Victorian terraces
Narrow, deep houses across south-west and south-east London, usually with a rear return worth rethinking entirely.
Greater London
Handmade kitchens in London
Ollie spent years fitting kitchens across London before he started making them. The houses, the access problems and the parking are all familiar territory.
London · Greater London
Bespoke kitchens for London homes
Before Ollie's Handmade Kitchens existed, Ollie worked as a site carpenter for householders across London — second fix, sash windows, fitted furniture and a great many kitchens supplied by other people. That period is the reason London still accounts for a substantial share of the work.
London kitchens have their own set of problems, and they are rarely about design. They are about access: a first-floor flat with a half-landing that will not turn a 900mm carcass, a controlled parking zone that needs a permit arranged before a van can unload, a mansion block with a porter, a goods lift and a rule about working hours. None of these are difficult if they are known in advance. All of them are expensive if they are discovered on the morning of the fit.
So London projects are surveyed differently. The access route is measured as carefully as the room, parking and permits are sorted before anything is loaded, and cabinet sizes are set so everything physically reaches the kitchen.
The other London reality is the side-return extension. A huge proportion of the work in Fulham, Wandsworth, Clapham, Dulwich and Wimbledon involves a glazed rear extension where the kitchen becomes the whole ground floor. These are excellent projects for bespoke joinery, because there is almost always a run of awkward geometry — a returning wall, a boxed-in stack, a rooflight upstand — that standard cabinetry cannot handle gracefully.
Ollie fits one kitchen at a time and works in London in full weeks rather than day trips, so the job runs continuously rather than in fragments.
Local housing
What we typically work on in London
Side-return extensions
The classic London project. Glazed rear extension, kitchen becomes the ground floor, awkward geometry at the join.
Mansion flats & conversions
Porters, goods lifts, working-hour restrictions and half-landings. All manageable when planned for.
Townhouses
Chelsea, Kensington, Richmond. High specification, listed fabric, and cabinetry that has to be worthy of the room.
Why local matters
The person who makes it fits it
Every kitchen is cut and assembled on one bench in Worthing and installed by the same pair of hands. No subcontracted fitters, no franchise, no handover between a designer who sold it and a fitter who has never seen the drawings.
- 01
One point of contact
Ollie surveys, quotes, makes, fits and paints. If something needs adjusting in two years, you ring him directly.
- 02
One kitchen at a time
Yours is not queued behind three others, and nobody disappears halfway through to start somebody else's job.
- 03
A fixed written quote
Itemised cabinet by cabinet before anything is ordered, so you can see exactly what each element costs.
- 04
Two-year guarantee
Plus £1m public liability cover for the whole time work is happening at your property.
Kitchen styles available in London
Other joinery we do here
Also covering, near London
FulhamChelseaKensingtonRichmondWandsworthClaphamWimbledonDulwichBarnesPutneyBatterseaBalhamNotting HillIslingtonHampsteadKewTwickenhamBlackheath
Local answers
Questions from London clients
There is no travel surcharge, but London projects are quoted honestly for what they involve — parking permits, congestion and ULEZ charges where applicable, and any access restrictions such as porter-supervised deliveries or restricted working hours. All of it is itemised in the quote rather than appearing later.
By measuring the route, not just the room. Doorways, half-landings, lift dimensions and the turn at the top of the stairs are all recorded at survey. Cabinets are then made in sizes that physically get there, and assembled in the room if that is what it takes.
Yes, and it is how most London projects run. Ollie will come out at drawing stage, agree service positions with your builder, take the final measure once the walls are plastered, and slot the fit into the programme. Working from Worthing means he arrives for a full week rather than dipping in and out.
Most regularly in west, south-west and south-east London — Fulham, Chelsea, Kensington, Richmond, Wandsworth, Clapham, Wimbledon, Barnes, Putney and Dulwich. North and east London projects are considered on their merits; ring and ask.
Next step
Kitchens in London start with a visit
Ollie will come to you, measure the room properly and tell you honestly what it can take. Free, no obligation, and a written quote within the week.