Southwark · London
Wall Beds in Bankside
Walls in older London homes are rarely straight, so we scribe the furniture to follow them. Our work on wall beds in Bankside starts with a design visit, and everything is made at our workshop.
- Shelves or a desk around the bed
- A studio that works by day and night
- A guest room that sits empty most of the time
Wall beds for your home in Bankside
What prompts wall beds in Bankside
Studio flats and small one-bedroom flats are another reason. A bed that folds up gives you a living room in the day and a bedroom at night.
Typical reasons people contact us include:
- A study that doubles as a spare room
- Somewhere comfortable for guests to sleep
- A playroom that can sleep visitors
- A spare room that is rarely slept in
If you live in a flat close to London Blackfriars station, check any building rules on lifts and working hours early, and the sections will be sized for the way in.
Questions to ask before you hire anyone
- Who does any electrics, plumbing or gas work
- Is it spray painted or hand painted?
- Whether the quote follows a visit to your home
- Real projects you can actually look at
Wall beds for homes in Bankside
Not every mattress suits every wall bed, because the mechanism maker sets limits on size, depth and weight. We will talk through what suits the bed during the design visit, so you can choose a mattress that works. People typically come to us about a guest room that sits empty most of the time and a bed that looks like cupboards by day, and the answer is built in our workshop from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood, spray-painted or hand-painted.
Bedrooms in homes built since 2000 sometimes have big windows that take up much of a wall, so the remaining walls have to work harder. Many homes around Bankside were built since 2000, and fitted furniture can use every part of the solid walls. Corners are designed in rather than left as dead space.
If the job needs another trade, such as an electrician or a plumber, we’ll tell you. Our quote covers the carpentry: the design, the materials and the finish.
- Location
- Bankside (SE1, EC4Y, EC4V)
- Area
- Southwark
- Cost
- Quoted for your room
- To begin
- A design visit: we measure and talk it through
- Where it’s made
- Made in our workshop and fitted on site
- Boards and paint
- MDF and birch plywood, painted
- Working days
- Weekdays; Saturdays on request
- Enquiries
- Send us a message
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
What wall beds cannot fix
As carpenters, we leave some work to other trades. It is useful to know these before you plan the job:
- Structural work to the wall or floor
- Supplying mattresses
- New sockets, lighting or wiring (your electrician)
If you’re not sure what’s possible in your room, you can message us from the contact page and we will give you a straight answer before you arrange a visit. How it works.
Materials and parts
- Hand-painted finish
- Birch plywood
- Spray-painted finish
- Moisture-resistant MDF
- Fold-down bed mechanism
- Shelves or a desk alongside
How fitting day works
Once the main sections are fixed in place, any doors go on and any drawers or lids are fitted. We adjust each one so the gaps line up and it closes cleanly. How long the fitting takes depends on the bed, the cabinets and the wall it fixes to, and your quote sets out the fitting days. Newer homes often have stud walls, so fixings go into the studs or use fixings made for the board. Floors are protected throughout, as many newer homes have finished floors that mark easily.
- We start with what the room is for, day and night. A desk or shelving around the bed can be part of it.
- At the design visit we measure the room, look at the wall and go through the design.
- A quote in writing follows, covering the cabinet, the storage and the finish.
- The cabinets are built in our workshop, from moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood.
- We fit it in your home, with the mechanism fixed as its maker specifies. The finish is sprayed in our workshop or painted by hand on site.
How to prepare
- Tell us about parking near your home
- Leave a clear route from the front door to the room
- Get any new sockets or wiring done by your electrician before fitting day
Ask for a quote
To get a quote, tell us about the room on our contact form and let us know which room you have in mind and roughly what you’d like. We then arrange a design visit to measure and talk through the design, and send you a quote in writing afterwards.
Advice
Bedroom storage in Bankside
The biggest shares of homes in the streets around Bankside were built since 2000 (about 48%) and before 1919 (about 19%), based on the Valuation Office Agency’s 2025 council tax data. The age of a home tells us a lot about its walls, floors and ceilings, and so about how wall beds are fixed and fitted. The National Heritage List has 260 entries within half a mile of the centre of Bankside. Older homes nearby may have original joinery, shutters or panelling worth keeping, and wall beds can be designed to work around them. About 81% of households around Bankside live in purpose-built flats, well above the figure for Southwark as a whole, about 64%, based on Census 2021. That puts the stairs, lifts and doors on the route in at the centre of the plan.
