Oven cleaning in the mansion blocks and flats around Marble Arch, W1, seven days a week. Single ovens are £77 and doubles £110, fixed on the phone.
The mansion blocks north of Portman Square
Most of the Georgian houses north of Portman Square came down and went back up as mansion blocks let on long leases, and that late-Victorian stock is where the bulk of our Marble Arch work sits. Cumberland Mansions is the shape of it. Porters on the door, a communal garden, and the kitchen tucked at the back where the servants' one used to be, which is why the room is often narrower than the flat's scale suggests and why a double in a chimney breast recess is an awkward lift. The Portman Estate runs 110 acres of this, leased to the family since 1532.
The other end is Marble Arch Place, an 18-storey tower facing Bryanston Street, where the ovens are new and barely used. Two different jobs on one street.
Getting a van near the arch
The arch sits on the junction of Oxford Street, Park Lane and Edgware Road, and both Park Lane and Edgware Road are TfL red routes where the van cannot stop. So we come in off the side streets. Seymour Street, Bryanston Street and Great Cumberland Place, laid out as an axis running from Bryanston Square to the arch, are the options. They fill by mid-morning.
The method
Racks, shelves, trays and side runners soak in a heated dip tank in the van. Cavity, fan cover and door glass are degreased by hand indoors with non-caustic products. Heat-tested and signed off before we leave.
The price list
A double oven in a Bryanston Street flat is £110, the same as one in Croydon. No W1 premium, no call-out fee inside the North and South Circular.
| Single oven | £77 |
| Double oven | £110 |
| Range cooker, 90cm | £114 |
| Two-oven AGA | £143 |
| Hob | £23–28 |
| Extractor hood | £28 |
| Microwave | £22 |
Questions
Do you clean AGAs around here?
Yes, though they are rare in a mansion block. Where one turns up it is a two-oven in a larger Bryanston Square house. That is £143.
My kitchen is tiny. Is there room to work?
Almost always. The bulky part happens in the van, which is the point of the dip tank. Indoors we need the oven, a tap and a socket.
Can you deal with the managing agent?
Yes. Long leases mean a lot of the calls here come through agents rather than residents. We are insured and DBS-checked.
Book a few days out. Check-out cleans get tighter, because the inventory clerk's slot is fixed and ours has to land before it. The oven has to be cold when we arrive.
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.
Very satisfied with the service. They were slightly late at first but I got a call from customer service to let me know, and it was all fine. The oven man, as he called himself, arrived and worked very hard for a couple of hours. My oven now looks like it has never been used.
Once again a great job guys, I will see you in a couple of months.
Marble Arch on the map
Nearby areas we cover
Farringdon · Tokyngton · Gidea Park · Shortlands · Borough · Richmond Hill
More of our London patch
Ruxley Piccadilly Circus Hatton Cross Monument Wembley Ockham Woolwich Common Maida Vale St Johns Chingford Mount South Acton Chaldon Oxford Circus Chelsfield and Pratts Bottom High Beach Wanstead Park Chislehurst Common Herongate Finsbury Park South Stifford Chelsfield Stepney Green Cheam Shoreditch
Call 020 8077 5225 and the Marble Arch price is fixed on the spot.