The gate that gave Moorgate, EC2, its name came down in 1762, and the street was laid out in 1834; today the homes are at its northern edge, where the Barbican’s 2,014 flats and the 559 homes of Golden Lane house some 5,500 people between them. Almost everything else is offices. London Carpet Cleaning has cleaned both since 2009, charging from £36 a room, with carpets back to dry within 6 to 7 hours.
Offices on the street, two estates at the top
Moorgate was the last of the City’s northern gates to be built, a small postern in the wall that led out to the marshy Moorfields; it was rebuilt larger after 1415, demolished in 1762, and its name passed to the street laid out in 1834. Most of the district is still a workplace: the floors along Moorfields and South Place, the tower at 22 Ropemaker Street, the older stock around Coleman Street. The carpet we clean here reflects that, with a good deal of it in receptions and meeting rooms.
The homes are at the top end. The Barbican, built between 1965 and 1976 by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon and listed Grade II, holds about 4,000 people in 2,014 flats. Just north of it is Golden Lane Estate, the same architects’ earlier council scheme, opened in phases from 1957 and finished in 1962. It has 559 studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom homes for around 1,500 people, and it has been listed since 1997, at Grade II except for Crescent House, which is Grade II*.
Moorgate station runs the Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and Northern lines, plus Great Northern trains out to Hertfordshire, and a newer ticket hall links it to the Elizabeth line at Liverpool Street. That is why the desks fill fast on a Monday and the carpet takes a beating by Friday.
Moorgate’s homes in census figures
| Homes that are | Share |
|---|---|
| Purpose-built flats | 87.0% |
| Rented from the council or a housing association | 14.9% |
| Owned outright | 22.7% |
| Three-bedroom homes | 10.6% |
| Built 1945 to 1972 | 40.1% |
| Built 1973 to 1999 | 10.9% |
The census treats the City as a single area, and the two estates at Moorgate’s northern edge make up a large share of its homes. The VOA count shows it: 40.1% of City homes date from 1945 to 1972, the years of Golden Lane and the first Barbican blocks, and 10.9% from 1973 to 1999, when the Barbican was finished. Purpose-built flats make up 87.0%. In practice that means lifts, long corridors and flats on one level, with very few stairs to clean.
The tenure figures split along the same line. Social landlords, the Corporation among them, house 14.9% of City households, many of them on Golden Lane and the Corporation’s other estates. At the other end, 22.7% are owned outright, many by long-standing Barbican residents, and 10.6% have three bedrooms. For a three-bed with its living room and one flight of stairs, the kind of maisonette some of these blocks hold, the bill is £192.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (City of London 001) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Evenings, weekends and the parking clock
City parking is controlled until 7pm on weekdays and until 11am on Saturday, and the congestion charge stops at 6pm every day, starting at 7am on weekdays and at noon at weekends. An office clean that starts after 7pm on a weekday misses both, which is one reason most of our Moorgate commercial work happens in the evening. On a bank holiday the City does not enforce its pay-and-display bays or single yellow lines, which helps for a long office job.
For homes, we plan around the estates. Barbican parking is at the edge of the estate, below podium level, and we bring the kit up through the highwalks and lifts; the estate asks contractors to work from 9am to 5pm on weekdays, so Barbican flats get a weekday slot. For an office, ask your building manager for the loading bay and the goods lift, and clear desks and bins off the carpet the evening before.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Moorgate?
Fixed prices, agreed in advance and free of any call-out charge, and they do not change between the City and the rest of 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.
Reception carpet, boardroom chairs and Barbican rugs
Most jobs here are our hot-water extraction carpet cleaning, which rinses the detergent back out so the pile is dry within 6 to 7 hours. For sofas, office suites and boardroom chairs we use fabric-safe upholstery cleaning, and a stained rug from a Barbican flat can go out for specialist rug cleaning and come back a few days later with the wine or the spill gone.
Two jobs come up again and again in the offices. The first is reception and open-plan carpet: coffee rings by the machine, biro marks, and grey lanes worn into the route to the lifts. The second is the client-lounge sofa that catches a soy sauce spill, and heavy curtains gone musty in a room nobody airs. A hot-water clean lifts the coffee, the ink and the grime, and the carpet looks fresh again, though a lane walked by a hundred people a day will grey again within months. For those routes, a clean two or three times a year works better than one big clean that has to last. We work the same way across the rest of the City of London, and reach nearby Liverpool Street and Bank on the same round.
Moorgate, Barbican and Golden Lane: your questions
Do you cover the Barbican and the offices around Moorgate station?
Yes. We cover the EC2 core around Moorgate: Finsbury Pavement, Moorfields, South Place, Ropemaker Street, Eldon Street and Coleman Street, plus the Barbican towers and terrace blocks in EC2Y. We also reach Broadgate and the streets down towards Bank and Liverpool Street, so most City addresses fall inside our normal round.
Can you park, and how do you reach a Barbican flat?
The City is a controlled parking zone and the congestion charge applies 7am to 6pm Monday to Friday and midday to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays, so we plan around both. Barbican parking sits below podium level, and we bring our kit up through the highwalks and lifts, so an upper-floor flat is no problem.
Do you clean offices out of hours?
Yes, and most of our Moorgate commercial work is booked that way. We come in the evening or at a weekend, clean the reception, corridors and open-plan floors while the office is empty, and provide a cleaning certificate for your facilities team. The carpet is dry and the desks are back in use before the next working day.
How long does the carpet take to dry?
Usually 6 to 7 hours for a normal office or flat carpet, because extraction pulls most of the moisture straight back out. A heavy commercial floor or a thick wool pile can take longer, so on a big open-plan job we keep people off the cleaned area until it has dried, and an evening clean dries overnight.
Do you clean flats on the Golden Lane Estate?
Yes. Most of Golden Lane’s 559 homes are studios and one-bedroom flats, so a visit is short. The listing covers the buildings and their fabric, and cleaning a fitted carpet needs no permission. Tenants can book us directly, and if the landlord is paying, the receipt goes out in their name.
Is an evening slot really better for an office?
Usually. After 7pm on a weekday the City’s parking controls have ended and the congestion charge stopped at 6pm, so the van can sit close to your loading bay and the kit goes in quickly. The floor then has the whole night to dry. Saturday afternoons work just as well if your building is open.
Spots that resurface after a clean are re-treated free; that is the re-clean guarantee on every Moorgate job, office or flat. Our staff are insured and DBS-checked, and our vans have worked between the Barbican and Bank since 2009.
