Window Shutters in Canary Wharf for Tower and Riverside Apartments

Our plantation shutters in Canary Wharf are made to measure interior shutters, panels with tilting slats called louvres, fitted on the inside of your window or door. Whether they suit a tower flat depends on the glass, the fixings and the landlord, so this page goes through all three.

We measure and fit for free, and we will tell you straight if a window would suit a blind better. No pressure. We keep this page for modern apartment buildings. If you live in an old warehouse or a low-rise street, our pages on shutters in Docklands and shutters on the Isle of Dogs fit you better.

Can window shutters go in a Canary Wharf tower flat?

Often yes. Not always, though, and in the newest towers blinds are the more common choice. The reason is not that shutters look wrong. Many tower flats have walls that are nearly all glass, with thin frames, no deep sill and a building manager who controls what is fixed to them.

Some of the glass is very large. Newfoundland is a 220 metre tower with 636 apartments, and its Level 58 homes have floor to ceiling windows (Canary Wharf Group). The Wardian towers on Marsh Wall have 55 and 50 storeys and a glazing ratio of 45 per cent (Glenn Howells Architects). That is a lot of glass. A window like that is a very different job from a bay in a terrace, where the frame is deep and the wall is solid.

So we start with three plain questions at the free visit:

• Is there a firm place to fix a frame or a track, such as a reveal, a floor edge or a ceiling edge?
• Will the panels have room to move without catching a sofa, a radiator or a handle?
• Has the landlord or managing agent said yes in writing?

If the answer to any of them is no, we say so before you spend anything. Then we show you what could work instead.

What window shutters fix to when the wall is mostly glass

A shutter has to be fixed to something solid, and glass is not that. In a glass walled flat the solid parts are the frame around the glass, any reveal or sill, the floor edge and the head above. Which of these can take a fixing is the first thing we check, and it differs from building to building.

For a tall pane, full height shutters usually need a mid-rail. This is a solid bar across the middle that stops tall panels bending, and it lets you tilt the top and bottom louvres on their own. On a high floor that is handy: you can angle the top louvres against the sun and keep the lower ones open for the view.

When we measure a floor to ceiling window we look at:

• How level the floor and the head are, because a tall panel shows every small slope
• Whether a ceiling bulkhead, a pocket for an old blind or a curtain track is in the way
• Where the window handles and opening sections sit, so the panels do not block them
• How much floor space you want to keep clear in front of the glass

If one window in a room cannot take shutters, we can often still do the others and use a blind on that one, so the room does not look odd. The choice of louvre size is a matter of taste. The wide 89mm and 114mm louvres show more of the view, and the narrower 47mm and 63mm ones give finer control of the light.

Sliding shutters for a balcony door many floors up

For a balcony door, sliding shutters on a track are usually the neat answer. Simple as that. A balcony door is the window you use every day, so the shutters must move out of the way without a fight. Hinged panels need room to swing into the room, and most flats here have a sofa or a dining table close to the glass.

Our sliding shutters glide along a track and stack to one side. Track systems in general can run on a top track alone or on a top and bottom pair (British Blind and Shutter Association), and which one suits your door depends on the floor and the door frame, so we decide at the visit.

The balconies themselves vary a great deal. At the Wardian, wrap-around balconies project up to 1.8 metres on the east and west sides. At 10 George Street in Wood Wharf, the full height windows open onto balconies with glass balustrades (Canary Wharf Group). Either way, three things matter for the shutters:

• Which way the door slides or opens, and where the handle sits
• How much wall is free on one side for the stacked panels
• Whether the door frame is flat enough for the track to sit tidy

Who must agree before shutters go into a managed building?

Your landlord or managing agent, in writing, before you order. In a tower the frames and glass belong to the building, not to the person living behind them, and the rules sit in your tenancy agreement or your lease.

Many Canary Wharf flats are rented from a building operator. Vertus, the residential rental arm of Canary Wharf Group, runs 10 George Street, 8 Water Street, Newfoundland and 50-60 Charter Street, with 1,893 apartments between them (Canary Wharf Group, Wood Wharf). If you rent in a building like that, the operator decides what can be fixed to the windows. If you own a flat on a lease, leases differ: some allow alterations only with consent, and some do not allow them at all (LEASE, the leasehold advice service).

A short email is enough, and it saves a lot of waiting if you include:

1. Your address and flat number
2. Which windows or doors you want covered
3. That the shutters are interior shutters, made to measure and fitted inside the window
4. That the fixings are into the frame, reveal, floor or ceiling edge, with exact details to follow after the measuring visit
5. A request for the answer in writing

You can book our measuring visit before the answer arrives, so you have real sizes and a clear picture to show them. Tell us your building when you call. Many tower buildings ask trades to sign in at the concierge or book a goods lift, so we like to arrange that in advance.