Granite worktops, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

Stone varies piece to piece, so the honest way to choose it is standing in front of the slab. We arrange that before anything is cut. Sealed on the day it is fitted, and we tell you when it is due again.

Built between the wars / 33.9%

The rear addition on a semi usually puts a join in the run. On granite that join is placed where the pattern hides it, which is a slab-selection decision. Better weighed while the slabs are still in front of you.

The middle half of our granite range runs from £148 to £250 per square metre, across 45 colours. In Kingston upon Thames, 20.3% of homes sit in council tax band F or above, above the London middle. The figure comes from the cut list: how many joins, how many cut-outs, and how cleanly the pieces nest into a slab, not from the floor area.

Owner-occupation is not even across Kingston upon Thames: of the 15 neighbourhoods we list, it is highest in Old Malden at 80%, then Kingston Vale (77%) and Hook (76%), and lowest in Kingston upon Thames at 40%. Granite wants its seal topped up now and then, which is simplest where the people cooking on it own it.

Seething Wells has the highest pre-1919 share of the 15 Kingston upon Thames neighbourhoods we list, at 42%, ahead of Canbury (42%) and Southborough (41%); Old Malden has the lowest, at 1%. Walls of that age are rarely straight, so a granite top is scribed to the template rather than to a straight line.

We cannot post granite offcuts, so samples are the Worktop Worx quartz collection only.