Kitchen worktops in Bloomsbury

Yes. Listed Georgian townhouses split into flats, so kitchens land wherever the conversion put them, commonly a former closet wing or the rear of a larger room with a single 2.4-3m run against an internal wall. Mansion flats have a small fixed kitchen off a central hall and no realistic way to widen it. A red route means no stopping, and no stopping means exactly that, so the stone comes in from a side street or from a bay behind the property. We stage the strip-out so the old tops leave in one trip rather than trickling out across the afternoon. Old tops out and new stone in, both through the same gap.

Georgian townhouse, listed square terrace, Edwardian mansion block and post-war institutional conversion. Cornice, picture rails and deep skirting survive in converted rooms, so the run stands off the wall and the back edge follows the units rather than the plaster. A 100mm upstand bedded on silicone is the honest answer where the plaster bows, because it rides what a tall panel exposes. The wall makes that decision, not the brochure.

Inside the Congestion Charge zone with a Monday to Saturday CPZ and almost no loading bays around the squares, and Euston Road on the northern edge is a red route. Communal Georgian staircases are steep with narrow winders and cannot be marked, so protection and small pieces are the norm. Weight tells on a staircase more than anywhere else, because there is nowhere to set a piece down mid-flight and no way to change your grip once it is moving. Splashback panels are lighter than a worktop and far more awkward, because a tall thin piece has to be carried on edge and cannot be tilted to clear a turn. Joint positions follow from that.

Worktop templating, worktop replacement and worktop splashbacks & upstands, in that order. Conversions put kitchens where the services could be made to reach rather than where they belong, so runs are short and interrupted. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. A plumber either side of us. Listed communal stairs mean carrying pieces you can hand-turn on a winder, and joins get placed where the client will see them least rather than where the layout suggests.

A galley puts the sink on one side and the hob on the other, which spreads the cut-outs across two pieces instead of weakening one. The template records every angle in that shape as it actually is rather than as the plan drew it. The drawing leaves site complete. Walls that bow along their length are the normal condition rather than the exception, and a straight-cut back edge will show a shadow gap at one end and touch at the other. Where the wall cannot be made good, setting the stone deliberately proud on a subframe with a shadow gap reads as a detail rather than a bad fit. An upstand rides what a panel exposes. Material runs from £110 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines rather than rolled into one figure.

Mixed ownership means the decision-maker is not always the person who lets us in, so it is worth being clear early about who signs the quote off. If the carcasses are tired the honest answer is that stone will find that out, and it is better said before than after. Sound carcasses are the condition. Tell us the building when you book and the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice get built into the day rather than found on it.