Highbury Square’s 711 flats sit around the Art Deco East and West Stands of Arsenal’s old ground on Avenell Road, the Emirates Stadium rises a few streets south, and tall Victorian terraces line Highbury Hill and Aubert Park in between. London Carpet Cleaning covers Drayton Park, N5, from £36 a room. Carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours.
From Highbury Hill Park to the stadium
Drayton Park takes its name from a road that began life as Highbury Hill Park. The road was built in the early 1850s to run the length of the estate and join Holloway Road, and plots along it were offered on building leases between 1855 and 1865. Benwell Road was laid out with terraces to link it to Hornsey Road, and in 1868 twelve houses on the north side of Bryantwood Road were let to a Charles Bryantwood, which is how that street got its name. Those three-storey Victorian houses, with high ceilings and big stair runners, still line Highbury Hill, Aubert Park and Framfield Road, and plenty are now split into upper and lower flats.
The other half of the story is very recent. When Arsenal left Highbury in 2006, the old ground became Highbury Square, 711 apartments finished in 2010 around a garden laid over the pitch, keeping the Grade II listed East Stand and the West Stand. The new stadium brought more: the scheme came with about 2,300 new homes, and the blocks on Queensland Road alone, completed in February 2015, added 729 homes, half of them affordable. The little Drayton Park station on the Northern City Line runs down to Moorgate, six trains an hour.
A census area of new flats
| Homes that are | Share |
|---|---|
| Flats in purpose-built blocks | 69.0% |
| Rented privately | 37.3% |
| Shared ownership | 4.9% |
| Two bedrooms | 39.5% |
| Built since 2000 | 44.8% |
| Heated by electricity only | 24.0% |
The census does not have a Drayton Park area of its own; the neighbourhood around the station is counted as Lower Holloway, and it includes the stadium and the streets around it. The stadium-era building shows clearly. The VOA puts 44.8% of homes as built since 2000, and 69.0% are flats in purpose-built blocks. Shared ownership (4.9%) is far more common here than in the Victorian streets nearby, and 37.3% of homes are rented privately.
For us that means a lot of two-bed flats (39.5% of homes) with fitted carpet in the bedrooms and often wood or vinyl in an open-plan living space. New-build carpet is usually a synthetic in a light tone, and pale carpet shows every mark in a busy hallway. Almost a quarter of homes (24.0%) are heated by electricity alone, which in a well-sealed modern flat means the air can sit still; we open a window or put the extractor on to help the carpet dry. A two-bed flat in one of the new blocks with a through-lounge comes to £133.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Islington 011) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Match days, coach bays and concierge desks
Living next to the Emirates shapes the parking. Drayton Park itself is in Islington’s Zone E: controlled 8.30am to 6.30pm on weekdays and 8.30am to 1.30pm on Saturday, stretching on match days to 8.30pm on a weekday, 4.30pm on a Saturday and from noon to 4.30pm on a Sunday. Aubert Park is in the Gillespie zone (Zone G), normally only 10am to 2pm on weekdays, but on match days its controls run from 10am to 8.30pm. The parking bays on Drayton Park between Benwell Road and Bryantwood Road can be taken for coach parking when an event needs them.
We check the Arsenal fixture list before we book you, and on a match day we aim to be packed up well before the crowds. In the new blocks, ask the concierge or managing agent whether we need to be booked in, which lift to use and where the van can stop to unload; some developments want a time slot for the service bay. In the Victorian houses, the van goes in a pay bay and the hose comes through the front door.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Drayton Park?
You get a fixed price before we come, no call-out fee, and the same rates we charge across Islington and the rest of London.
- Carpet, 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 three-bed house with a living room and one flight of stairs comes to £192. Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
Wool in the terraces, pale carpet in the new flats
Wool is the theme in the older houses. We lift a lot of red wine and tea off sitting-room carpets, the kind of spill that follows a dinner party, and wool takes a careful hand because hot over-wetting can felt the pile and pull the dye. Stairs and landings are the other steady job, and the dog-and-mud mix off Highbury Fields turns up on the bottom three treads more than anywhere else. In the newer flats it is the light carpet that gets booked: sticky child marks, felt-tip, the general greying of a pale colour in a busy hallway.
Old moth damage in a wool carpet or rug, where the fibres have already been eaten through, is not something a clean repairs. We lift the staining and freshen the pile around it, but a bald or thinned patch stays bald. If that is your worry, say so when you book.
Carpets, sofas and Persian rugs
Carpets get our hot-water steam cleaning, which rinses the detergent back out so the pile dries fast and does not re-soil. For sofas and armchairs, our upholstery cleaning covers everything from a pale fabric three-seater to a leather Chesterfield that needs cleaning and conditioning. Loose rugs, including antique and Persian pieces, get our rug cleaning in your home, and a photo first tells us whether an old piece is safe on site. We cover Drayton Park as part of the wider Islington round, alongside Highbury and Arsenal a few streets over.
Questions about Drayton Park
Do you cover all of the N5 streets around Drayton Park?
Yes. We work the whole N5 patch, from Drayton Park and Aubert Park across to Gillespie Road, Avenell Road and Highbury Hill, and into the Highbury Square development on the old stadium site. It is a regular part of our Islington diary, so a slot is usually quick to arrange.
Is parking a problem for the van near Drayton Park on match days?
The streets here are all controlled, so the bays need a permit or visitor voucher in the day, and we sort a paid bay ourselves. On Arsenal home-match days the hours run later and some bays on Drayton Park are taken for coaches, so it helps to flag a fixture when you book.
Can you clean a sofa or rug in a first-floor conversion flat?
Yes. Many Drayton Park houses are split into flats and we carry our gear up regularly. Upholstery is cleaned in the room. Rugs are cleaned in the flat as well: we vacuum them, pre-treat the marks and shampoo and rinse them by hot-water extraction, so there is no need to find floor space to dry anything elsewhere. Clear the floor, and the light furniture is moved for you.
How long will the carpet take to dry in a Drayton Park period flat?
Most carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours, a little longer for a dense wool pile, like the runner-style stair carpets in the Highbury Hill terraces, or a cold, north-facing room. We leave the pile damp, never soaked, and opening a window or two clears the last of it. Keep to socks until it is dry.
Do you clean flats in the Queensland Road blocks and Highbury Square?
Yes. Before the day, check with the concierge or managing agent whether contractors need booking in and which lift to use, and tell us the block and flat number. We bring floor protection for the corridor and lift. Most of these flats need bedrooms and a through-lounge doing, and the carpet is usually a light synthetic that comes up well.
Will the coach parking on Drayton Park affect my appointment?
Only on event days. Islington can take the bays on Drayton Park between Benwell Road and Bryantwood Road for coach parking when there is a match or event at the Emirates. If you live on that stretch, we book you for a non-event day or an early morning slot, so the van is gone before the coaches arrive.
Every clean is backed by our re-clean guarantee: if a treated area does not come up as it should, we come back and put it right at no charge. We are fully insured and DBS-checked, and we have cleaned carpets, sofas and rugs across Islington since 2009.
