Forty Hall has stood on the crest of the hill since about 1629, when a London haberdasher, Nicholas Raynton, built it on the crest overlooking the royal palace of Elsyng. Below it, the lanes of Forty Hill mix listed Georgian houses and Victorian cottage pairs with 1930s terraces and maisonettes, and most have a drive or a quiet kerb, so London Carpet Cleaning parks close. Prices start at £36 a room, and carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours.
Palace, hall and cottages
Forty Hill is the high ground north of Enfield Town, recorded as Fortey around 1350, a name usually read as the island of higher ground above the Lea marshes; you can still feel the rise coming up from the town. Long before the suburb, this was royal country. Elsyng, by Turkey Brook, was rebuilt in brick on a palatial scale after 1492, and Princess Elizabeth used it often until 1572. It stopped being a royal house in 1607, was pulled down soon after 1656, and its site is now a scheduled monument in the grounds of Forty Hall. Enfield bought the hall in 1951 and opened it to the public in 1962.
Enfield made Forty Hill a conservation area in 1968 and extended it in 1987, to take in the eastern part of the Capel Manor estate, then again in 2008 for the western part of Forty Hall park. It covers three old hamlets, Forty Hill, Maiden’s Bridge and Bull’s Cross. The Georgian houses, Worcester Lodge and the Hermitage among them, sit behind hedges more than pavements, and most of the later 19th-century building was modest terraces and pairs of cottages, which still make up the bulk of the hamlets. On Forty Green, the former Goat pub was rebuilt in 1932 in a Tudor style and is now flats.
Outside the conservation area, the suburb is mostly 1930s terraces and maisonettes, off Carterhatch Lane and towards Bullsmoor Lane, with newer infill here and there. The New River, dug in 1609 to 1613, once looped west round the hill; an aqueduct over Turkey Brook cut the loop off in 1859, and traces of the old channel survive south of Myddelton House and through Whitewebbs Park. Gordon Hill station, on the Great Northern line, is roughly a twenty-minute walk down the hill, with Turkey Street on the Overground Weaver line over to the east.
How Forty Hill homes break down
| Homes that are | Share |
|---|---|
| Terraced houses | 36.0% |
| Purpose-built flats and maisonettes | 36.9% |
| Owned, outright or with a mortgage | 49.9% |
| Rented privately | 26.0% |
| Built 1919 to 1944 | 36.1% |
| Built before 1919 | 8.2% |
The census groups the old village with the Carterhatch streets to the south-east, so the figures lean towards the 1930s suburb more than the lanes by the hall. The largest building period is 1919 to 1944, at 36.1% of homes, and terraced houses make up 36.0%. Those are the through-lounge-and-three-bedroom houses with one straight flight of stairs, and that flight is where most of the wear shows. A terrace off Carterhatch Lane with three bedrooms, the living room and its stairs comes to £192 in total.
Only 8.2% of homes are older than 1919, which fits a historic core of a few lanes. Those are the cottages and Georgian houses where we meet wool carpets and old, uneven floors. Purpose-built flats and maisonettes make up 36.9%, including the blocks at the southern end of Forty Hill itself, and a quarter of homes (26.0%) are let privately, so tenancy changeovers are a regular booking. Half of homes (49.9%) are owner-occupied. Just 3.2% have no central heating; in a cold cottage without it, plan on the slower end of the drying time.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Enfield 005) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Old wool, park mud and tea-stained sofas
The two jobs that come up most here are period wool and outdoor mud. The cottages and many of the 1930s houses have wool carpets and wool rugs that need warm-water extraction and careful drying, never a soaking. With Forty Hall park and Whitewebbs Park on the doorstep, the dirt walked in near front doors and up the stairs is real. We have cleaned plenty of worn centre tracks on Forty Hill staircases and landings that come back looking freshly laid once the ground-in grit is lifted.
