Pitshanger is the quiet north west corner of W5, a spread of low-density, tree-lined streets around Pitshanger Lane. People sometimes confuse it with Pitzhanger Manor, John Soane’s villa, which is down in Walpole Park near the Broadway. The Pitshanger we mean is the streets up round Pitshanger Lane, some way north of the manor.
The houses
Most of the housing is long Edwardian terraces, with some bigger houses towards Castlebar. A typical terrace has a narrow hall with the stairs rising straight from it, a half-landing at the back where the bathroom sits, and a loft conversion reached by a second, steeper flight. That loft room is often the main bedroom now.
Halls in these terraces are narrow, so a strip of dust sheet goes down from the front door to the foot of the stairs and the hose runs along one wall. You can still get in and out while we work, and the post can still land on the mat.
For a terrace like that with three bedrooms plus the loft room, the price is four bedrooms at £36, two flights at £41 and two landings at £9, which makes £244. Add the hall at £22 and it is £266. If only the stairs and landings need doing, they come to £100 on their own, and a single bedroom added to that makes £136.
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Bedroom | £36 |
| Living room | £43 |
| Through lounge | £61 |
| Stairs, per flight | £41 |
| Rug up to 3m² | £35 |
| Rug over 3m² | £51 |
| Bedroom, with a move-out clean | £29 |
| Living room, with a move-out clean | £36 |
| Stairs, with a move-out clean | £35 |
Leaves on the carpet
The street trees are lovely until October. Wet leaves walked in on shoes leave brown tannin marks on pale carpet, a bit like a tea stain, and they gather just inside the front door and at the foot of the stairs. They respond well to a tannin spotter as long as nobody has attacked them with a bleach spray first. There is more on that on the stain removal page.
On the day
The machine stays at the bottom of the stairs and the hose goes up both flights to the loft. On narrow Edwardian stairs we clean from the top down and finish at the hall, so nobody has to step on a damp tread to get out of the house. The whole process is described under carpet cleaning, rates for everything else are on our prices page, and neighbours to the south east have their own page.