the room. We measure the stairs, landings, lift and doorways along with the room itself, so each section is sized to get through without a struggle.
Nearby places to Clare Market
What else we make in Clare Market
Could you do it yourself?
Cost matters, and it’s fair to say so: flat-pack is normally cheaper to buy. Bespoke earns its place where the room is awkward, space is tight or you want the furniture to look part of the house.
Bespoke work comes into its own in rooms that aren’t square. In period homes, walls lean, floors slope and the alcoves on each side are often different widths, and standard units leave gaps.