Bellingham is SE6, the same postcode as Catford, and not a figure moves for it: £186 for the smallest team deep clean, £77 for a single oven, £243 for a two bedroom move-out and £23 per cleaner per hour on the weekly round. What does change is the shape of the housing. The London County Council built it as a cottage estate through the 1920s, which is why the brick semis and short terraces stand a long way back from the pavement, each with a path up to the door, a gate down one side and a garden that drops away in steps behind.
Thirty metres of hose is a normal day here
Kerb to back bedroom is a genuine walk on these plots, so the van comes onto the estate road itself rather than sitting out on the main one. Thirty metres of hose covers nearly every address here. What saves the day is the side gate, because it lets a machine reach the back of the house without ever crossing the hall, which is the reverse of the Corbett terraces a mile north where nothing gets through and the dirty water has to come back out of the front door. The stepped gardens are the awkward bit: kit gets carried down them rather than wheeled.
Room to work
The estate roads out here sit largely outside Lewisham’s controlled zones, so the van with the extraction machine can stay by the house for a long job.
A different build under the carpet
Some of these houses have suspended timber floors and others solid concrete, and a fair number of front rooms had carpet laid straight over old vinyl somewhere around the eighties. That vinyl stops moisture escaping downwards, so a carpet clean takes far longer to dry out. Two hours in socks turns into most of a day, and you will hear that before we start rather than after. Kitchens are small and at the back with a door straight to the garden, which suits oven work nicely, because the parts can go out that way and the mess never reaches the rest of the house.
The Ravensbourne runs past on its way north
The Ravensbourne passes through on its way up to Catford and Ladywell, and downstairs rooms in the roads closest to it stay damp deep into the winter. Front room carpets there can take a few days to dry right through. In winter we leave an air mover running for a couple of hours instead of telling you to open a window in the cold.
What people ring us for
A steady run of one off deep cleans, usually where a house has been let go for a while or a relative is moving in. The team ladder runs £186 for two cleaners over three hours up to £498 for three over six, and a three bedroom cottage-estate house with a downstairs extension is normally a £264 or £342 booking rather than the smallest one. Plenty of ovens. Fewer move-outs than we get at the station end of Catford, because more of the stock here is owner-occupied or let long term, though a three bedroom one is £339 when it comes up.
Getting out here
The station here sits one stop down the Hayes line from Catford Bridge, which means cleaners get to the estate without needing a car, while the van comes south on the A21. Nothing about the address changes a price. The same list carries on south over the Bromley boundary to Downham and north into the town centre on Rushey Green. Every figure is printed on the prices page. Ring 020 3129 2846 between 8am and 7pm on any day of the week.
Questions we get asked
Is Bellingham charged the same as Catford?
Yes, it is the same SE6 list. Two cleaners for three hours on a deep clean is £186 here exactly as it is anywhere else on the round, and a single oven is £77.
Can the van get close enough to the house?
It comes onto the estate road itself rather than waiting out on the main one. Thirty metres of hose covers the long front paths at nearly every address here. Where there is a side gate it helps enormously, since the machine never has to go through your hall at all.
Why do carpets take longer to dry on this estate?
Two things. Plenty of front rooms here have carpet sitting on top of old vinyl, which blocks moisture from going downwards, and the roads closest to the Ravensbourne stay damp all winter. Drying equipment comes with us for both.
Do you do weekly cleaning here as well?
Yes, £23 per cleaner per hour weekly or £24 fortnightly, with ironing at £12 an hour on top. The same cleaner stays on your house wherever the rota allows, and no visit is booked for less than three hours.
Prefer the phone? 020 3129 2846, 8am to 7pm.