Alfies Antique Market has filled numbers 13 to 25 Church Street since 1976, five floors of dealers in the old Jordans department store, and the street market trades outside six days a week. Behind it, most homes are estate flats. London Carpet Cleaning covers Church Street, NW8, from £36 a room, and a cleaned carpet is dry within 6 to 7 hours.
Market street, estate homes
Church Street runs east from the Edgware Road, and most of the homes around it are flats. The street market trades Monday to Saturday from 8am to 6pm, with fruit, vegetables and fish near the Edgware Road end and antiques towards the east, where Bennie Gray opened Alfies in 1976 and named it after his father. The big estate to the north is Lisson Green, built in the early 1970s and still one of the largest in Westminster. Around it run streets like Tresham Crescent, Fisherton Street and Salisbury Street, a mix of mansion blocks and council maisonettes. Edgware Road station on the Bakerloo line is the handy one for the south of the area, with Marylebone a short walk further down.
The neighbourhood is mid-way through a long rebuild. The 1960s Church Street estate is being replaced in phases, and the first, Site A near the Edgware Road, brings 429 new homes, 171 of them for social rent, with a new library and garden and better market facilities. Mount Anvil is the council’s building partner, and the new blocks will run from three to fourteen storeys.
Who lives around Church Street?
| Homes or households | Share |
|---|---|
| Flats of any kind | 95.9% |
| Social housing | 57.8% |
| Rented privately | 26.2% |
| One bedroom | 34.5% |
| Built since 2000 | 23.8% |
| Heated by electricity only | 16.3% |
Mostly social tenants in flats. In Westminster 009, the census area that shares the street’s name, 95.9% of homes are flats and 57.8% of households rent from the council or a housing association. Another 26.2% rent privately, which leaves only a small share of owners. One bedroom is the most common size, at 34.5%, so a typical booking is a bedroom, a living room and a hall.
The stock is younger than in most of central London: 23.8% of homes went up in 2000 or later, the infill blocks and the early regeneration. Heating matters for drying here. 16.3% of homes are heated by electricity alone, and in those flats the carpet dries fastest with the heating on and a window cracked. Cleaning the bedroom and living room of a one-bed flat off Tresham Crescent costs £79.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Westminster 009) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Grey hallways and Persian rugs
The carpets we clean here are mostly in flats, and the common jobs reflect that. Plenty of mid-pile bedroom and hallway carpet has greyed slowly in high-rise estate living, and Persian and wool rugs get a lot of use and the occasional candle-wax mark. End-of-tenancy cleans come up often around Tresham Crescent and the streets off Lisson Grove, where lettings turn over and a deposit hangs on the carpets passing inspection. We also get a fair few mattress jobs in the same flats.
In the older estate blocks, carpet laid straight onto a concrete floor without good underlay can stay slightly damp for longer. Where the pile has been crushed flat for years, a clean lifts the dirt but will not fully bring the pile back up, and we say so before we start.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Church Street?
Every Church Street job is priced from our fixed list, with no call-out fee, the list we use across Westminster and the rest of London.
- Carpet cleaning, per bedroom, from £36
- Living room carpet 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 around a six-day market
With stalls out from Monday to Saturday, Church Street itself is no place for a van during trading hours, so we park in the side streets. On Westminster’s parking map the area falls in zones B4 and B11, where paid bays are controlled from 8.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday. We pay for a bay near your block and carry the kit in.
For the estate flats we bring long hoses that reach the upper floors through the stairwell or the lift. Tell us your block and floor, and whether the lift is working, when you book. If the regeneration has hoarded off your usual entrance, say so and we will plan the route the week before.
Hallway carpet to Persian rug
The same van covers the lot. Our hot-water carpet cleaning is the workhorse for estate-flat carpet and grubby hallways, while sofa and upholstery cleaning brings tired fabric three-seaters back to life, the kind that take a battering by the market end. Got a Persian or a wool rug? Our rug cleaning is done in the flat, which is easier than wrestling it down a stairwell, with a photo first for an old Persian. We clean across Lisson Grove and St John’s Wood next door, and the rest of Westminster too.
Questions we hear near the market
Which streets around Church Street market and Lisson Green do you cover?
All of NW8 north of the Edgware Road, including Church Street itself, Penfold Street, Salisbury Street, Fisherton Street, Tresham Crescent and the Lisson Green estate blocks. If you are right on the edge near Lisson Grove or Maida Vale, we still come, so just give us your postcode when you book.
Can you park and bring the gear up to a flat?
Yes. The streets here sit in Westminster’s controlled zones, so we pay for a bay near your block and carry the kit in. For the estate flats we bring long hoses, which reach the upper floors without trailing all the way back to the kerb. Lift or stairs, we manage.
Do you handle end-of-tenancy carpet cleaning?
Often, around here. We clean the carpets thoroughly for the check-out inspection and can give you a dated receipt to show the landlord or agent. The quote is based on the rooms we actually measure on the day, so a second bedroom or a hallway you forgot to mention may nudge it up a little, but you will know the figure before we start.
How long until a carpet in a Lisson Green estate flat is dry?
Most carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours, so keep to socks, not shoes, until then. In a ground-floor estate flat on Lisson Green with a concrete subfloor and less airflow it can take a bit longer, so we crack a window and leave the pile groomed. A heavy rug is cleaned in the flat as well, and it dries in place with the pile groomed.
Is market day a problem for a booking?
Only for parking on Church Street itself. The stalls trade from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, so we use the side streets and walk the hose or the rug in from there. If your entrance faces the market, an early start before the stalls are fully set up helps. The work inside is no different on a market day.
Can you do a mattress while you are here for the carpets?
Yes, from £35 a mattress. We vacuum it first, treat any marks, and clean it with low moisture so it dries within a few hours, then stand it on its side to air. Book it with the carpets and it is done while they dry. Have spare bedding ready for the first night if the mattress is still cool to the touch.
The re-clean guarantee covers every job around Church Street, so a spot that reappears as the carpet dries gets a free second visit. We are fully insured and DBS-checked, and we have cleaned carpets, sofas and rugs around Church Street and the wider NW8 since 2009.
