St Johns station sits in a cutting below St John’s Vale, reached only by a footbridge, and a plaque on its wall remembers the 90 people killed in the Lewisham rail crash of 1957. Around it, shallow butterfly roofs and yellow stock brick mark the 1860s and 70s terraces of St Johns, SE4, on streets such as Tyrwhitt Road and Vesta Road. London Carpet Cleaning has cleaned them since 2009, with prices from £36 a room and carpets dry within 6 to 7 hours.
Butterfly roofs between Lewisham Way and the railway
St Johns is the wedge of SE4 and SE8 caught between Lewisham Way and the railway, where Deptford runs into Brockley. Most of the housing is Victorian: two-storey, two-bay terraces in yellow London stock brick, with bay windows, sash windows and the shallow butterfly roofs typical of the 1860s and 70s. The church that gave the place its name went up in 1855, and Lewisham made the St John’s conservation area in 1976 around the church and its neighbours, the Welsh Presbyterian chapel among them, with terraces of the same period and style as the neighbouring Brookmill Road conservation area. Brookmill Road carries an Article 4 direction, so its houses keep their original fronts.
The pattern on the ground is split. Whole family houses run along streets like Tyrwhitt Road, Cliffview Road and Albyn Road, while plenty of the larger places near St John’s Vale and Lewisham Way have been divided into flats and maisonettes. The station opened in June 1873 on the main line into central London. On the evening of 4 December 1957 two trains collided in thick fog just south of it, bringing down the bridge above; 90 people died, and the memorial is on the station wall. At the top of the hill, Hilly Fields opened in 1896 and gives one of the better views over the City from this side of the river.
Brockley East and St Johns, counted
| Homes that are | Share |
|---|---|
| Built before 1919 | 54.0% |
| Flats in converted houses | 30.7% |
| Two-bedroom homes | 40.3% |
| Rented privately | 35.9% |
| Rented from the council | 15.2% |
| Built 2000 or later | 24.0% |
The census pairs St Johns with the eastern side of Brockley, and the two share the same Victorian bones. More than half of homes (54.0%) went up before 1919, and almost a third (30.7%) are flats in converted houses. That is the St Johns job in a sentence: a flat on one floor of a terrace, a shared stair below it, wool or wool-blend on the landings.
Two bedrooms is the commonest size at 40.3%, and 35.9% of households rent privately, so moving-in and moving-out cleans make up much of the diary. The other end of the scale is new: 24.0% of homes date from 2000 or later. Where a whole terrace is still one house, three bedrooms, the front room and the stairs come to £192. Some 3.9% of homes have no central heating, and in those we leave the windows open a crack and the pile as dry as the machine allows.
Figures: ONS Census 2021 (Lewisham 008) and VOA council tax stock, March 2024.
Lewisham Way, side streets and the footbridge
Lewisham Way is the A20, one of the TfL red routes through the borough, so the van cannot stop on it; for the flats along it we park in the nearest side street and carry the kit round. Lewisham’s list of controlled zones has no St Johns zone. The nearest named zones are Elverson (G), controlled weekdays from 9am to 7pm, and Deptford South (DS), weekdays 9am to 5pm, so check the plate at the end of your road, and we time the visit or ask for a visitor permit to suit.
Most of the Victorian streets here have parking on both kerbs, and in the evenings they fill up. Our van carries its own water and power, so it only needs to be within hose reach for the hour or two we are there. The station itself is no help for parking, since it has no road access to the platforms. In a first-floor conversion we run the hose up the shared stair, so let your downstairs neighbour know we are coming.
Moving-in cleans and old dye marks
In the period houses it is mostly wool and wool-blend carpet on stairs and landings, plus a lot of original timber where the carpet only covers the half-landing. The job we get called for most is the moving-in clean: people take on a flat or a terrace, look at the previous owner’s carpet on the hall and stairs, and find years of grime ground into the weave. Pets and the odd party spill make up much of the rest, along with sofas that have soaked up cooking smells in a converted flat with one through-room. We clean almost all of it in place, low-moisture, so it is dry within 6 to 7 hours.
On wool that has held a deep red wine or curry stain for a long time we can lift it a long way, and usually all the way, but a dye mark left to dry and set for months is not always something any clean can fully reverse. Before we begin, we tell you how far we expect it to come.
How much does carpet cleaning cost in St Johns?
The price is fixed at booking, with no call-out fee, and the list is the one we use across Lewisham and the rest of London.
- 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
Get a free quote, or call us on 020 8077 8090.
Carpets, corner sofas and jute rugs
Our hot-water extraction work for carpets and stairs is covered on the steam carpet cleaning page, and we clean sofas, armchairs and dining chairs through upholstery cleaning, which suits the corner sofas common in the converted flats here. Loose rugs, including the jute and wool kinds that mark easily, get rug cleaning in the room, vacuumed and pre-treated first. If you are over the boundary in the rest of Lewisham, or nearby in Brockley or Crofton Park, we cover those streets on the same fixed prices.
Booking in St Johns
Which St Johns streets do you cover, from Lewisham Way to Vesta Road?
All of the SE4 part of St Johns and the SE8 streets that spill over towards Deptford and the station, including the terraces off Lewisham Way, St John’s Vale, Tyrwhitt Road and Vesta Road. The neighbouring Brockley, Ladywell and New Cross ends are on the same prices, so the boundary makes no difference to what you pay.
Parking is tight on these terraces. How do you manage?
Most of the Victorian streets here have parking on both kerbs, and there is no St Johns zone on Lewisham’s list, though Elverson and Deptford South are close by. Our van carries its own water and power, so we only need to be close enough to run a hose to your door. Tell us the road when you book and we will plan around any permit hours.
Do you do end-of-tenancy and moving-in carpet cleans?
Yes, and they are a big part of our work in St Johns, given how many flats and shared houses turn over near the station. We deep-clean halls, stairs and bedrooms to a standard that stands up to a check-out inventory, and we are happy to fit around a removal or a handover date when timing is tight.
How long do carpets take to dry in a St Johns conversion flat?
Most carpets are dry within 6 to 7 hours because we use a low-moisture method and never soak the pile. Heavy wool on a north-facing landing, or a converted flat near St John’s Vale with little airflow, can take a little longer, so we open things up and leave good ventilation before we go.
Can you work on a flat that faces Lewisham Way?
Yes. Lewisham Way is a red route, so the van parks in the nearest side street and we bring the kit to your door by hand. Tell us if the entrance is at the back of the building, since that can shorten the walk.
Do you clean the newer flats near the station?
Yes. About a quarter of homes in this census area were built in 2000 or later. New-build flats usually come with pale fitted carpet that shows traffic lanes fast, and a hot-water rinse brings it back to an even colour. Tell us the floor and the entry system when you book and we bring everything up in one trip.
If a spot we treated reappears, the re-clean guarantee has us back to deal with it at no cost. We are fully insured and DBS-checked, and we have cleaned carpets, sofas and rugs across St Johns and the rest of Lewisham since 2009.
