South of Ilford High Road, the streets off Clements Road, Khartoum Road and the top of Ilford Lane are a grid of late-Victorian and Edwardian red-brick terraces, many still with a tiled floor inside the front door, and a growing number of new flats in between. London Carpet Cleaning has worked Clementswood, IG1, since 2009, from £36 a room, and carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours.
A building estate south of the High Road
Clementswood takes its name from the old Clements estate. When that estate was broken up in 1879, the land lying just south of the High Road, between Ilford Lane and Green Lane, was bought for building by Aaron Withers of Ilford Hall, his partner James Withers, and A. Cameron Corbett, the developer who went on to build much of Ilford. West of Ilford Lane, building on the Uphall estate started in the late 1890s. Ilford had 10,913 people in 1891 and 78,188 by 1911, and most of the terraces here date from that rush: bay fronts, a long narrow hall, a front room, a back room and one straight flight of stairs to two or three bedrooms.
Those houses set the pattern for most of our work. The hall carpet takes everything that comes off the tiles at the door, the stair carpet wears grey down the middle, and the front room darkens in a lane from the door to the sofa. Uphall Recreation Ground, off Eltisley Road, is the local patch of grass and play area, and a wet afternoon there comes home on shoes, buggy wheels and paws.
Nearer the station the stock is younger. Ilford is on the Elizabeth line, the town centre has filled with blocks of flats, and some of the bigger terraces were split long ago. In those flats the job is usually a hall, a living room and two bedrooms, booked by a tenant moving out or a landlord getting ready for the next one.
Where does the van park in Ilford Zone A?
Much of the grid west of Ilford Lane sits in Ilford Zone A, and it runs every day. Under the order Redbridge made on 30 June 2021, roads including Baxter Road, Bengal Road, Cecil Road, Kenneth Avenue, Madras Road and Natal Road are permit holders only from 8.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Sunday, so a Saturday booking has the same rules as a Tuesday.
Redbridge does not sell parking permits to tradespeople. A van that stops only to load and unload is allowed, but a clean of a whole house takes a few hours, so inside the zone we use one of your daily visitor permits. They come in packs of ten, each one covers a single day, and you scratch off the date before it goes on our dashboard. Permits arrive by post within 10 working days of ordering, so order a pack well before the booking. Without one, we look for a shared permit or pay-by-phone bay, such as the stretch of Baxter Road by St Luke’s Church or Kenneth Avenue alongside the recreation ground, and run the hose from there.
Inside the house, the narrow terrace halls are the pinch point. Clear shoes and coats off the stairs, lift anything stored under the beds, and leave the front door free for the hose. In the newer blocks, tell us the floor and whether there is a lift or a concierge desk that needs to know we are coming.
Clementswood homes by the numbers
| Homes that are | Share |
|---|---|
| Rented from a private landlord | 45.7% |
| Flats in purpose-built blocks | 44.1% |
| Terraced houses | 33.8% |
| Two-bedroom homes | 36.5% |
| Built before 1919 | 38.6% |
| Built in 2000 or later | 25.6% |
| Heated by electricity only | 27.2% |
The census has no area called Clementswood. The one that covers it is Ilford South West, the streets either side of the top of Ilford Lane. The striking number is renting: 45.7% of households rent from a private landlord, and only 29.2% own their home. That is why so much of our diary here is end-of-tenancy work, with a carpet that has to pass an inventory check and a receipt the agent can file.
The housing splits almost down the middle. Terraced houses make up 33.8% of homes, and 38.6% of the stock went up before 1919, which is the Withers and Corbett era with its stairs and long halls. For one of those terraces, three bedrooms, the front room and the flight of stairs, the bill is £192. On the other side, 44.1% of homes are flats in purpose-built blocks, and a quarter of all homes (25.6%) were built in 2000 or later. Those have no stairs to clean but they often have a lift, a fob and a car park we cannot use.
Heating matters for drying. Over a quarter of homes (27.2%) are heated by electricity alone, and 3.2% have no central heating at all. A carpet dries within 6 to 7 hours in a warm room, but in a cold flat in January we ask for the heaters on for the afternoon and a window open a crack.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Redbridge 032) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Clementswood?
Each price is fixed before we set off, nothing is added for coming out to IG1, and the list is the same in every Redbridge ward.
- Carpet, per bedroom, from £36
- Carpet, living room, from £43
- Through-lounge, from £61
- Stairs, one flight, from £41, the figure most terraces here need
- Two-seater sofa from £57; armchair from £33
- Rug up to 3m² from £35; mattress from £35
Two bedrooms and a living room, the commonest flat size here, comes to £115. Read us the list of rooms and the fixed total comes back straight away. Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
How we clean the terraces and flats
Fitted carpets and stairs are cleaned by hot-water extraction, which flushes the grit out of the base of the pile and pulls the water straight back out. Older wool in the terraces gets a gentler rinse and less moisture; a synthetic in a let flat can take a hotter, deeper pass. We clean sofas, armchairs and dining chairs on the same visit, freshen mattresses in place, and clean wool rugs in the home with proper rug cleaning, and for a silk piece we ask for a photo first. For the rest of the borough, see our Redbridge carpet cleaning page; we also cover Valentines and Cranbrook, north of the station, on the same terms.
What Clementswood customers ask us
Do you cover all of Clementswood, from Clements Road to South Park?
Yes, the whole area, from Clements Road and the edge of the town centre down through the Uphall streets and across to South Park. We have cleaned this part of Ilford since 2009, so we know both the old terraces and the newer flats by the station. There is no call-out fee anywhere in IG1.
Is parking a problem on these streets?
Inside Ilford Zone A it can be, because the bays are permit holders only from 8.30am to 6.30pm every day of the week. Redbridge will not sell a permit to us, so the easiest fix is one of your visitor permits for the day. If you have none, tell us your road when you book and we plan a nearby pay-by-phone bay and a long hose.
Can you clean carpets and chairs before a family gathering?
Yes, and it is a big part of what we do here, especially in the weeks before Eid and Diwali. Fabric sofas, dining chairs and the front-room carpet can all be done in one visit, with food marks and traffic lanes lifted. The carpet takes up to 6 to 7 hours to dry and upholstery 10 to 12, so book the day before the guests arrive or start early that morning.
How long do carpets take to dry in a Clementswood terrace?
Most carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours, because the machine extracts the water back out of the pile as it goes. An older wool carpet in one of the 1890s terraces is cleaned with less moisture, so it dries without shrinking or browning. With a window open or the radiators ticking over, the room is usable again by the afternoon.
Can you clean the flat on the day the tenants move out?
Yes. With almost half of homes here privately rented, a same-day slot after the keys are handed back is one of our most common bookings. We clean every carpeted room, treat the marks the inventory clerk will look for, and email a dated receipt you can attach to the deposit paperwork. Book a morning clean and the flat is dry for an afternoon check-out.
My flat is in a new block with electric heating. Will the carpet dry in time?
It will, as long as the room is not left cold. Over a quarter of homes in this census area are heated by electricity alone, and the newer flats are well sealed. Put the heaters on for a spell after we leave and open a window or a trickle vent, and the carpet is dry within its 6 to 7 hours.
Every clean in Clementswood comes with our re-clean guarantee: if a spot reappears, we return and treat it again free of charge. Our cleaners are DBS-checked, the work is fully insured, and we have been cleaning in IG1 and across Redbridge since 2009.
