Brook Street keeps an unusually complete run of brick terraces built in 1882 and 1901, the later ones by Erith’s own council, now protected by a conservation area. London Carpet Cleaning has worked Northumberland Heath, DA8, since 2009, from those terraces to the cottage estate built for Vickers workers in 1916. Our fixed prices begin at £36 a room, and a cleaned carpet is dry within 6 to 7 hours.
A heath built over for Erith’s workers
For centuries this was common land; a deed of 1592 calls it Northumberlond Hethe, and as late as 1797 it was described as barren heath. A workhouse went up in 1805 near the western end of today’s Sussex Road (locals once called the area Spike Island after it), and in 1819 a post mill was built off what is now Mill Road; part of its base still survives and can be seen from St Paul’s Road. The 1841 census found 24 houses and 100 people. Then Erith’s riverside works took off, and the heath filled with terraced housing for the people who worked in them. The houses on the north side of Manor Road date from the 1860s, and by the 1880s terraces lined Brook Street, Mill Road and Bexley Road.
Brook Street is the best-kept run. Its two smaller terraces date from 1882, and the other four were laid out in 1901 by Erith Urban District Council, early municipal housing, with the recreation ground from the same years; the area has been the Brook Street Conservation Area since 1993. The Duchess of Kent pub was rebuilt there in 1903. The Vickers estate followed in 1916, round Colyers Lane, Barnehurst Avenue and Northway, built for workers at the armaments works, and Erith council began a large estate on Bexley Road in 1920. The 1930s added Carlton Road, Hurst Road and Parsonage Manorway. On 29 July 1944 a flying bomb fell at the junction of Hurst Road and Colyers Lane, and nine houses had to be demolished. The result is a tight grid of two- and three-bedroom houses with one flight of stairs, a small front garden and, on most streets, no drive.
No permit zones, but few drives
Northumberland Heath has no controlled parking. Bexley’s zones round Erith and Barnehurst stations stop short of it, and none of the terraced streets off Brook Street, Mill Road or Bexley Road is on the council’s list, so the kerb is free all day. The catch is space. The terraces went up decades before cars did, so we pull up as close to your door as the street allows and run the hose from there; it reaches a top-floor landing without fuss.
There is no station on the Heath itself. Barnehurst, on the Bexleyheath line, is about a mile away, and Erith and Slade Green sit down towards the river, so the van is how we arrive. In a terrace, the hall is narrow and the stairs start just inside the front door, so move bags and buggies out of the hall before we arrive and we can start at the top of the stairs.
Houses, mostly owned
| Homes | Share |
|---|---|
| Semi-detached houses | 28.3% |
| Terraced houses | 25.4% |
| Three bedrooms | 40.1% |
| Owned, outright or with a mortgage | 65.2% |
| Built before 1919 | 19.7% |
| Built 1945 to 1972 | 25.3% |
| Built 1973 to 1999 | 24.0% |
The census does not use the Heath’s name. Its neighbourhood here is Erith West, in Erith ward, which covers the Heath and the roads down towards Erith. Houses are the bulk of it, with semis at 28.3% and terraces at 25.4%, and 40.1% of homes have three bedrooms. Two-thirds of homes (65.2%) are owned, so most of our bookings are owners cleaning the carpets they live on. For a three-bed Heath house, the bedrooms, a through-lounge and the stairs total £210.
The ages are spread thin. Only 19.7% of homes were built before 1919, the Victorian and Edwardian terraces, while 25.3% date from 1945 to 1972 and 24.0% from 1973 to 1999, the post-war estates and later closes that replaced the market gardens and orchards. The old terraces have narrow stairs and small front rooms. Only 1.9% of homes lack central heating, so the heating on low dries a winter clean by the evening.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Bexley 005) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Cat sofas and grey stair lanes
The classic booking here is a whole-house visit: lounge, dining room, then the stairs and landing. Stairs work hardest in these terraces, one narrow flight carrying every trip to bed and back, so treads grey off long before the bedrooms do. We clean for plenty of cat households too, two-seaters and armchairs that have been slept on and sharpened on, along with mattresses, children’s singles and the wool rugs that suit a Victorian front room, which we clean in the room. Quite a few lounges turn out to be knock-throughs; where that changes the price, we say so before the machine comes off the van.
We are upfront about one thing. On a staircase that has carried the same carpet for fifteen years, the pale lane down the middle of each tread is mostly crushed and abraded pile. A deep clean lifts the soil and much of the grey, and the change surprises people, but it cannot put fibre back. We tell you on the doorstep which you are looking at.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in Northumberland Heath?
Prices are fixed, with no call-out fee, and the same in Northumberland Heath as across the rest of Bexley and every London borough.
- Carpet cleaning: from £36 per bedroom
- 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; mattress from £35
A two-bed flat or maisonette with a living room costs £115. Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
Terrace carpets, cat-proof upholstery
Most of our work in the area is hot water extraction carpet cleaning, the deep method that suits hard-wearing terrace carpets and end-of-tenancy jobs alike. Our upholstery cleaning covers sofas, armchairs, dining chairs and mattresses in the same visit, and our rug cleaning service cleans wool and delicate rugs in your home, with a photo first for anything very old. The same team covers the rest of Bexley, from the riverside down to the Kent border.
Questions from the Heath
Do you cover all of Northumberland Heath, from Brook Street to Bexley Road?
All of DA8 between the Erith boundary and the Bexleyheath side: the Victorian terraces off Brook Street, Mill Road and Bexley Road, the 1916 Vickers estate cottages and the post-war infill. The same local crew handles Erith and Colyers, so appointments are easy to line up.
Is parking a problem for the van on Northumberland Heath’s terraced streets?
Rarely. The streets here have no permit zone, so we pull up kerbside as close to your door as the street allows. The terraces off Brook Street and Mill Road went up decades before cars did, and most have no drive, so spaces can be tight, but our hoses run a long way and reach a top-floor landing without fuss.
Can you do anything about a sofa the cat has claimed?
Yes. We deep clean the fabric, lift the grubby line along the arms and treat odour at the source, using products that are safe around pets once dry. Snagged or pulled threads are damage, though, and no clean mends those, so we always say what is fixable first.
How long will carpets take to dry in a Northumberland Heath terrace?
dry within 6 to 7 hours is normal, because the machine extracts most of the moisture as it works. Solid-brick Victorian houses, like the Brook Street terraces, hold damp air in the colder months, so a winter clean can want an evening with the heating on and a window cracked. We advise room by room on the day.
My house is in the Brook Street Conservation Area. Do I need permission for anything?
Not for cleaning. The conservation area, designated in 1993, covers the outside of the terraces and the views between them, and a carpet clean is indoor maintenance. We take care of the original features inside: old floorboards at the edge of a fitted carpet get no water, and a painted stair string gets a towel against it while we work.
We live in one of the 1916 Vickers estate houses. Is the job any different?
A little. The Vickers houses round Colyers Lane and Northway are over a century old, so we test any wool carpet before choosing the water temperature, and we check the stair carpet fixings before we clean the treads. A three-bed house with a through-lounge and stairs is £210. Most rooms take up to 6 to 7 hours to dry.
Every job in Northumberland Heath comes with our re-clean guarantee: if anything bothers you within 24 hours, we return and put it right free of charge. Our cleaners are fully insured and DBS-checked, and we have cleaned London homes street by street since 2009.
