Seven cast-iron Victorian gasholders, the largest surviving group in Britain, stand over Twelvetrees Crescent, close to where the Lea, Bow Creek and the Limehouse Cut meet, beside the office that housed the London Gas Museum. London Carpet Cleaning has worked this corner of Bromley-by-Bow, E3, since 2009, from the Three Waters flats to the older blocks off Gillender Street. Rooms are priced from £36, and the carpet dries within 6 to 7 hours.
The gasholders, the museum and the river
The Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company began its Bromley gasworks at Bow Creek in 1870, and nine gasholders were built north of the works between 1872 and 1878; seven survive. The works closed in 1976, the holders stopped storing gas in 2010, and they have been listed Grade II since 1984, each one individually since 2021. The London Gas Museum was kept in the company’s former office on the same site. Strictly, the holders and the old office are just over the Lea in West Ham, in the London Borough of Newham; the homes on this side of the water, on Twelvetrees Crescent and Gillender Street, are in Tower Hamlets.
There is no public access to the holders, but you see them from Twelvetrees Crescent and from the c2c trains. St William, part of the Berkeley Group, has full planning permission from Newham to restore the holders and re-erect them inside a scheme of 2,100 homes, so the skyline here will keep changing.
On the Tower Hamlets bank, Mount Anvil’s Three Waters at 24 Gillender Street opened its first homes in 2021: 307 flats, from studios to three bedrooms, with a concierge, about 600 metres from Bromley-by-Bow station. Around it are older terraces and ex-council flats on Gillender Street, Empson Street and Bow Common Lane, and the A12 Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach runs straight through the area.
Six homes in ten built since 2000
| Homes that are | Share |
|---|---|
| Built 2000 or later | 60.4% |
| Built before 1919 | 7.0% |
| Flats in purpose-built blocks | 81.2% |
| Rented privately | 31.9% |
| Three bedrooms | 24.2% |
| On a district or communal heat network | 12.1% |
The census area that holds Three Waters and the Tower Hamlets end of Twelvetrees Crescent is Poplar Leaside, running down the Lea towards Poplar. It is new: 60.4% of homes were built in 2000 or later, and only 7.0% before 1919. Flats in purpose-built blocks make up 81.2% of homes, so most jobs here are in a block with a lift and a managing agent.
Private renting accounts for 31.9% of homes, and the end-of-tenancy clean is a job we do often on Twelvetrees Crescent. Family flats are commoner than you might guess, with 24.2% of homes having three bedrooms; a three-bed flat, all three bedrooms and the living room, comes to £151. One home in eight (12.1%) takes its heat from a district or communal network, and those radiators dry a carpet well when the system is running.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Tower Hamlets 018) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Greying lanes on pale new-build carpet
Two jobs come up again and again here. In the new apartments it is greying traffic lanes on light carpet, where the colour holds but the fibre has flattened and dulled along the route from the front door to the sofa. In the older flats it is set-in marks, the tea spill by the armchair or the greasy patch on a fabric three-seater that has been there long enough to feel permanent. With the A12 so close, ground-in grit tracks indoors faster than on a quieter street, and that wears the traffic lanes down. Hot-water extraction lifts most of both, and a fresh-again finish is the usual result.
On a very pale new-build carpet, a long-standing greasy or oily mark, cooking oil or a dropped takeaway say, can come up most of the way but not always all of it once it has dyed the fibre. We tell you on the day what we expect to shift before we start.
Parking and lifts by the river
Parking here takes planning more than luck. This corner is in the council’s B zones, covering Bow and Poplar, where controls run 8.30am to 5.30pm on weekdays and on some streets on Saturdays too; the sign at the end of your road gives the exact hours. Tell us whether Three Waters or your building wants contractors booked in through the concierge.
Once we are parked, the lift does most of the work. Ask the concierge whether contractors use the service lift, and clear a path from the lift to your door. If the corridor carpet outside your flat is dirty too, that belongs to the building; we can quote the managing agent separately.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in London Gas Museum?
One fixed figure, agreed when you book, with no call-out fee, and the same list we use across Tower Hamlets and every 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
Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
Fabric sofas, loose rugs and fitted carpet
The core job is hot-water extraction carpet cleaning, the deep method that pulls dirt and moisture back out so the carpet is dry within 6 to 7 hours, never soaked. We also clean sofas and armchairs with fabric upholstery cleaning, and loose rugs are cleaned in the home as specialist rug cleaning, on the same visit as the carpets. We cover the rest of Tower Hamlets too, along with neighbouring Bromley-by-Bow and Fish Island further up the Lea.
Asked around Twelvetrees Crescent
Which streets around the old gasworks and Twelvetrees Crescent do you cover?
We cover the whole E3 pocket around the old gasworks and the former London Gas Museum building, including Twelvetrees Crescent, Gillender Street, Empson Street, St Leonards Street and Bow Common Lane, and the Newham side of the Lea. If you are in Three Waters or an older flat nearer Bromley-by-Bow station, you are well within our area and there is no travel charge.
Is parking a problem for the van near Bromley-by-Bow station?
Not usually. The older streets are in the council’s B zones, controlled 8.30am to 5.30pm on weekdays and on some streets on Saturdays, so we use a paid bay or a loading spot close by. If access is tight on your block, tell us and we will plan it.
Do you handle end-of-tenancy carpet cleaning for the new flats?
Yes, and it is a common booking on Twelvetrees Crescent and the surrounding apartments. Letting agents around here expect carpets cleaned to a professional standard at checkout, so we focus on the traffic lanes and any marks, and we can supply a dated receipt for your deposit return if your agent asks for one.
How long will a new-build carpet take to dry near the gasholders?
Most carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours, because hot-water extraction draws the water back out of the pile. The dense pale polypropylene in the new flats, laid over concrete, can sit at the longer end, so we open a window or leave a fan running, and you can walk on it carefully almost straight away.
I bought a shared-ownership flat at Three Waters. Is the carpet mine to clean?
Inside your flat, yes. The carpets in a shared-ownership home are yours to look after, so you book us directly; Peabody handled the shared-ownership homes at Three Waters, and the corridors and lobbies are the building’s responsibility. Check your lease if you are unsure, and keep our dated receipt with your paperwork.
Our flat has a balcony door. Does that help the carpet dry?
It does. Open the balcony door after we finish and a through-draught takes the last of the moisture out of the carpet faster than a fan. In winter, keep the door shut and the heating on instead. Bring any outdoor rug inside before we arrive if you want it cleaned too.
Every clean comes with our re-clean guarantee. If a treated area is not right, we come back and put it right at no extra cost. We are fully insured and DBS-checked, and we have cleaned carpets, sofas and rugs across this part of east London since 2009.
