The Railway Terraces, the cottages the Midland Railway built for its workers beside Cricklewood Broadway, are now a Barnet conservation area of about 180 houses, and the Crown’s terracotta front of 1899 stands a short walk down the Broadway. London Carpet Cleaning has worked Cricklewood, NW2, since 2009. Prices begin from £36 a room and carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours.
Three boroughs meet at the Broadway
Cricklewood is split three ways. Cricklewood Broadway, the old Watling Street, is the boundary between Barnet on the east side and Brent on the west, and Camden takes a corner further south. This page is centred on the Barnet side, round Somerton Road and the streets north of the lane, and we work all three most weeks. The Midland Railway built its line through in 1866, and the station opened in 1870 as Childs Hill and Cricklewood. The railway village followed, terraced cottages for Midland employees between the tracks and Edgware Road, and by 1897 small houses filled Elm Grove, Yew Grove and Ash Grove south of Cricklewood Lane.
The bigger change came later. Handley Page built aircraft at Cricklewood, with its own aerodrome, until the site closed in 1929, and John Laing then covered much of it with the Golders Green Estate. Thorverton, Caddington and Dersingham Roads had been laid out in 1907, but much of the land along Cricklewood Lane stayed empty until after the First World War. That is why the Barnet side is mostly inter-war semis. Across the Broadway in Brent, the Mapesbury Estate, built around 1895 to 1905 between Walm Lane, Chichele Road and the Broadway, is large villas with deep hallways and original staircases, and behind the Broadway sit the tighter tree-named terraces of Olive, Cedar, Ivy and Pine Road. The Crown, a Grade II listed terracotta pub and hotel, has stood on the Broadway since 1899. Cricklewood station is on Thameslink, with Brent Cross West a short way up the line since December 2023.
Cricklewood’s Barnet side in figures
| Homes | Share |
|---|---|
| Semi-detached houses | 44.0% |
| Flats in converted houses | 14.7% |
| Three bedrooms | 35.1% |
| Rented privately | 46.9% |
| Built 1919 to 1944 | 57.9% |
| Built since 2000 | 16.2% |
The census splits Cricklewood up, and the piece that holds this page’s streets is North Cricklewood, in Childs Hill ward. It reads very differently from the Victorian Brent side. Semi-detached houses are 44.0% of homes, 57.9% were built between the wars, and the commonest size is three bedrooms (35.1%). That is the Golders Green Estate and the roads off Cricklewood Lane, where the usual house job is a hall, a flight of stairs and three bedrooms. For three bedrooms, a through-lounge and one flight of stairs we charge £210.
Two other numbers shape the work. Nearly half the homes (46.9%) are rented privately, and 14.7% are flats carved out of houses, so the shared stair and the check-out clean are routine. And 16.2% of homes were built since 2000, newer flats where the job is pale synthetic carpet and often a lift. Just 2.6% of homes have no central heating, so drying times hold.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Barnet 040) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Can the van get into the Railway Terraces?
Yes, but only one way. Vehicles reach the terraces from Cricklewood Broadway through the entrance at the southern end of Gratton Terrace, and the northern end is reached on foot by steps from the Broadway. The terraces and the Groves also have some of the longest parking hours in Barnet: zones CT and CW run every day from 9am to 10pm. Ask us to bring a visitor permit into the plan when you book, and we will carry the kit along the terrace from wherever the van can legally stop.
North of the lane the rules changed on 15 December 2025. The Golders Green Estate roads (zone GG) and an extension of zone BA covering Claremont Road, Prayle Grove, Marble Drive, Wallcote Avenue and Amber Grove now run every day from 9am to 6pm. Other Cricklewood roads in zone C1 are controlled for an hour on weekday mornings, from 10am to 11am, and there we arrive after it. On the Brent side, Brent’s own zones apply. On the Broadway itself the kerb is shops and bus stops, so for a flat above a shop we park in a side road and walk round.
Converted flats and Mapesbury wool
Two jobs come up again and again. The first is converted flats in the period houses off Cricklewood Broadway and Cricklewood Lane, where the stair carpet has taken years of footfall and the runner is always the worst stretch in the home. The second is the Mapesbury villas, where original wool carpet and big lounges need a proper hot-water extraction and a slow pass. We get a steady run of upholstery and on-site curtain work too, the kind of three-piece-suite and heavy lounge-curtain jobs people on Chichele Road ask for, cleaned in place so nobody has to take a rail down. Mattresses are a regular booking as well.
Damp is the slow case. In a ground-floor or basement flat with little airflow, an old wool carpet can hold moisture and take most of an evening to finish drying. We set fans and lift the pile, but on a cold, still day the deep stock simply takes longer, and we say so before we start.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Cricklewood?
Prices are fixed, with no call-out fee, and they are the same in Barnet, Brent, Camden and every other London borough.
- Carpet cleaning per bedroom from £36
- Living room from £43
- Through-lounge from £61
- Stairs, one flight, from £41
- Two-seater sofa from £57; armchair from £33
- Rug up to 3m² from £35; mattress from £35
A converted two-bed flat with its living room is £115. Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
Deep cleaning for wool and period stock
Most bookings are hot-water carpet cleaning, the deep extraction method that suits the wool and period stock here. We also handle sofas, armchairs and mattresses in the home, and for delicate or older rugs we ask for a photo first, then do the specialist rug cleaning in your home if it is safe. We cover the rest of Barnet on the same fixed prices, along with neighbouring Dollis Hill and Childs Hill just up the lane.
Cricklewood questions we hear
Do you cover all of Cricklewood, from Mapesbury to the tree-name roads?
All of NW2, including the Mapesbury Estate, Shoot Up Hill, the tree-name roads behind the Broadway and the terraces around Cricklewood Lane, Chichele Road and Mora Road. We also reach the Barnet and Camden sides of Cricklewood east of the Broadway, so it makes no difference which of the three boroughs your street falls in.
Is parking a problem on the Mapesbury streets?
It is manageable. The Mapesbury roads are on the Brent side, wide and tree-lined, and Brent’s parking rules apply there. On the Barnet side, new controlled parking arrived near the Brent Cross Cricklewood works in December 2025. Tell us the road when you book and we will sort access; our hoses reach a top-floor flat from the street.
Do you clean stairs and converted flats off the Broadway?
Yes, and they are a big part of our week here. Narrow Victorian staircases and worn wool runners are routine for us, and we price a single flight from £41. We carry our own water, so a first or second-floor conversion with no tap nearby is no obstacle to a full clean.
How long do carpets take to dry in a Cricklewood period home?
Most rooms are dry within 6 to 7 hours, from a Mapesbury villa to a terrace off Cricklewood Lane, and you can walk on them carefully straight away. Older wool in a low-airflow ground-floor or basement flat can take longer, so we open the place up and set fans, and we will tell you plainly on the day what to expect.
Do you clean in the Railway Terraces conservation area?
Yes. The cottages are compact, so a whole house is a short job, and a converted flat in one is shorter still. The conservation rules cover the outside of the cottages, and nothing about a carpet clean touches them. Because of the 9am to 10pm zone, give us a visitor permit and the van stays legal all day.
We live in a 1930s semi on the Golders Green Estate. What does a typical clean cost?
A three-bed semi with a through-lounge and one flight of stairs comes to £210 at our fixed prices. Add a two-seater sofa at £57 if you want it done the same visit. The new 9am to 6pm zone covers the estate every day, so we ask for a visitor permit.
Every clean is backed by our re-clean guarantee: if a treated area does not come up as promised, we return and put it right at no charge. We are fully insured and DBS-checked, and we have cleaned carpets, sofas and rugs across Cricklewood since 2009.
