St Mark’s church has stood in the middle of Myddelton Square since 1827, ringed by 75 brick houses that took thirteen builders until 1836 to finish, and their long staircases now climb to converted upper flats. London Carpet Cleaning has cleaned across Finsbury, EC1, since 2009, down to the mansion blocks on Rosebery Avenue. Rooms are from £36 each, and a carpet on the squares needs up to 6 to 7 hours to dry.
The New River estate and its squares
Much of Finsbury stands on land the New River Company owned round New River Head, where Sir Hugh Myddelton’s channel brought fresh water into London from 1613. Between about 1810 and 1850 the company built houses on it, with its surveyor, William Chadwell Mylne, laying out the streets and designing St Mark’s. Myddelton Square is the set piece. Building began in the early 1820s, and by 1836 there were 75 houses round the church; the north side was bombed on 11 January 1941, and Nos 43 to 53 were rebuilt in 1947 and 1948 as flats behind a facsimile front. Amwell Street went up between 1820 and 1825 as three-storey terraces, some with shops from the start, and Lloyd Square and Wilmington Square follow the same exposed London stock brick, high-ceilinged front rooms and long stairs.
Below the squares, along Rosebery Avenue and Skinner Street, the housing shifts to mansion blocks and council flats. Spa Green, the estate between Rosebery Avenue and St John Street, is Berthold Lubetkin’s work: Aneurin Bevan laid the foundation stone in July 1946, and by 1949 there were 126 flats in three blocks, fitted from the start with lifts, central heating and balconies. It was listed Grade II* in 1998 and restored in 2008. Sadler’s Wells and the old Finsbury Town Hall stand on the same avenue, Angel station is a short walk north, and Farringdon is a few minutes south.
Finsbury’s homes in the census
| Homes that are | Share |
|---|---|
| Flats in purpose-built blocks | 58.9% |
| Flats in converted houses | 23.0% |
| Rented privately | 36.6% |
| Two-bedroom homes | 42.6% |
| Built before 1900 | 44.5% |
| Heated by electricity only | 20.4% |
The census has no area called Finsbury. The one that holds Myddelton Square, Lloyd Square and the Spa Green Estate stretches along Pentonville Road, and the ONS labels it Pentonville; Wilmington Square sits just over the line in the Clerkenwell area. Its figures fit the New River estate closely. Almost a quarter of homes (23.0%) are flats in converted houses, the Georgian terraces split floor by floor, and 44.5% of all homes were built before 1900. Purpose-built flats, from Spa Green to the newer blocks, make up 58.9%.
The flats are mid-sized and often rented: two bedrooms is the most common size (42.6%), and 36.6% of households rent privately. Take a two-bed flat on an upper floor of a Myddelton Square house: both bedrooms and the front room come to £115. One in five homes (20.4%) is heated by electricity only; in a converted top floor with storage heaters, the carpet dries better with a window open, and we plan the visit so the rooms we clean first have longest to dry.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Islington 021) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Wool on the squares, synthetic in the blocks
The jobs here follow the two kinds of home. In the period flats round Myddelton and Wilmington Squares it is wool carpet and wool rugs, usually of good quality, that have taken years of city grime and the odd accident: red wine in the bedroom, candle wax after a power cut, a takeaway that landed by the sofa on a Friday night. Wool takes a hot-water extraction well and comes back soft. In the mansion blocks and newer flats it is more often synthetic carpet and greige stair runners that have gone flat in the traffic lane.
Some damage is beyond any clean, and we say so first. On old wool that has faded in a sunny bay, or a hallway worn down to the backing over many tenancies, a clean lifts out the dirt and revives the pile, but it cannot put back fibre or colour that has already gone. We tell you before we start if that is what we are looking at.
Zone A and the long carry upstairs
Every street we checked here, from Myddelton Square and Lloyd Square to Wilmington Square and the Spa Green end of Rosebery Avenue, is in Islington’s Zone A. Bays are controlled from 8.30am to 6.30pm on weekdays and from 8.30am to 1.30pm on Saturdays, with no match-day controls. Almost no house has off-street parking, so we use a pay-by-phone bay or your visitor voucher and carry the hose to the door. A Saturday afternoon or Sunday booking avoids the meters.
The carry is the other thing to plan. In a top-floor conversion the hose runs up the communal stair, so let your neighbours know, and tell us the floor so we bring enough reach. Farringdon Road and Pentonville Road are Transport for London roads, so for a flat on either we stop round the corner. At Spa Green and the other blocks with lifts, give us the block and tell us if the lift is out of action.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Finsbury?
Fixed prices, no call-out fee, and one list for Finsbury, the rest of Islington 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
- Rug up to 3m² from £35
Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
Carpets, corner sofas and Georgian-sized rugs
Most bookings are hot-water extraction, our steam carpet cleaning, which rinses the grime out of the pile and does more than brush the surface. We also handle sofa and upholstery cleaning, from a tired grey corner unit to the cushion the cat has claimed, and rug cleaning in the room for the big wool pieces that fill a Georgian front room. We cover neighbouring Clerkenwell and Farringdon the same week, and the rest of Islington on the same prices.
Finsbury customers often ask
Which Finsbury streets do you cover, from Myddelton Square to Skinner Street?
All of them. That means the New River squares round Myddelton, Wilmington and Lloyd Square, the flats along Rosebery Avenue and St John Street, Skinner Street and Bowling Green Lane, and the blocks up towards the Angel. If you are near the border with Clerkenwell or Farringdon, we still come to you, with no travel charge.
Where will the van park on these squares?
The squares are in Zone A, controlled on weekdays and Saturday mornings, with no off-street parking, so we take a metered bay or use your visitor voucher and carry the hose to the door. For the top-floor conversions in the Georgian terraces we run the line up the communal stair. Tell us the floor when you book.
Can you get old stains out of a wool rug?
Often, yes. Wool responds well to warm extraction, and set-in wine, juice and even candle wax come out of good rugs more often than people expect. Waterproofed or very old dye can be less forgiving, so for anything precious send us a photo first and we will say whether the rug can be cleaned safely on site.
How long will carpet in a Finsbury square conversion flat take to dry?
Most carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours, and we finish with a strong extraction pass to pull out as much water as possible. A ground-floor or lower-ground flat below one of the squares gets less airflow and can run a little longer, so crack a window and keep heavy furniture off the damp pile until the evening.
Do you clean flats on the Spa Green Estate?
Yes. The estate’s 126 flats are spread over three blocks with lifts, so carrying the machine up is easy. The Grade II* listing covers the buildings; inside your flat, the carpet gets the same clean as anywhere else. Prices are the same as anywhere, from £36 a bedroom, and tenants and leaseholders book the same way.
Who should book the shared stair carpet in a converted house?
Whoever is responsible for it, usually the freeholder or the managing agent, though residents often club together. Nearly a quarter of homes here are flats in converted houses, so we clean shared stairs often. Each flight is priced from £41, and we can do it on the same visit as one of the flats, with a separate receipt for each.
Should a treated spot return, our re-clean guarantee means a free second visit. We give a fixed price before we start, we are insured, the cleaners are DBS-checked, and Finsbury’s squares and blocks have been on our list since 2009.