Fabric sofas pick up years of tea and coffee marks, and brown leather recliners collect hand cream and grime on the headrest, which cleans and conditions back nicely. An old set-in stain, a gravy shadow on a dining rug or a long-standing spill, often improves hugely but does not always vanish. On a pale wool rug a faint mark can still catch the light after cleaning, and we say so on the day.
Parking, lanes and the school run
Forty Hill has no controlled parking zone. Enfield’s map of its zones shows none on the hill or in the lanes around it; the nearest is the Enfield Town zone, to the south, so there are no permits to buy for us. Most houses have a drive or a quiet stretch of kerb, and the van sits close to the door. The lanes are narrow in places, and Maiden’s Bridge is narrow enough that the old through road was cut to keep traffic off it.
Forty Hill Church of England School has been on the hill since 1851, so we avoid arriving at drop-off and pick-up times. Forty Hall holds events through the year, and the farm runs a monthly farmers’ market, so on those days we allow extra time near the park. Clear the stairs, and lift anything fragile off the floor before we arrive.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Forty Hill?
We fix the price when you book, charge nothing for coming out, and use the same list in Forty Hill as in every other London borough.
- 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 from £35
For a two-bedroom flat and its living room, the total is £115. Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
Carpets, sofas and wool rugs on the hill
Our main work here is hot-water steam carpet cleaning, which suits the wool and wool-mix carpets so many Forty Hill homes have. We also handle sofa and upholstery cleaning, including fabric suites and leather that needs conditioning, and rug cleaning for the dining and hallway rugs that take the worst of it, cleaned in the home on the same visit as the carpets. If you are in Enfield Chase or over towards Clay Hill we cover those too, and you can see the rest of our carpet cleaning across Enfield for how the same fixed pricing works borough-wide.
Forty Hill questions
Which Forty Hill streets do you cover, from Goat Lane to Bullsmoor Lane?
We cover Forty Hill and the surrounding EN1 and EN2 streets, which takes in Goat Lane, Bulls Cross, Whitewebbs Lane, Bullsmoor Lane and the Carterhatch Lane side. If you are up near Clay Hill, Bulls Cross or Botany Bay you are well inside our normal round, so just give us the road and we will confirm.
Can you reach the cottages inside the conservation area?
Yes. The listed cottages along Forty Hill and Goat Lane are no problem for us. Our machine sits in the van and we run the hoses in, so there is nothing bulky to bring through a narrow period doorway, and we work tidily around older floors and skirtings.
Do you clean carpets after a party or family gathering?
Often. A christening tea or a Christmas do that leaves cake, squash or red wine on the lounge carpet is a common call here. The sooner we see it the better, but even set-in party stains usually lift a long way with hot-water extraction, and the room is dry within 6 to 7 hours.
How long do carpets take to dry in a Forty Hill cottage or semi?
Most carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours because we extract the bulk of the moisture on the pass. Dense wool and heavy rugs sit at the longer end, and in the older weatherboard and brick cottages on a cold day we crack a window or suggest the heating, so the pile finishes drying evenly.
Do you clean the 1930s maisonettes off Carterhatch Lane?
Yes, they are some of our most regular jobs here. A maisonette usually has its own internal flight up from the front door, and that flight takes every journey in and out, so it is often the dirtiest carpet in the home. We price it as stairs, from £41, with each bedroom from £36, and we can do the sofa while the carpets dry.
Can a wool rug from an old house be cleaned without shrinking?
Yes, if it is done properly. We clean the rug in your home during the visit: it is vacuumed, marks are pre-treated, then it is shampooed and rinsed by hot-water extraction, which pulls the water straight back out so the wool is not left soaked. A rug up to 3m² starts at £35. For an old or fragile piece, send a photo first and we will tell you whether it can be cleaned safely on site.
Every clean comes with our re-clean guarantee: if a spot dries back, we return and put it right. We are fully insured and DBS-checked, and we have cleaned carpets, sofas and rugs across Enfield since 2009.
