John Palmer Roupell, a gold refiner living on Meymott Street, began laying out the two-storey brick terraces of Roupell Street in the 1820s, and by 1841 the street was complete. A few minutes north, 78 co-op flats sit above the shops of Oxo Tower Wharf. London Carpet Cleaning has worked across South Bank, SE1, since 2009, in both kinds of home, from £36 a room, with carpets dry within 6 to 7 hours.
Cottages behind Waterloo East, co-op flats by the river
South Bank is two kinds of home side by side, most of them in Lambeth. Tucked behind Waterloo East station is the Roupell Street Conservation Area, designated in 1976: Roupell Street, Theed Street and Whittlesey Street, rows of modest two-storey terraces in London stock brick, with corner shops and pubs, built for working families from the 1820s into the 1840s. The railway viaduct went up along their southern edge in the 1860s. Many of the houses were listed grade II in the mid-1970s, so the fronts look much as they did. Inside, the staircases are steep and narrow and the front doors open straight onto the pavement.
A few minutes north, towards Upper Ground and the river, the housing turns to flats. Coin Street Community Builders, set up in 1984, turned a largely derelict 13-acre site into homes, Gabriel’s Wharf, Bernie Spain Gardens and the shops and studios of Oxo Tower Wharf, and set up four housing co-operatives: Mulberry, Palm, Redwood and Iroko. Palm, on Broadwall, was finished in 1994 and Iroko in 2001. Redwood leases the 78 flats inside Oxo Tower Wharf, from one-bedroom flats to a handful with three bedrooms, and most are reached by lift.
Waterloo, Waterloo East and Southwark station on the Jubilee line are all within a few minutes’ walk. A cleaner heading to a job on Cornwall Road or Hatfields walks past Gabriel’s Wharf and the National Theatre to get there. The borough line runs just east of the Coin Street blocks, so Oxo Tower Wharf itself, and Bankside beyond it, are in Southwark.
Steep cottage stairs and upper-floor flats
The work splits by the kind of home. In the conservation-area cottages it is almost always stairs and a front room: tight period staircases that take a beating, and wool that has been down for years. We work right into the edges and the skirting line, which is where a narrow flight shows its age first. Set-in coffee and red wine come out of these front rooms more often than people expect. In the co-op and tower flats it is upholstery and one or two bedrooms, with the odd mattress.
On a still day a flat several floors up with the windows shut can hold its damp longer than the usual 6 to 7 hours, above all a thick mattress or a heavy wool rug. We turn up the extraction to pull out as much moisture as we can, and if you can open a window or run the heating for the evening, a slow-drying upper-floor job finishes sooner.
South Bank homes in census figures
| Homes that are | Share |
|---|---|
| Flats of any kind | 88.5% |
| Terraced houses | 8.9% |
| Rented from the council or a housing association | 37.0% |
| Rented privately | 40.7% |
| One-bedroom homes | 35.5% |
| Built before 1900 | 18.7% |
| Built 1973 to 1999 | 23.8% |
The census area for the South Bank runs from Lambeth North to Waterloo and the river. Terraced houses are only 8.9% of homes, the Roupell Street cottages among them; with other Victorian buildings they make up the 18.7% of homes built before 1900. Those are the wool-and-stairs jobs. The 1973 to 1999 period, at 23.8%, covers the first Coin Street co-ops and the council blocks of those years, and the rest is mostly newer flats.
Renting is the norm. Private tenants hold 40.7% of homes, so move-out cleans with a receipt for the agent are steady work, and 37.0% rent from the council or a housing association, the co-ops among them. Homes are small, with 35.5% having one bedroom. A two-bedroom co-op flat with its living room comes to £115, and a two-bed cottage with its stairs is not much more.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Lambeth 036) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Parking in the Waterloo zone
Waterloo is Lambeth’s dearest controlled parking zone: in the council’s 2025/26 charges it costs more per hour than any other zone in the borough. Across Lambeth’s zones, single yellow lines are generally controlled from 8.30am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, unless a plate says otherwise. The conservation-area streets are narrow and on-street only, with no drives to pull onto, so a visitor permit from you, or a paid bay booked for the morning, makes the day much easier.
Our gear is portable, and the van does not need to sit outside for the whole visit once the kit is in. In the Coin Street blocks and Oxo Tower Wharf the kit comes up in the lift; tell us the building and the floor. In a cottage, clear the narrow hall and the stairs of shoes and bags, because the hose runs straight up them.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in South Bank?
Prices are fixed before we arrive, with no call-out fee, and you pay the same in Lambeth as in every other London borough.
- 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 for your rooms, or call 020 8077 8090 for a price on the spot.
Carpets, upholstery and rugs we clean in SE1
Most cottage jobs are hot-water extraction, our steam carpet cleaning, which suits the older wool on these stairs and in the front rooms. For the corner settees and tired sofa arms in the riverside flats we bring upholstery cleaning to the door. A wool rug that has had a glass of red tipped over it is cleaned where it lies through rug cleaning, the wine pre-treated before the rinse. For the rest of the borough, see our Lambeth carpet cleaning page.
Before we come to the South Bank
Which South Bank streets do you cover, from Roupell Street to Upper Ground?
All of SE1 on the South Bank side, including the Roupell Street conservation area, Theed Street, Cornwall Road, Hatfields, Stamford Street, Upper Ground and the Coin Street and Oxo Tower flats. If you are near Waterloo, Southwark station or Blackfriars Bridge, you are inside our patch. Tell us the postcode and we will confirm a slot.
Where do you park on the cottage streets?
The conservation streets are narrow and on-street only, inside Lambeth’s Waterloo zone, so there is no drive to pull onto. Our gear is portable, and once it is unloaded the van can move on. A nearby bay or a visitor permit helps us unload, and we plan tight roads like Roupell Street and Theed Street round the daytime restrictions.
Can you clean upholstery and mattresses in an upper-floor flat?
Yes. The kit comes up in the lift, so a sofa, a mattress or a couple of bedrooms in an Iroko, Mulberry or Oxo Tower flat is no problem. Mattresses and thick rugs hold moisture longest, so we book those earlier in the day where we can and ask you to air the room afterwards.
How long before I can use the room again?
Most carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours, and sofas take 10 to 12 hours. Until then keep to clean socks, not shoes, on the carpet. A heavy wool rug or a deep mattress takes longer, most of all in a closed flat several floors up, and a mattress needs about 24 hours. Open a window or put the heating on and it helps.
My cottage on Roupell Street is listed. Does that change the clean?
Not the method. Listing protects the building, and a carpet clean does not alter it. What matters is the age of the stairs: we clean a runner or fitted stair carpet in place, keep the water low near old timber and painted strings, and finish the edges by hand. Wool can take a little longer than the usual 6 to 7 hours, so keep a window open.
Is the South Bank in Lambeth or Southwark?
Both. Roupell Street, Waterloo, Upper Ground and the Coin Street blocks on Broadwall are in Lambeth; the borough line runs just east of them, so Oxo Tower Wharf and Bankside are in Southwark. It makes no difference to us. The prices and the team are the same, and only the parking zone changes.
Should a treated area not come up right, our re-clean guarantee means a free return visit to put it straight. We are fully insured and DBS-checked, and we have cleaned across the South Bank and the rest of Lambeth since 2009.
