London Oven Cleaners clean ovens along the west end of Kensington High Street from £77. The oven is rebuilt and heated, and you look inside it before we leave.
On 30 May 1811 the second Lord Kensington signed an agreement with Louis Léon Changeur, an émigré Frenchman, to build houses on eleven acres on the south side of the road to Hammersmith. The land is now mostly Edwardes Square.
Edwardes Square's small Georgian houses
Earl's Terrace, the row of 25 houses facing the High Street, has four storeys over basements. The houses on the east and west sides of the square have three, and they are only 25 feet deep. By the standards of the time, the Survey of London says, they were extremely small, set round a garden of just over three acres that the Italian artist Agostino Aglio, who lived at No. 15, laid out with winding walks. Filling the houses was slow: of about eighty started between 1811 and 1813, five were occupied by 1813, and the scheme was only virtually complete in 1821.
Houses of this date usually had the kitchen in the basement. If yours still is, the racks, trays and side runners come out and are soaked and cleaned separately. The cavity, fan cover and door glass are degreased by hand in the kitchen, over dust sheets, and the door is split where its design allows.
Holland Green: 56 flats beside the Design Museum
Across the road, the Design Museum opened on 24 November 2016 in the former Commonwealth Institute, a Grade II* listed building of the 1960s. Built alongside it were three limestone-clad blocks called Holland Green, 56 flats of one to five bedrooms designed by OMA with Allies and Morrison, with parking in the basement.
Kitchens fitted in new flats at this level often include a pyrolytic oven. The two kinds of clean do different jobs:
- Pyrolytic cycle
- the empty oven heats itself to around 500°C and turns grease in the cavity to ash, which you wipe out. Racks and runners often have to come out first.
- Hand clean
- every removable part comes out and is soaked and cleaned separately, and the cavity, fan cover and door glass are degreased by hand; the door is split where its design allows.
The guide to pyrolytic self-cleaning and professional cleaning goes through when each makes sense.
Who lives at this end of the High Street
The census area on the north side of the street, which takes in Holland Green (Kensington and Chelsea 011E), had 562 households in 2021. More than half, 54.8%, rented privately; 42.2% owned and 3.0% rented from the council or a housing association. Just under half (47.3%) lived in a purpose-built block of flats and 26.7% in a terraced house. With that many private lets, there are plenty of tenancy checkouts. For those, the invoice can go to the letting agency, with photos for the checkout file on request and keys collected by arrangement.
What an oven clean costs on Kensington High Street
| Oven or appliance | Fixed price |
|---|---|
| Single ovenBuilt-in single: cavity, racks, door glass and seals. | £77 |
| Double ovenBoth cavities and doors, every rack soaked and cleaned. | £110 |
| Single wide ovenOne oven, wider than the standard 60cm. | £114 |
| Range cooker, 90cmThe whole cooker: every oven and the grill. | £143 |
| Range cooker, 100cm | £167 |
| Range hob or range hoodThe wide hob on a range, or the hood above it. | £48 |
| AGA, two-ovenCooled properly, cleaned, re-lit and checked. | £143 |
| AGA, four-oven | £187 |
| HobCeramic £23, gas £28. | £23–28 |
| Extractor hood | £28 |
| Microwave | £22 |
| Single oven, hob and extractorThe three together, one visit. | £117 |
| Double oven, hob and extractorThe three together, one visit. | £143 |
The price depends on the appliance, a single, a double, a 90cm range or an AGA, and nothing else. It is fixed on the phone before the visit. The station end of the street is covered on this page too.
Saturday parking on either side of the High Street
Kensington and Chelsea's map of controlled hours for single yellow lines, last issued in September 2024, splits this stretch in two. Edwardes Square and the streets off the north end of Earl's Court Road are shaded for control Monday to Saturday, 8.30am to 6.30pm. On the north side, Melbury Road, Holland Park Road and the Holland Green blocks have the other shading: 8.30am to 6.30pm on weekdays, but only until 1.30pm on Saturdays. The map says its information dates from April 2020, so the plate on your street is the one that counts.
During controlled hours a visitor has to use a pay-by-phone bay or a public car park. Those bays are free on Sundays across most of the borough, but the council's guide to parking excludes most of Holland ward, which takes in the north side of this end of the High Street.
Kensington High Street oven cleaning questions
Do you clean pyrolytic ovens?
Yes. A pyrolytic oven gets the same strip-down and hand clean as any other, and the self-clean setting is still there for you to use between visits.
Can you come on a Saturday?
Yes, seven days a week, and weekends cost the same as weekdays. Around Edwardes Square the single yellow lines stay controlled until 6.30pm on Saturdays, on the council's map, so tell us the street and we will plan the parking.
How long does a visit take?
A single oven takes about 90 minutes and a double about 2 hours. A 90cm range takes 2 to 3 hours.
Said after the sign-off
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.
Brilliant clean, my oven looks like brand new. A 5 star clean.
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.
Where Kensington High Street sits
Nearby areas we cover
Kensington and Chelsea · Holland Park · Kensington · Olympia · Earl's Court · West Kensington
Elsewhere in Kensington and Chelsea
Gloucester Road Notting Hill Gate South Kensington Notting Hill West Brompton Ladbroke Grove Brompton World's End Latimer Road Chelsea North Kensington Sloane Square Every Kensington and Chelsea area
Call 020 8077 5225 and the Kensington High Street price is fixed on the spot; typers can use the quote form instead.