Bespoke kitchens & wardrobes in Islington.

Islington is a borough of period streets and big estates sitting side by side. Late-Georgian squares, Victorian villas and terraces, interwar and post-war council blocks and converted industrial buildings can all appear within a few minutes’ walk of each other, and each asks something different of a kitchen or a wardrobe.

Barnsbury and Canonbury

The council describes Barnsbury’s squares and terraces – Lonsdale Square, Gibson Square and Thornhill Square among them – as some of the finest formal late-Georgian and early-Victorian residential developments in London, with detached and semi-detached villas on streets such as Barnsbury Square and Richmond Avenue. Canonbury was mostly developed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; Canonbury Square, laid out between 1805 and 1830, is one of the earliest squares in the borough, and mid-Victorian semi-detached villas with large gardens fill many of the surrounding streets. Some of these houses are still single family homes; others have been divided into flats, so the same square can hold both a whole-house project and a one-bedroom conversion.

Highbury

Highbury Terrace and Highbury Place, gated terraces dating from the late 1700s, overlook Highbury Fields. Further north, large Italianate villas were built in the southern part of Highbury before denser streets of terraced houses followed. The old Arsenal stadium has been turned into the Highbury Square apartments, with its two listed stands converted into flats.

Clerkenwell, Finsbury and Angel

Clerkenwell is known for loft living in former industrial buildings – open, high-ceilinged flats with exposed structure and few internal walls. Nearby, the New River estate has streets and terraces in a neo-classical, Greek revival style, and the Lloyd Baker estate, laid out between 1820 and 1840, has pedimented villas and garden squares. Finsbury is also home to council housing commissioned by the old Finsbury Borough Council, including Berthold Lubetkin’s Spa Green Estate, built between 1943 and 1950.

Holloway, Archway and Tufnell Park

Holloway grew rapidly in the early 1900s, and today its terraces and converted houses sit alongside large estates such as the Andover estate. Tufnell Park was built up from 1845, with many of its villas developed after 1865; streets of later terraces followed. In these areas you are as likely to be planning a kitchen for a first-floor conversion flat as for a whole house.

Housing tenure reflects that mix. Estimates based on Office for National Statistics data put roughly 39% of Islington homes in social renting, 32% privately rented and 29% owner-occupied – so leasehold flats, rented flats and period houses all make up a large share of the borough.

Storage is often the real problem in an Islington home. Period houses have plenty of height but awkward walls, and conversion flats tend to have small bedrooms and almost no built-in cupboards. Fitted furniture is made to the room, so it uses the space that freestanding furniture cannot.

Alcoves either side of the chimney breast

Bedrooms and living rooms in Georgian and Victorian houses across Barnsbury, Canonbury, Highbury and Holloway usually have a chimney breast with an alcove on each side. Alcove wardrobes fill them floor to ceiling, scribed to walls that are rarely straight, with hanging space, shelves or drawers inside and doors that can match the room’s panelling.

Sliding doors in smaller bedrooms

Where there is no room for hinged doors to swing – common in the second bedroom of a converted flat – sliding wardrobes make the most of a full wall. Aluminium profiles come in silver, black, champagne or white, with panels in wood décors, plain colours, mirror or tinted glass.

Top floors, eaves and lofts

Many Islington terraces have a converted loft or a top-floor room under a sloping roof. Loft and eaves wardrobes are cut to the angle of the ceiling so the low space becomes drawers and shelving and the high space takes full-length hanging.

Hallways, understairs and walk-in rooms

Narrow terrace hallways and the space under the stairs can take shoe and coat storage, and a spare room or a large bedroom in a family house can become a walk-in wardrobe. For a whole flat – bedrooms, living room media wall, home office, window seats, beds with storage and bathroom vanity units – see bespoke furniture, or start with our overview of fitted wardrobes.

Most of the work on an Islington project happens before anything arrives: checking access, permissions and building rules so the installation runs to plan.

Stairs, basements and upper floors

Period houses often have narrow staircases and turns, and lower ground floor kitchens may be reached down steep internal stairs or through a front basement area. Conversion flats are frequently on upper floors with no lift. We note the route from street to room at the measure, so long panels, tall units and worktops are sized or split to make it through.

Parking and unloading

Islington operates controlled parking zones, where you need a permit or a visitor voucher to park in residents’ bays during the zone’s hours, and other bay types need their own special permits. Check the council’s parking map for your street and the zone’s operating times before the delivery and installation days, and tell us about any restrictions so we can plan around them.

Flats, estates and managed blocks

If you own a leasehold flat – in a converted house, a mansion block, a modern development or an ex-council estate – your lease may require consent from the freeholder or managing agent for a new kitchen, and many blocks have rules on working hours, lift use and protection of common parts. It is worth asking early so the approval does not hold up an agreed installation date.

Your builder and other trades

We make and fit the furniture. We do not do building work, plastering, electrics, gas or decorating, so if your project includes an extension, rewiring or new walls, we work alongside your builder and trades. Any gas work must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer.

Timing

The measure and design stage usually takes 1–2 weeks. Once you approve the design and price, manufacture, delivery and fitting typically take 4–6 weeks, which makes it straightforward to plan around a builder’s programme.

The process is the same whether you are replacing a galley kitchen in Archway or fitting out a whole house in Canonbury: one person measures and fits, one fixed price covers everything, and nothing is owed until you approve the design.

1. Enquire online. Fill in our quote form with a few details about your room. We reply within one working day.
2. Free measure at your home. Our London fitter visits, measures every wall, alcove and ceiling height, and notes access, stairs and anything unusual about the room.
3. Free first 3D design. You receive a 3D design and a fixed, itemised price covering manufacture, delivery to London and fitting. The measure and design stage usually takes 1–2 weeks.
4. Approve when you are ready. There is no deposit and no obligation until you approve the design and price.
5. Made in our workshop. Your furniture is made in our own workshop in Bulgaria and travels to London by dedicated transport.
6. Fitted by the person who measured. The same fitter who measured your room installs it. From approved design to finished installation typically takes 4–6 weeks.

As a guide for budgeting, bespoke kitchens typically cost around £1,000–£1,200 per linear metre; your fixed price comes with the design. More detail is on our kitchen prices and our process pages, and our comparison of bespoke and modular kitchens explains where the difference lies.