Oven cleaning in Albany Park, DA5, and the 1930s streets either side of the station. Dip-tank method, seven days a week, single ovens from £77.
Albany Park station opened in July 1935 on the Dartford Loop Line, and the housebuilder who put up the streets around it is the reason the platforms are there at all. Trains still run to Charing Cross and Cannon Street, and the 229, 269 and B14 buses cover the rest.
One developer built almost all of it
New Ideal Homesteads laid out two estates here in the middle of the 1930s, Albany Park Estate and Royal Park Estate, on the old Tanyard and Hurst Farms that had belonged to the Vansittart family of nearby Foots Cray, and sold the houses cheaply to working-class families moving out of inner London. A brick semi went for £395 freehold, secured with a £1 deposit and repayments of twelve shillings and eightpence a week including rates, water and insurance. The layout repeats.
The cooker sits in a rear kitchen that has usually been rebuilt
A 1930s semi on Steynton Avenue, Dorchester Avenue or Stansted Crescent started with a narrow scullery at the back. Ninety years of extensions later, plenty of them run the full width of the house with a freestanding cooker in the middle of a run of units. That is where the width goes up from 60cm. A 90cm range in an extended Albany Park kitchen is £114, and every rack, shelf, tray and side runner comes out to the heated tank in the van.
Two rivers set the shape of the place
Albany Park stands on high ground between the valleys of the River Cray and the River Shuttle, midway between Sidcup and Bexley, with Foots Cray Meadows and the Millennium Woodland planted in 2001 on the southern side. Most houses here have a driveway or a kerb we can pull onto, which suits a van carrying a heated tank. Fixed price, no premium-area surcharge.
The whole price list
| Single oven | £77 |
| Double oven | £110 |
| Range cooker, 90cm | £114 |
| Two-oven AGA | £143 |
| Hob | £23–28 |
| Extractor hood | £28 |
| Microwave | £22 |
Asked around Norman Parade
How do I know whether mine counts as a double?
Two cavities behind two doors is a double, at £110. One cavity with a grill compartment is a single, at £77.
Do you take the door apart?
The glass is split where the design allows, so the film between the panes comes off rather than staying there looking clean from one side only.
What is left in my kitchen while you work?
Very little. The removable parts are out in the van soaking, and indoors it is the cavity, the fan cover and the glass, done by hand with non-caustic products.
How long does a single take?
About ninety minutes. The oven is heat-tested before we leave.
What customers tell us
I would certainly recommend this service, very efficient and good value for money. The young man did a great job and even cleaned the kitchen floor. Thank you.
Arrived promptly and did a great job cleaning the oven, hob and extractor. They look like new now and for a very reasonable price too.
Nice hardworking lads that always do a good job. We used them for our old flat when moving out and for the new one now, both jobs were done very professionally. My wife is very impressed with the results and would recommend them to friends and family.
Finding Albany Park
Nearby areas we cover
Coney Hall · Farringdon Within · Sanderstead · Royal Victoria · Southfields · Gunnersbury
Our London coverage
Bellingham Alperton Highbury Victoria Docks Plumstead Common Kidbrooke with Hornfair Bandonhill Aveley Farnborough and Crofton Roundshaw Crofton Park Enfield Chase Well Hill Docklands Greenwich Hextable St Mary Cray Walbrook East Twickenham Bromley Town Manor House Deptford St Nicholas Hunton Bridge Gordon Hill
Call 020 8077 5225 and the Albany Park price is fixed on the spot; typers can use the quote form instead.