Longford grew up at a ford on the River Colne, and the name is said to come from its length, strung along the old Bath Road from the first bridge at Harmondsworth almost to Colnbrook. Timber-framed houses, 1739 cottages and 1930s houses share the street with flats let to Heathrow staff. London Carpet Cleaning charges from £36 a room in Longford, UB7, with carpets dry within 6 to 7 hours.
A coaching village the A4 left behind
Longford was a stop on the great road from London to Bath and Bristol, and between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries it kept four pubs going. Only two survive, the White Horse and the King’s Arms. The White Horse, Grade II listed and reputedly standing since 1534, is 16th-century timber framing behind 18th-century brick, and the white cottages set back behind it, Queen River Cottage and Willow Tree Cottage, are dated 1739. The village has never had a church of its own, so strictly it is a hamlet tied to Harmondsworth parish, and it has no station.
The village kept its character for two reasons. The A4 was built to bypass it, and the whole area was taken into the Green Belt in the 1930s. Hillingdon made it a conservation area in 1988, one of the first in the borough, protecting seven listed buildings and a listed wall. The 1930s left a mark of their own: the houses at 536 to 550 Bath Road brought front gardens, and a suburban look, to the old street. Two man-made rivers run through, the Longford River, dug for Charles I in 1638 to carry water to Hampton Court, and the older Duke of Northumberland’s River beside it.
Away from the old street, the housing is inter-war and post-war closes, then a good share of flats and houses let to Heathrow staff. That last group turns over fast and the carpets take heavy daily traffic. Getting about means the 81 or 423 bus along the Bath Road, or the car onto the A4 and the M4.
Longford and its neighbours in the census
| Homes that are | Share |
|---|---|
| Flats of any kind | 30.7% |
| One-bedroom homes | 22.8% |
| Terraced houses | 15.3% |
| Built 1973 to 1999 | 24.6% |
| Rented from the council or a housing association | 13.7% |
Longford is too small to have census figures of its own, so it is counted with Harmondsworth, Sipson and the airport. Within that area, almost a third of homes (30.7%) are flats, and 22.8% have a single bedroom, which is the market for the staff lets near the perimeter. A one-bed flat with its living room comes to £79, and the job is done well inside a morning.
The VOA count shows a later layer than the old street suggests: 24.6% of homes went up between 1973 and 1999, the closes and blocks built around the villages. Terraced houses make up 15.3%, and 13.7% of homes are rented from the council or a housing association. For carpets the split is simple. The cottages want low moisture and patience on old boards; the flats and newer houses want speed, because the next tenant is often moving in that week.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Hillingdon 031) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Move-outs and night shifts
So many households near the perimeter rent and move on that end-of-tenancy carpet is our most common Longford job, a landlord-ready clean down the hall and stairs before a deposit is signed off. Plenty of the people we clean for work shifts at Heathrow and sleep in the day, so we are used to working around a sleeping household and keeping the noise down while we bring a trodden-in hallway back.
In the settled homes it is family carpet worn into a grimy central path on the stairs, and fabric corner sofas that have taken a felt-tip or biro from a child. A pen mark on a sofa arm that has set, or old pet urine gone through to the underlay, we improve a great deal and very often clear, but we cannot always promise the very last faint shadow will lift. We tell you that before we start.
Parking on the old road
Because the A4 bypasses the village, the street through Longford is the old Bath Road and is quiet enough for the van to sit outside most homes; many have a frontage or a drive of their own. The A4 itself is a TfL red route as far as Longford, so if your home faces the main road or the hotel strip, we unload from a side road. In the timber-framed and cottage houses, doorways are narrow and stairs steep and tight, so we carry the kit in by hand and keep the hose run short.
The cottages in the conservation area often have old floors under the carpet, and the village sits on river ground that John Leland, in the 16th century, described as pasture subject to flooding in heavy rain. If a ground-floor room feels cool and damp, tell us, and we will clean it with less water and leave it longer to dry with the heating on. Clear the stairs and lift small rugs before we arrive.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Longford?
Longford pays exactly what the rest of Hillingdon pays, at a fixed price agreed in advance and with no call-out fee.
- Carpet, 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.
Our cleaning services in Longford
Most Longford bookings are hot-water extraction, our steam carpet cleaning, which rinses red wine and ground-in traffic back out of the pile. We clean fabric and leather settees and mattresses with our upholstery cleaning, the service for a corner sofa with a pen mark or a mattress after an accident, and we clean rugs in place for proper rug cleaning, wool included, anywhere across UB7. We cover the neighbouring Heathrow villages the same way, south to Harmondsworth and along to Sipson, and out across the rest of Hillingdon.
Longford questions
Do you cover all of Longford, from the Bath Road to the White Horse?
All of UB7: the Bath Road and Old Bath Road, the closes and lanes off them, and across the Longford River and the Duke of Northumberland’s River towards the White Horse. Harmondsworth, Sipson and West Drayton are on the same fixed prices. Gardens backing onto the Green Belt or the airport perimeter are well inside our area, with no charge for the visit.
My partner works Heathrow shifts and sleeps in the day. Can you keep the noise down?
Yes, and it is something we do often in Longford, where a lot of households run on airport shift patterns. We plan the order of rooms so we finish nearest the sleeper last, and the machine stays outside in the van with only the hose coming in. Tell us when you book which room to leave until the end.
Red wine went onto a beige carpet at a party. Should I treat it myself first?
Please do not scrub it or reach for salt and supermarket sprays, as that tends to spread the stain and drive it deeper into the pile. Blot gently with a clean white cloth, then message us and we will come quickly. On a fresh red-wine spill on a light carpet we usually lift it completely with hot-water extraction, drawing the colour up out of the fibres, and the sooner we reach it the cleaner the result.
Will the price change once you see the sofa or mattress?
Only if what we find differs from what was described, and we tell you before we start, never after. A mattress booked as a double that turns out to be a super king, or a two-seater that is really a large corner sofa, moves up a band by a few pounds, and we show you why. Nothing is added without your say, and the figure we agree is the figure you pay.
We are on the main road by the hotels. Can you park outside?
Probably not right outside. The A4 is a TfL red route up to Longford, and stopping is banned except in marked bays, so we park on the nearest side road or the old village street and walk the kit round. In the village itself, on the Old Bath Road, the van can usually sit at your frontage. Tell us your house number and we will plan it.
Our one-bed flat is let to airport staff. How fast can you turn it round between tenants?
Quickly. A one-bed flat with a living room is a short job, and the carpet is dry within 6 to 7 hours, so we can clean on the morning the last tenant leaves and have it ready for the afternoon. Book with the check-out and check-in times and we will fit the slot between them, with a dated receipt for the inventory.
If a treated spot in Longford is not right once dry, we come back and put it right at no charge under our re-clean guarantee. We are fully insured and DBS-checked, and we have cleaned across Longford and the wider Hillingdon since 2009.
