Before we quote any of the vanity tops in Figges Marsh we want to know what the kitchen actually is, because the answer changes more than the price. Terraces off the London Road have narrow rear kitchens that stay galley-shaped, typically 2.2m of run against one wall with the cooker under a window. Flats over the shops on the main road are small single-run kitchens where the top and a matching upstand is the whole scope. The point of the visit is that you stop guessing and get a number you can hold us to.
A boiler hangs on the wall above the run in most of these, and its pipework drops exactly where a splashback wants to go. Bathrooms in buildings like this are reached up a flight and worked in a room two people can barely stand in, and the visit is planned around both. The aperture is polished because you look straight down into it.
The front rooms sit over the shop window with a structural beam beneath them, and the floor either side of that beam is not at one level. Windows sit low over the basin in these houses, which caps the height of any splash return before anything else has been decided. A bathroom over a kitchen has its waste run already decided.
The housing here takes in Interwar terrace, Edwardian terrace, Above-shop flat and Postwar infill. Each of those behaves differently once the old top comes off.
Figures cover the 3 statistical areas (MSOAs) around Figges Marsh| Figure | Figges Marsh | Against London |
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| homes built before 1919 | 11% | pre-1919 share lower than 66% of the 723 areas we cover |
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| households owning their home | 45% | home-ownership share higher than 51% of the 723 areas we cover |
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| households with no car or van | 38% | no-car share lower than 52% of the 723 areas we cover |
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Sources: VOA Council Tax Stock of Properties 2025 and ONS Census 2021 for MSOAs E02000702, E02000701 and E02000706. Open Government Licence v3.0.