Chase Cross is where the Romford suburbs stop and Orange Tree Hill starts its climb to Havering-atte-Bower. Off Chase Cross Road, streets such as Hillrise Road and Kingshill Avenue are lined with semis, most with a full flight of stairs. London Carpet Cleaning has covered Chase Cross, RM5, since 2009, charging from £36 a room, and carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours.
Where the suburb meets the hill
Chase Cross sits at the top of Romford, about a mile east of Collier Row and two miles north of the town centre. Chase Cross Road is the spine that carries the name; Havering Road comes up from Romford to meet it, Lower Bedfords Road heads east past Bedfords Park, and Orange Tree Hill climbs north towards the village on the ridge. Havering Country Park lies on the slope to the north-west. Its paths are open to walkers only, from Clockhouse Lane and from Wellingtonia Avenue up in the village.
The housing filled in from the 1930s and much of it went up after the war, when the Victoria County History notes a lot of building at Collier Row and, further east, at Chase Cross and Rise Park. So the backbone is the semi-detached family house: two storeys with a straight flight of stairs, and terraces in the tighter runs and low blocks of flats among them. A few of the side roads carry Scottish river names, Tweed Way and Spey Way among them.
There is no station here. The 375 passes through on its way between Romford Station and Passingford Bridge, every 90 minutes or so, and most families keep a car, which keeps the streets settled.
Who lives here, from the 2021 census
| Homes that are | Share |
|---|---|
| Semi-detached houses | 45.1% |
| Purpose-built flats | 22.7% |
| Three bedrooms | 51.4% |
| Rented from the council or a housing association | 23.1% |
| Built 1945 to 1972 | 52.6% |
| Built since 2000 | 10.2% |
This census area also takes in the village up the hill, but nearly all its homes are down here in Chase Cross. Semis are the biggest group at 45.1%, and over half of all homes (51.4%) have three bedrooms. More than half (52.6%) were built between 1945 and 1972, which matches the post-war growth on these streets. For a semi like that, three bedrooms with a through-lounge and the stairs, the fixed total is £210.
The flats matter too. Purpose-built blocks hold 22.7% of homes, and 23.1% of households rent from the council or a housing association, so a good share of our Chase Cross work is a one- or two-bedroom flat with no stairs at all. A two-bedroom flat with its living room comes to £115. The 10.2% built since 2000 adds newer homes with builder-fitted synthetic carpet. Only 1.2% of homes have no central heating, so with the radiators on low the drying time holds through winter.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Havering 003) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Chase Cross?
We quote a fixed figure before we set off. No call-out fee is added, and the list is the same for Chase Cross as for every other London borough we cover.
- 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
Tell us your rooms and you will have a fixed price in under a minute. Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
Family jobs on these streets
The jobs here are family jobs. A red wine ring in a living-room carpet before people come over, a pale settee gone grubby on the arms and headrests, a coffee stain worked into a front-room carpet and the stairs above it. The odd bunk mattress wants freshening before the cousins come to stay. Most of it lifts well on the first pass: we pre-treat the mark, then draw it back out with hot water, and shoe covers go on at the door.
Wool or a heavy wool-mix over the original boards is common in the older semis, with a broad landing and a full flight of stairs taking the daily traffic. The newer homes lean towards a mid-pile polypropylene in pale grey or beige. Both wear in the same places but clean differently, so we match the water and the drying to whichever is on the floor.
Pet sickness on a hall runner is the hard case. When it has happened more than once, the smell often sinks past the pile into the backing and the underlay, and a top-side clean alone will not always clear it. That is why we pre-treat a runner like that heavily and flush it right through with the extractor, and even then a runner that has soaked repeatedly may need a second treatment. We say so at the door.
Parking at the foot of Orange Tree Hill
Chase Cross is nearly all resident driveways and free kerbside parking. Havering’s list of pay-by-phone streets has none at Chase Cross; the nearest bays are on the Collier Row parades along Collier Row Road and Clockhouse Lane. So we usually pull up on your drive or right outside, bring the machine in on foot, and the hoses reach a back room or an upstairs bedroom without trouble.
In the low blocks, tell us the floor and the door code, and whether the bin store or a parking bay sits nearest the entrance. Clear shoes off the stairs and toys off the bedroom floors, and we do the rest, furniture included.
Cleaning we do across Chase Cross
Bedrooms, lounges and those semi-detached stairs get our hot-water carpet cleaning, which pulls traffic grey and set-in spills out of the base of the pile, with the temperature matched to the fibre so a wool carpet is cleaned on low moisture. A pale fabric sofa or a tub chair is handled as upholstery cleaning, arms and headrests first, after a spot test on a hidden seam. A soiled hall runner or a lounge rug is cleaned in the home on the same visit, and our rug cleaning page has the detail. We work the same way across the rest of Havering, and next door in Collier Row.
What Chase Cross customers ask
Do you cover Chase Cross from Chase Cross Road to the country park?
Yes, all of Chase Cross in RM5, from Chase Cross Road and its turnings, including Hillrise Road, Highfield Road, Kingshill Avenue and Gobions Avenue, out to the foot of Orange Tree Hill and the Havering Country Park side. We cover the RM postcodes across Havering, so anywhere between here and Collier Row you are inside our patch.
Where will the van park on these roads?
Chase Cross is nearly all resident driveways and free kerbside parking, with no controlled zone up here, so we usually pull up on your drive or right outside. We bring the machine in on foot and the hoses reach a good way, so a back room or an upstairs bedroom on one of the semis is no trouble at all.
Can you get set-in stains out of an older wool carpet?
Most of the time, yes. Red wine and coffee marks in an older wool pile usually lift once we pre-treat and extract at the right heat. An old dye or bleach mark is different, since the colour itself has changed, so we tell you plainly whether it will fully clear or only lighten before we start.
How long does wool carpet take to dry in a Chase Cross semi?
Most carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours, because hot-water extraction draws the moisture back out as it passes. A dense wool carpet in one of the semis off Chase Cross Road can hold damp a little longer, so we open a window or set the air mover going and ask you to keep heavy foot traffic off until it is dry.
Do you clean the flats as well as the houses?
Yes. In this census area 22.7% of homes are purpose-built flats, and they are some of our quickest jobs: no stairs to price and usually one or two bedrooms. For a one-bedroom flat, bedroom and lounge together, the price is £79. We carry the hose up the communal stairs and keep it tidy on the landing, so tell us the floor and the door code.
We are handing a council or housing association flat back. Can you clean the carpets first?
Yes. With 23.1% of homes here rented from the council or a housing association, we do this often. Book us for the last day or two once the furniture has gone; an empty room cleans faster and dries quicker. We clean every fitted carpet, work on the marks by the door and under the bed, and leave a dated receipt for the handover.
Every clean in Chase Cross is backed by our re-clean guarantee: if a spot comes back, so do we, at no charge. Each of our cleaners is DBS-checked, the firm is fully insured, and Chase Cross has been on our list since 2009.
