The Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant sorting office stands on the site of Coldbath Fields Prison, and the surplus land round it now holds the 681 homes of Postmark. London Carpet Cleaning works across Mount Pleasant, EC1, from £36 a room, from new-build bedrooms to the mansion blocks on Rosebery Avenue. Rooms are usually dry within 6 to 7 hours.
From prison yard to postal quarter
Mount Pleasant sits on the Clerkenwell edge of EC1, where Farringdon Road meets Rosebery Avenue, a short walk from Exmouth Market. The name started as a joke. The fields here were once used as a rubbish tip, which locals called Mount Pleasant, and in 1794 the Middlesex House of Correction opened on the site, later known as Coldbath Fields Prison. It closed in 1885. The Post Office moved into part of it two years later, used the name Mount Pleasant from 1888 because staff did not want to work at a place called Cold Bath Fields, and took over the whole site in 1889.
For most of the last century this was a working postal quarter, so the homes fall into two camps. The first is new. On land the mail centre no longer needed, Taylor Wimpey’s Postmark scheme has added 681 homes in four phases, finished between 2021 and 2025: 345 on the Phoenix Place side in blocks of six to 13 storeys, and 336 on the Calthorpe Street side in blocks of three to 11. The scheme straddles the Camden and Islington border, so some flats have WC1 addresses and some EC1. The second camp is older Clerkenwell: warehouse and workshop conversions and mansion blocks along Rosebery Avenue, Amwell Street and the streets running up towards the Angel, many with wool carpet, bare boards and rugs laid over them.
Pale carpet, old wool
The Postmark flats bring one job again and again: light greige carpet that shows every mark, so a dropped glass of red or a stain tracked in by the front door stands out badly. We lift a lot of those, and on fresh carpet the results are usually excellent. The older conversions bring the other kind of work: wool bedroom carpet flattened in the walking lanes, stair carpet on the internal flights, and rugs that have picked up a musty note in storage and want a gentle clean in the room.
Time is the enemy of a stain. An old wine or tea mark that has been walked in and dried for months will often lift most of the way, but not every last trace. On a pale new-build carpet we can usually get a mark back to where you would not notice it in normal light, though a faint shadow can remain in low light from a window. We tell you what we expect before we start.
The census around the sorting office
| Homes that are | Share |
|---|---|
| Flats in purpose-built blocks | 77.0% |
| Rented privately | 35.9% |
| One-bedroom homes | 37.4% |
| Built before 1900 | 23.1% |
| Built in 2000 or later | 32.3% |
| Heated by electricity only | 18.2% |
The sorting office and the Islington side of Mount Pleasant fall in the census area the ONS calls Clerkenwell. Flats in purpose-built blocks make up 77.0% of its homes, and a third of the stock (32.3%) was built in 2000 or later, which is the new-build carpet we see so much of. The older Clerkenwell is still well represented, with 23.1% of homes built before 1900. Part of Postmark lies over the line in Camden, so those flats are counted in Camden’s figures and not here.
The flats are small and often rented. One-bedroom homes are the most common size (37.4%), and 35.9% of households rent privately, so move-outs and check-outs make up much of the work. Both bedrooms and the living room of a two-bed flat on Rosebery Avenue come to £115; a one-bed is less. Electric-only heating covers 18.2% of homes, and in those flats the carpet dries best with a window open or the ventilation turned up while we finish the other rooms.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Islington 022) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Parking and access round Farringdon Road
Farringdon Road is a Transport for London red route, so we never stop on it. On the Islington side, Rosebery Avenue and Exmouth Market are in Zone A, controlled from 8.30am to 6.30pm on weekdays and 8.30am to 1.30pm on Saturdays, with no match-day controls. We use a short-stay bay or a visitor voucher from you and carry the gear across. Exmouth Market trades from Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm, so for an address on the market itself we come in from the Rosebery Avenue end.
The Postmark blocks work differently. Some of them sit on the Camden side of the border, where Camden’s parking rules apply, so tell us the building name and we check the right council’s restrictions before the day. Ask the concierge or the building manager whether visitors and contractors can use a loading bay, and book the lift if the building asks residents to. In the older conversions, tell us the floor and whether the stair is narrow, so we can plan the carry.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Mount Pleasant?
No call-out fee applies, the price is agreed before the day, and one list covers Mount Pleasant, both sides of the Camden border 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
- Rug up to 3m² from £35
Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
What we bring to a Mount Pleasant flat
Our main job here is hot-water steam carpet cleaning, which flushes the soil out of the pile and leaves it dry within 6 to 7 hours, so a working flat is back in use the same day. We also clean sofas and armchairs through our upholstery cleaning service, and for anything laid loose we run a rug cleaning service in the home across EC1. We also cover neighbouring Clerkenwell and Saffron Hill, and the rest of Islington on the same prices.
Mount Pleasant questions
Which postcodes and streets do you cover around Mount Pleasant?
The whole EC1 side of Mount Pleasant, including the Postmark blocks off Farringdon Road, plus Rosebery Avenue, Exmouth Market, Amwell Street and the conversions running back towards Clerkenwell and the Angel. If you are just over the line in WC1 near the site, we reach that too. A quick check of your postcode confirms it in seconds.
Where do you park when you visit?
This is controlled parking with almost no free bays, so we never rely on a space outside your door. On the Islington streets we use a Zone A short-stay bay or your visitor voucher; for Postmark, tell us the building and we check whether it is on the Camden or Islington side and whether contractors can use a loading bay. Then we carry the gear across.
Can you clean the new pale carpets in the Postmark flats without wrecking them?
Yes. Fitted new-build carpet is usually polypropylene, which handles hot-water cleaning well and dries fast. We use the right amount of moisture for the pile, rinse it out and groom it, so there is no soapy residue left to attract dirt again. That matters most on a light colour, where any residue would grey the pile within weeks.
How long will the carpet take to dry in a Mount Pleasant flat?
Most carpets here are dry within 6 to 7 hours, and fully dry within a few. In the new-builds, turning the ventilation to boost speeds things up. Older ground-floor conversions along Rosebery Avenue and Amwell Street can take a little longer, so we open things up and can leave an air mover running if a room is slow.
My Postmark flat is on the Camden side. Do you still cover it?
Yes. The border runs through the scheme, and we clean on both sides of it at the same fixed prices. The only difference is parking: Camden and Islington set their own bays and hours, so give us your building name and we plan the van for the right council.
Is a one-bedroom flat worth a full clean before I move out?
Usually, yes. A one-bed with its living room is £79, and it covers the carpets an inventory clerk checks first. Most check-out reports look for traffic lanes and spots in the living room and by the bed, and those lift well on a newer carpet. Book it for the day the furniture is out, and keep the dated receipt for your landlord or agent.
If a spot you flagged comes back within a few days, our re-clean guarantee brings us back at no charge. The firm is fully insured, the cleaners are DBS-checked, and we have worked round the sorting office since 2009.
