Hodford Road was laid out in 1907, the year the tube reached Golders Green, and it still shows the local pattern: bay-fronted family houses, deep hallways and old wool runners on many stairs. London Carpet Cleaning has worked Golders Green, NW11, since 2009, and most weeks a van is parked somewhere off Golders Green Road. Cleaning costs from £36 a room and carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours.
From hamlet to suburb in 25 years
In 1901 Golders Green was a straggling hamlet. The first new houses went up at the corner of Wentworth Road and Hoop Lane in 1905, and in 1907 the Hampstead tube opened its terminus here and set off a building boom. Rodborough Road and Hodford Road were laid out that year on land owned by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Sir Edwin Evans, nicknamed “the Napoleon of suburban development”, worked on the Woodstock estate with local builders such as Ernest Owers. The shops at the crossroads by the station went up in 1911 and 1912. The ward’s head count shows the speed of it: 4,465 people in 1911, 7,518 in 1921 and 17,837 by 1931.
The houses from that boom had a rustic, cottage-style front that suburban builders copied for the next 30 years, and they are solid brick family homes inside. Many still have parquet under the lounge carpet and 1920s wool runners on the stairs, and plenty have been extended back and up over the decades. As you climb towards the Hampstead Garden Suburb boundary the houses get larger, with Arts and Crafts detail and bigger reception rooms. After the First World War most of the old villas on Golders Green Road gave way to semi-detached houses and big blocks of flats, Brook Lodge and Riverside Drive among them. There are mansion blocks and converted flats along Finchley Road and around the station too. On the forecourt is Golders Green bus station, a major hub for north London buses, and Golders Hill Park, a short walk up North End Road, is where most families here go for grass.
The weeks before Pesach
At the 2021 census close to half the residents of Golders Green ward (7,358 of 14,744) gave their religion as Jewish, and Barnet has the largest Jewish population of any local authority in England and Wales. The rhythm of our year here reflects that. The weeks before Pesach are our busiest stretch by a distance: whole houses booked in, every room and every stair, the deep spring clean done before the festival. Large families mean hard-working hallways and reception rooms, and three-piece suites that have fed a lot of people over the years.
The old wool stair runners need care. We lift the soiling and freshen the pile, but no clean can put back wool fibre that years of feet have worn flat on the nosings. We tell you on arrival if a runner is worn as well as dirty, so you are not paying for something a clean cannot fix.
How old are the houses around Golders Green?
| Home type or age | Share of homes |
|---|---|
| Built before 1919 | 60.7% |
| Built 1919 to 1944 | 25.2% |
| Semi-detached houses | 30.6% |
| Terraced houses | 17.2% |
| Flats in converted houses | 12.3% |
| Rented privately | 37.7% |
The census does not draw a line round Golders Green itself. The neighbourhood it uses for the streets north of the station is named after Temple Fortune, and it sits in Golders Green ward. The VOA count answers the question in the heading: 60.7% of homes were built before 1919 and another 25.2% between the wars, so almost every house we visit dates from the boom years after the tube came. That means original staircases, with wool laid on many of them at some point in the last century.
The rented share is high for a family suburb. Over a third of homes (37.7%) are rented privately, and 12.3% are flats carved out of converted houses, so the end-of-tenancy clean is a regular job, with a shared hall and stair carpet in the bigger conversions. Cleaning two bedrooms and the living room in one of those flats costs £115. Only 1.4% of homes lack central heating, which keeps drying times on track even in a cold spring before the festival.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Barnet 035) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Parking round the station and the side streets
The Golders Green controlled zone dates from 1997 and comes in layers. Part of it, zone G, runs Monday to Saturday from 8am to 6.30pm and on Sundays from 9.30am to 6.30pm, so on those roads there is no free window at all. Zone H applies from 11am to noon on weekdays, and zone H2, on the Garden Suburb side, from 11am to 1pm. On those roads we arrive early, use your drive if you have one, or ask you for a visitor permit to cover the controlled hour. Tell us your road when you book and we check which zone it is in.
Golders Green Road and Finchley Road are busy shopping streets, so if you live above a shop we park on the nearest side street and walk the kit round. Pavements and grass verges are off limits under London’s footway parking ban. Move toys and anything stored under the beds before we arrive, and we can start on the stairs straight away.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Golders Green?
There is no call-out fee, and the fixed prices below apply in Golders Green as everywhere else we work in London.
- 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 whole family house with four bedrooms, a through-lounge and one flight of stairs comes to £246. Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
Family suites and silk rugs
The bulk of our work in NW11 is hot-water extraction, the method most people call steam carpet cleaning, which lifts grit and dried-in marks from the pile and leaves it dry within 6 to 7 hours. We clean sofas and armchairs as well, and our upholstery cleaning covers the big family suites that get a lot of use here. Anything delicate, such as a silk or wool rug, needs a photo first under our rug cleaning service, and we clean it in your home if it is safe to do on site. We also cover Temple Fortune and the rest of NW11 just up the road, and the same team handles the rest of Barnet.
Golders Green customers ask
Which Golders Green streets do you cover, from Hodford Road to the Suburb?
All of NW11, from the station and Golders Green Road across to the Hampstead Garden Suburb edge, plus the streets towards Temple Fortune and Brent Cross. That includes the mansion blocks and converted flats along Finchley Road. If you are on the borders with NW2 or NW4, that is fine too, as we are along those roads most weeks anyway.
Can you park near the house, given the new parking zones?
Yes, with a little planning. In zone G the controls run all day, Sundays included, while zones H and H2 are controlled for an hour or two in the late morning. Since December 2025 a new zone also covers the Golders Green Estate roads by Clitterhouse Playing Fields, every day from 9am to 6pm. Where there is a CPZ or a tight street, we sort a permit or bay before we arrive, or work from your drive.
How far ahead should I book for the weeks before Pesach?
As early as you can. Our Golders Green diary fills up first for that period, often two or three weeks out, because so many houses want the full clean done before the festival. Book ahead and we can hold a slot that suits the rest of your preparations.
How long do carpets take to dry in a Golders Green family house?
Most carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours, and until then we ask for clean socks only. A thick wool pile, like the old runners on many Golders Green stairs, or a cold room in winter can take into the evening, so on a big whole-house job plan for that and keep a window ajar.
I rent a converted flat off Finchley Road. Can you do the end-of-tenancy clean?
Yes, and it is a big part of our work here, with more than a third of homes in this part of NW11 rented privately. We clean the carpets on or just before your move-out day and give you a dated receipt for the inventory clerk. If the shared stair carpet belongs to the freeholder, we can quote for it separately at £41 a flight.
Is a 1920s wool stair runner too old to clean?
Almost never. Wool that has been down since the house was young is usually tougher than it looks, and we clean it low-moisture, in place, so the treads underneath stay dry. We check the binding and the nosings first. Where the pile has worn through to the backing on the edge of a step, cleaning will brighten the runner but cannot rebuild it, and we point that out before we start.
Every clean comes with our re-clean guarantee: if a spot lifts back after we have gone, we return and put it right at no charge. We are fully insured, our cleaners are DBS-checked, and we have looked after homes across Golders Green and the rest of Barnet since 2009.
