Depots on Kingsland Basin sped up the building of De Beauvoir in the 1840s; today the basin is ringed by canal-side flats, with the towers of the De Beauvoir Estate to its west and the Jacobethan villas of De Beauvoir Square a few streets north. London Carpet Cleaning has worked across all three in De Beauvoir, N1, since 2009. Prices start at £36 a room, and a carpet cleaned in the morning is dry by the evening, after 6 to 7 hours.
Wood workshops, a tent factory and an estate of towers
The Regent’s Canal set this corner going. William Rhodes took a building lease on the whole de Beauvoir estate in 1821 and planned a grid of four squares on diagonal streets, but an injunction in 1823 and years in court stopped him, and when the family took control in 1834 only the south-eastern square, De Beauvoir Square, was kept. The streets between Downham Road and the canal never matched the villas to the north. They filled with workshops, many making wood products, and in the south-west corner a factory leased from 1823 became the works of Thomas Briggs, the tentmakers.
Around 1969 the area west of the basin, with its many small factories, was cleared for the De Beauvoir Estate, completed in 1971 with a library and a parade of shops. It is dark brown brick and concrete: 18-storey towers on De Beauvoir Road, among them Corbiere House and Granville Court, and lower blocks such as Portelet Court, reached by walkways and stairs at different levels. In 2022 the council set out plans to add around 185 homes in a first phase and 120 in a second on depots and garage sites across the estate, with at least a quarter for social rent and a quarter for shared ownership.
North of Downham Road the old plan survives. The villas round De Beauvoir Square, with shaped gables and leaded windows, are the centre of a conservation area the council dates to 1971, extended south in 1977. The Benyon Estate still lets terraces and maisonettes on roads like Englefield Road, Northchurch Road and Buckingham Road, run by an in-house team on Southgate Road. Along the canal and the basin there are warehouse conversions and newer flats; Kingsland Wharves was sold with wood-veneer floors throughout and big balconies over the water. Haggerston station, opened in 1867 and nearly named De-Beauvoir Town, sits just across Kingsland Road on the Windrush line, with a change at Highbury and Islington for the Victoria line.
What does the census say about this end of N1?
| Homes that are | Share |
|---|---|
| Flats in purpose-built blocks | 85.8% |
| Built 1945 to 1972 | 34.2% |
| Built 2000 or later | 44.4% |
| Rented from the council | 27.9% |
| Shared ownership | 6.1% |
| Two-bedroom homes | 44.2% |
| Heated by electricity only | 24.9% |
The census divides De Beauvoir between several areas, and this page’s point falls in the southern one, which it calls Haggerston West and Kingsland Basin. That area is almost all flats: 85.8% of homes are in purpose-built blocks and only 7.5% are houses. The VOA dates explain why. Some 34.2% went up between 1945 and 1972, the estate years, and 44.4% since 2000, the canal-side blocks, so a booking here is rarely a whole house and often a flat up a lift or along a walkway.
Tenure is mixed. In all, 27.9% of households rent from the council, more from housing associations, 30.5% privately, and 6.1% are in shared ownership. Two bedrooms is the usual size at 44.2%. Two bedrooms and the living room in one of the towers on De Beauvoir Road come to £115. The figure to watch is heating: a quarter of homes (24.9%) are heated by electricity only, and in a flat with panel heaters and sealed windows the carpet takes longer to dry, so we book those for the morning and leave a window open.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Hackney 025) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Hallways, flattened velvet and sticky leather
In the flats it is the hall that comes up most changed, because it takes every step in and out, and in the older conversions it is often wool. We get a steady run of upholstery too: velvet sofas with the pile flattened and a spill down one cushion, and leather settees that have gone sticky and dull and need cleaning and conditioning. Rugs come in pairs from the period rooms, and singly from the wood-floored new flats. Mattresses get booked after a damp winter, when a musty smell sets in.
