London Stone sits behind glass in the front of 111 Cannon Street, EC4, across the road from the station, and most of the doors around it open onto offices, chambers and staff kitchens. A few open onto flats. London Carpet Cleaning has worked these streets since 2009 and cleans both kinds from £36 a room, with carpets dry within 6 to 7 hours.
Who books a carpet clean on Cannon Street?
Mostly businesses. The carpet we meet here is contract tile in meeting rooms, broadloom in boardrooms, tub chairs in reception and fabric or leather sofas in partners’ lounges. The marks follow the working day: coffee and biscuit crumbs ground into meeting-room tiles, spill rings on the waiting-area chairs, leather that wants cleaning and conditioning, and the odd watermark after a leak in a library or store cupboard. Almost all of it happens out of hours, early before staff arrive or over a weekend, and we leave the room set for a Monday board meeting.
Two things slow the job down. An office with sealed windows and no through-draught dries more slowly than an airy flat, so on sofas and thicker meeting-room carpet we may ask you to keep people off a little past the usual 6 to 7 hours. And a contract tile that has taken years of traffic comes up clean and refreshed from a deep clean, yet a flattened, worn tile still looks its age.
The station, the Stone and a pair of 1703 houses
Cannon Street station opened in 1866 on the site of the medieval Steelyard, the London trading base of the Hanseatic merchants. Today it is a Southeastern terminus for south-east London and Kent, with the Underground platforms on the Circle and District lines between Mansion House and Monument. London Stone, the block of limestone that stood on the south side of the street for centuries, went back into 111 Cannon Street on 4 October 2018 after two years in the Museum of London while the building was redeveloped. Wren’s domed St Stephen Walbrook is a short walk north, and Cleary Garden gives a patch of green off Queen Victoria Street.
The homes are few, and they come in odd shapes. Nos 44 and 46 Cannon Street have been turned into an aparthotel of 77 studio and one-bedroom serviced apartments. There are flats above the shops, and conversions behind listed frontages. Behind the buildings on the south side lies Laurence Pountney Hill, the City’s smallest conservation area, where the ground drops steeply towards the Thames. It holds a pair of four-storey red-brick houses built in 1703, reckoned the finest of their date left in the City, and No 9 Laurence Pountney Lane, a brick house of about 1670 that was converted back into a home in 2004 after a long spell as offices. The other lanes running off the main road, Dowgate Hill, College Street, Cousin Lane, Martin Lane and Bush Lane, are lined with offices and chambers.
Cannon Street flats in the census
| Homes | Share |
|---|---|
| Flats in converted buildings or above shops | 9.6% |
| Flats in converted houses | 1.3% |
| Built 2000 or later | 25.5% |
| Built 1973 to 1999 | 10.9% |
| Heated by electricity only | 39.4% |
| No central heating | 3.7% |
The census has no smaller area for Cannon Street; the whole City counts as one, so the table describes every home in the Square Mile. The rows chosen here are the ones that match what we find by the station. Flats in converted commercial buildings or above shops make up 9.6% of City homes, against only 1.3% in converted houses, which is the 44 to 46 Cannon Street pattern of an office block turned into apartments. A quarter of homes (25.5%) were built in 2000 or later, and another 10.9% between 1973 and 1999, so most of the carpet in these flats is a recent synthetic or wool-mix that takes a hot rinse well.
Heating changes the drying more than anything. In 39.4% of City homes the heating is electric only, and 3.7% have no central heating at all. Electric heaters switched off for the day leave a carpet drying on room temperature alone, so we ask you to leave them on low and crack a window. For a one-bed serviced flat, the bedroom plus the living room, the bill comes to £79.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (City of London 001) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Cannon Street?
Our rates are set in advance and quoted as a fixed sum, with no call-out charge; a Cannon Street office or flat pays exactly what a home anywhere else in London pays.
- Carpet cleaning, per bedroom, from £36
- Living room, from £43
- Through-lounge, from £61
- Stairs, one flight, from £41
- Two-seater sofa, from £57
- Rug up to 3m², from £35
Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
Parking, loading and the slope to the river
The whole City is a controlled parking zone, Monday to Friday 7am to 7pm and Saturday 7am to 11am. The pay bays take RingGo, with a four-hour limit, and stop charging after 11am on a Saturday and all day Sunday, which is one more reason weekend slots suit this street. On a yellow line without kerb marks the rules allow up to 40 minutes of loading or unloading; on a kerb with double blips there is no loading at any time. Cannon Street itself is a busy through road, so we usually load from a side lane and carry the kit the last few yards.
Inside, plan for lifts and slopes. Office buildings mean booking the goods lift and signing in at reception out of hours, and we work to whatever access your building manager sets. South of the main road the lanes fall steeply towards Upper Thames Street, which matters if the van has to sit at the bottom and the kit goes uphill. Our vans carry long hoses, so the machine can stay in a legal bay while the hose reaches several floors.
Hot-water extraction for offices and flats by the station
The core of the work is hot-water extraction, and our steam carpet cleaning handles office floors and the carpet in the flats above the shops alike. For tub chairs, staff-kitchen settees and leather in a partners’ lounge, our upholstery cleaning covers fabric and leather, cleaned and conditioned. Loose rugs are washed on site during the visit through our rug cleaning service, with light furniture moved for you. We also cover Mansion House next door and Blackfriars along the river, and the rest of the City of London.
Common questions about Cannon Street bookings
Do you cover the lanes off Cannon Street, like Dowgate Hill and Bush Lane?
Yes. We cover the EC4 and EC4N streets around the station, including Dowgate Hill, College Street, Cousin Lane, Laurence Pountney Lane and Bush Lane, and out to Mansion House, Monument and St Paul’s. If you are just over the ward boundary in EC2 or EC3, we cover that too, so ask when you book.
How do you deal with City parking and access?
We plan for it. Parking near Cannon Street is pay bays and loading only, free in the bays only after 11am on Saturday and on Sunday. Our vans carry long hoses so we can park in a legal bay or loading spot and still reach several floors, and for office jobs we work to your building’s out-of-hours access and any goods-lift booking.
Can you clean an office or reception out of hours?
Yes, and most Cannon Street jobs are done that way. We come in first thing before staff arrive or on a Friday evening, so meeting rooms and reception floors are clean and dry for the next working morning without disrupting the day.
How soon can carpets be walked on after cleaning?
Most carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours, so a room cleaned on a Friday evening is ready for Monday with ease. Thicker meeting-room broadloom and upholstery in a sealed office can hold damp longer, so for a Monday booking we will tell you if a sofa or a room wants an extra day before heavy use.
Do you clean serviced apartments between guests?
Yes. For a studio or one-bed between stays we usually clean the carpet and the sofa bed, and we fit the visit inside the changeover window. A studio carpet takes up to 6 to 7 hours to dry, so we plan the visit to leave that long before the next check-in. We invoice the operator directly with VAT shown, which is how most accounts teams want it.
My flat only has electric heating. Will the carpet still dry quickly?
Yes, with a little help. The machine takes most of the water back out, so the carpet is dry within 6 to 7 hours. Leave the heating on low and keep the ventilation running. A flat left cold with everything switched off takes noticeably longer.
Every clean comes with our re-clean guarantee: if a spot is not right, we come back and put it right at no charge. We are fully insured and DBS-checked, we invoice clearly with VAT for your accounts team, and we have cleaned across the City of London since 2009.
