Kentish Town station runs the Northern line and Thameslink from one building, and the bay-fronted terraces around it on Leighton Road, Lady Somerset Road and Fortess Road often hide a wool stair runner over the original boards. London Carpet Cleaning has worked Kentish Town, NW5, since 2009. Prices start from £36 a room with no call-out fee, and the carpet is usually dry within 6 to 7 hours.
Bay fronts, Kelly Street and the buried Fleet
Kentish Town is mostly Victorian, and the carpet in it tends to be older and better than people expect. The bay-fronted terraces on those roads were built for single families and now hold a mix of whole houses and period flat conversions, often with original boards and a wool stair runner laid over them. Camden’s Kentish Town Conservation Area takes in Torriano Cottages and the neighbouring houses on Leighton Road, and was extended along Leighton Road in 1991; north of it, Lady Somerset Road still has its traditional paving.
Kelly Street is the exception everyone photographs. It is a curved row of houses from the mid-nineteenth century, each painted a different colour, listed Grade II since 1974. Each house has two storeys over a semi-basement with an attic on top, behind a stucco front, which means steep, narrow stairs at every level.
Under the streets runs the River Fleet, in a culvert beneath Anglers Lane and the roads around it, and Kentish Town sits on the low ground it drained. The Northern line station on Kentish Town Road is on the High Barnet branch, Thameslink trains leave from the same building, and Kentish Town West, on Prince of Wales Road, is on the Mildmay line of the Overground. To the north, Murphy’s Yard, the 15-acre depot site off Highgate Road, has been planned for at least 750 homes, though the first application was withdrawn in 2022.
How many of these homes are still houses?
| Homes that are | Share |
|---|---|
| Terraced houses | 18.5% |
| Flats in converted houses | 36.4% |
| Flats in purpose-built blocks | 32.4% |
| Owned outright | 20.4% |
| Rented from the council or a housing association | 28.1% |
| Four or more bedrooms | 17.6% |
| Built before 1900 | 68.7% |
The ONS names this neighbourhood Tufnell Park West, though it starts on Leighton Road by the station. About a quarter of homes are still houses, mostly terraces (18.5%), more than in the census areas around Gospel Oak or Haverstock. The rest are flats, and flats in converted houses (36.4%) outnumber the purpose-built blocks (32.4%). The VOA puts 68.7% of homes before 1900, so a Kentish Town clean is nearly always on Victorian floors, with stairs.
The ownership figures explain the wool. One household in five (20.4%) owns outright, often people who have been here for decades, and that is where we find the good wool; 17.6% of homes have four or more bedrooms. For one of the Lady Somerset Road terraces, three bedrooms, the living room and the stairs, the bill is £192. Another 28.1% rent from the council or a housing association. Only 1.7% of homes lack central heating, so with the heating on low most carpets dry on time even in winter.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Camden 003) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Three parking zones and four-storey stairs
Kentish Town is split between Camden zones. East of Kentish Town Road, including Leighton Road, Lady Somerset Road, Fortess Road and the streets around Patshull Road, is CA-M, East Kentish Town. West of it, Anglers Lane, Willes Road and the streets towards Prince of Wales Road are CA-L, West Kentish Town. Kelly Street and Dalby Street, nearer Camden Town, fall in CA-F. A permit does not guarantee a bay outside your door, so we use a pay bay or shared bay nearby, run the hose from there, and cover the cost ourselves.
Kelly Street needs a little more planning. Inside there are four levels from semi-basement to attic, so we bring the kit in by hand and do the top floor first. In any of the terraces, clear the stairs and the hall of shoes and bags before we arrive, and move anything kept under the beds.
Decorators’ dust, party spills and deposit cleans
The common jobs split between family wear and work for renters. In the houses it is stairs and landings after the decorators have been through, living room carpets that have taken a spill at a party, and settees the children have got juice and crisps into. In the rented flats it is a full carpet clean before the deposit inspection.
The low ground has one effect worth knowing about. Garden flats and lower conversions near the old course of the Fleet can hold damp, and a carpet over a cold, damp floor can smell musty. A clean lifts the smell and the marks, but it cannot cure the damp causing it, and we say so on the day.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Kentish Town?
Every price is agreed before we come, with no call-out fee, and it is the same list we use in the rest of Camden and across 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
Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
Hot water for carpets, the same visit for rugs
Most homes here book hot-water extraction, explained in full on our steam carpet cleaning page. We also clean sofas, armchairs and dining chairs through our upholstery cleaning work, and we clean rugs in the house with our rug cleaning service, which suits the wool and patterned rugs people keep in these period front rooms. The same prices apply in the rest of Camden, including the nearby NW5 streets of Dartmouth Park and Gospel Oak.
What Kentish Town households ask
Do you cover all of Kentish Town NW5, Kelly Street included?
Yes, all of NW5, from the eastern terraces around Bartholomew Road and Patshull Road to the streets off Highgate Road and down towards Camden. The houses on Kelly Street, the shops on Kentish Town Road near the O2 Forum and the Talacre Gardens end by Dalby Street are all well inside the area we work every week.
Where will the van park when you come?
Kentish Town is mainly in two controlled parking zones, CA-L to the west and CA-M to the east, with Kelly Street and Dalby Street in Camden Town’s CA-F, and a permit does not guarantee a bay outside your door. We are used to it. We carry long hoses so we can run from a pay bay or a side street nearby, and we only need a short stop to unload.
Can you get red wine and pet accidents out of a carpet?
Often, yes. Fresh red wine and food spills lift well with the right treatment before extraction, and most pet accidents on carpet or a mattress clear with an enzyme treatment that breaks down the odour at the source. Older or set-in stains are not always fully reversible, so we give you our view on yours before we start.
How long do carpets take to dry in a Kentish Town garden flat?
Expect 6 to 7 hours before most carpets are dry; the extraction wand draws the water back up as it rinses. In a colder garden flat in one of the Victorian conversions, or in deep winter, allow a little longer and keep a window cracked. We tell you what to expect for your rooms before we pack up.
My garden flat carpet smells musty. Will a clean sort it out?
A clean takes out the smell that is in the carpet, and most customers notice the difference the same day. If the floor underneath is cold and damp, the smell can come back over the following weeks, because the cause is in the building. On the low ground around Anglers Lane we see this now and then, and we tell you if we suspect it before we begin.
Can you clean a Kelly Street house from the semi-basement to the attic?
Yes. These houses run over four levels, so there are usually three flights of stairs as well as the rooms, each priced at £41 a flight. The stairs are steep and narrow, so we carry the machine in by hand and run the hose up from the hall. Listed status does not change how a fitted carpet is cleaned.
Our re-clean guarantee backs every job, so a treated mark that shows again after drying gets a second visit free. The business is fully insured, our cleaners are DBS-checked, and we have worked across Kentish Town and the rest of Camden since 2009.