Near listed buildings like Church of St Benet, under half a mile north of the centre of Bankside, older homes may keep original joinery that wall beds can be designed around. If your own home is listed, check with the council before fixing into original features. If your home is one of the older houses near St Mary Mounthaw, a bedroom chimney breast and its alcoves often shape where wall beds go.
Bankside is about 3 miles south of East Dulwich, within the London Borough of Southwark. Homes in Bankside are part of the area we cover for wall beds. Bankside is one of the places in Southwark where we make wall beds.
Postcode districts we cover here for wall beds: SE1, EC4Y and EC4V. Streets in the area include Bear Lane, Bush Lane and Swan Lane, and we cover homes on all of them for wall beds. Main roads around Bankside include the A201 and A300. If your home is on one of them, tell us during the design visit, as some main roads have strict stopping rules. We also cover Blackfriars (1 mile north-west), Temple (1 mile north-west), Temple Bar (1 mile north-west), Waterloo (1 mile south-west) and Smithfield (1 mile north). Elsewhere in Southwark, we also cover East Dulwich (3 miles south), Herne Hill (4 miles south), Camberwell (2 miles south), Peckham (3 miles south-east), Rotherhithe (3 miles east) and Surrey Quays (3 miles south-east). Bankside is among the bigger places we cover in Southwark.
Landmarks near Bankside
The streets we cover here include those near The Cathedral School of St Saviour and St Mary Overy, St Andrew's and St John's Church of England Primary School and St Mary-at-Hill and the streets around them. Other local landmarks include Barts Health Archives (0.6 miles north) and Founders Arms (less than half a mile west). There is a railway station in Bankside itself: London Blackfriars station. Nearby you will also find Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women (0.6 miles west) and Gabriel's Wharf (under half a mile west). Not far away are St. James's Park Lake and Ludgate Hill.
Also near Bankside
Other services in Bankside
Is bespoke worth it?
A normal bed has nothing to fix to the wall, and that has its appeal. But if the room has other jobs to do, a wall bed lets it do them every day. Rooms in newer homes are often compact, and standard depths can take too much floor, whereas fitted pieces can be as shallow as the space needs. It still uses the full height.
Every room is priced on its own, because the size, the layout and the finish all vary. A spray finish and a hand-painted finish involve different work, and that shows in the price. You will see the figure in your written quote, after the design visit.
Why choose Bespoke Carpentry in Bankside
- Moisture-resistant MDF and birch plywood
- Every quote follows a design visit
- Spray painted or hand painted, in the colour you choose
- Every London borough and the City of London covered
Read how bespoke compares with ready-made and what a quote should include.
Your questions about wall beds in Bankside
Is Bankside in the area you cover for wall beds?
Yes, we work across Southwark, Bankside included, and across the rest of London. You can use our contact form to arrange a design visit.
Is parking a problem for fitting in Bankside?
It can be: much of inner London is covered by controlled parking zones. 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’s useful to let us know about parking at the measuring visit, and we’ll plan around it.
Do photos help?
Yes, they help. Pictures of the whole wall or room, including the floor and ceiling, give us a good idea of the space. To send them, fill in our short enquiry form.
How is the furniture painted?
You can choose between two finishes: spray painted or hand painted. A spray finish is smooth and even, while a hand-painted one is easy to touch up later.
What do you do at the measuring visit?
We measure the room, check how level the walls and floors are and talk through the design with you. Access and parking are worth talking about too, and a written quote follows.
Can you build shelves or a desk around a wall bed?
Yes, and it’s one of the best ways to use the wall. Shelves and cupboards around the bed make the most of the space, while new sockets are for your electrician.
DIY, flat-pack or bespoke
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.
Shop-bought shelves can sag over a long span. How much a shelf bends depends on its span, depth and load, and long runs need a thicker shelf, a lip along the front or a support. We design shelves with that in mind.