You are moving out of a Victorian or Edwardian London terrace.
Why the half-landing is the problem
The standard London terrace stair does not run straight. It rises to a half-landing, turns back on itself, and rises again — and at that turn the usable width collapses to whatever the diagonal allows.
A wardrobe that walked up the straight flight without trouble meets the return and stops. The measurement that matters is not the stair width; it is the diagonal through the turn.
- Measure the stair width, the landing depth, and the ceiling height above the turn.
- Photograph the turn from below and from the landing above.
- Check the newel post — it is often what actually catches.
- Note any fixed handrail that cannot be removed.
Loft conversions and the second stair
A loft conversion is reached by a stair fitted long after the house was built, and it is usually the tightest in the house — often a space-saver or a steep flight with a tiny landing at the top.
The furniture in a converted loft bedroom frequently went up in pieces or through the roof light. It generally has to come down the same way, and that is much better established at survey than discovered on the day.
Things that were built in the room
Some furniture in an old London house never came up the stairs at all, because it was assembled where it stands. Fitted wardrobes are obvious; less obviously, large Victorian wardrobes were often designed to knock down and were reassembled in the bedroom by the people who delivered them.
The good news is that those pieces usually come apart the way they went together. The bad news is that modern flat-pack furniture frequently does not survive a second disassembly, and a large MDF wardrobe is often worth less than the labour of taking it apart carefully.
When the window is the answer
Where a piece genuinely will not pass the stair, the remaining routes are a hoist through an upper window or a furniture lift against the front of the house. Both are ordinary operations and both need arranging beforehand.
On a terrace street, an external lift also needs the kerb space in front of the house, which means the parking suspension has to be applied for with that in mind. It is all doable. It is just not improvisable.