Plenty of the flats north of Downham Road are conversions with the original timber under the carpet and little through-draught, and wool over a suspended floor holds damp, so on a still day the drying runs past the usual time. Book a morning slot, open a window, and you will be walking on it the same day.
Lifts, walkways and Zone H
De Beauvoir is in Hackney’s Zone H, controlled Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 6.30pm, and free outside those hours. On a weekday we pay for a bay as near your block as we can, then run the hose from the van. Kingsland Road is a TfL road, so for a flat on it we stop in a side street. On the estate, give us your block, floor and best entrance, and tell us if a tower lift is out of action.
In a canal-side block with a concierge or managing agent, let them know the day, and if the lift has to be booked for trades, book it for the morning. The towpath is a short walk from most of these homes, and its mud comes in on shoes and paws; we pre-treat it before the rinse.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in De Beauvoir?
We quote a fixed figure before the day, charge nothing to come out, and use the same rates in N1 as everywhere else in 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; armchair from £33
- Rug up to 3m² from £35; mattress cleaning from £35
Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
Steam cleaning, upholstery and rugs for N1 flats
Most rooms get our hot-water steam carpet cleaning, which rinses the pile deep and pulls the water back out, so the carpet is left damp, never soaked, and dries within 6 to 7 hours. For the velvet and leather pieces we see so much of here, upholstery cleaning is matched to the fabric, and leather is cleaned and conditioned, never scrubbed. Loose rugs, a fringed piece included, get proper rug cleaning in your home, vacuumed and pre-treated before the shampoo and rinse. We cover the rest of Hackney at the same fixed prices.
Booking in De Beauvoir: what people check first
Which De Beauvoir streets do you cover, from the square to Kingsland Basin?
All of De Beauvoir in N1, from De Beauvoir Square and the Benyon Estate roads like Englefield Road, Northchurch Road and Buckingham Road across to Southgate Road and Kingsland Road, and down to the canal-side flats and the De Beauvoir Estate. We are out across N1 most weeks, so we can usually fit a job in nearby without a separate trip.
Where can the van park in De Beauvoir?
De Beauvoir is in Hackney’s Zone H, so the resident bays are permit-only from 8.30am to 6.30pm on weekdays and open at weekends. We use a pay-by-phone bay or a short loading spot near your door, and our hose reaches well from the van, so an upper-floor flat off the square is no trouble. Just tell us the door and floor when you book.
Can you get a velvet or leather sofa looking right again?
Yes, and it is a lot of what we do in De Beauvoir. Velvet that has gone flat we clean and brush so the pile stands back up, and a spill down one side usually comes out. Leather we clean and then condition, which takes the sticky, dull feel off a tired settee and brings the surface back without harming the finish.
How long does carpet take to dry in a De Beauvoir conversion?
For most rooms it is dry within 6 to 7 hours, because we extract the moisture and leave the pile only slightly damp. In a closed-up conversion flat with wool over old boards it can run longer, so we suggest a morning booking and an open window. By evening the room is back to normal, villa or canal-side flat alike.
Do you clean in the De Beauvoir Estate towers and maisonettes?
Yes. In the towers we bring the kit up in the lift and run the hose from the landing, and in the low-rise blocks we come along the walkway or up the courtyard stair. A two-bed maisonette with its living room and internal stairs is £156, and new building on the estate is no obstacle if you tell us which path to use.
Our flat by the basin has wood floors. Is it worth booking just for rugs and a sofa?
Yes. Plenty of the newer canal-side flats have hard floors throughout, so the rug and the sofa take all the wear. We clean a two-seater in your flat from £57, and a rug up to 3m² from £35, both on the one visit. Clear the floor round the rug beforehand and we move any light furniture for you.
Every job in De Beauvoir carries our re-clean guarantee, so if a patch is not right we come back and put it straight. We are fully insured and DBS-checked, and we have cleaned carpets and upholstery across De Beauvoir and the rest of Hackney since 2009.
