London Oven Cleaners clean ovens in Upper Shirley from £77, with the price fixed on the phone. You look inside the lit oven before we leave, and any missed corner gets done.
Shirley Windmill, off Upper Shirley Road, is a five-storey brick tower mill built in 1854 to replace a post mill that had burnt down; Historic England's listing calls it probably the last large windmill built in Surrey.
Postmill Close and the houses round the windmill
Croydon Corporation acquired the mill and the land next to it in 1951, and John Ruskin School was built there. The school was demolished in 1990, and Postmill Close and the houses round the mill were built afterwards. A house of that age was usually built with a fitted kitchen and a built-in oven.
A few listed buildings survive from before the 1920s houses. Nos 110 and 112 are a listed pair of late 18th-century stuccoed houses, probably all that is left of a longer terrace, and St John's church on Shirley Church Road, a flint church by Sir Gilbert Scott, has in its churchyard a marble table tomb of about 1870 to John Ruskin's parents, probably designed by Ruskin himself. The Wickham Road side of the area, with its interwar estates, is on the Shirley page.
Big houses on the old drive to Addington Palace
Bishop's Walk was once the main drive to Addington Palace from the north. When the palace park was sold to two golf clubs in 1913, the first houses went up in the 1920s along Bishop's Walk, Upper Shirley Road and the new roads of Pine Coombe and Birch Hill. Croydon made the area a Local Heritage Area: large, individually designed houses, mostly of the 1930s and 1940s, set deep in their plots among pines and rhododendrons, on lanes with no pavements, where painted stones mark the edge of the carriageway.
In the census area (Croydon 026C) that takes in Sandpits Road, Bishop's Walk and Pine Coombe, and the Addington Village roads to the east, 46.4% of the 612 households lived in a detached house at the 2021 Census and 36.9% in a semi. 87.0% owned their home, and 49.4% owned it outright. Kitchens in houses this size are more likely than most to have a 90cm range cooker or an AGA.
A 90cm range or an AGA: what changes
- 90cm range cooker
- Two ovens side by side (or one wide oven and a narrow one) under a wide hob. £143, about 2 to 3 hours on site.
- Two-oven AGA
- A cast-iron heat-storage cooker that is normally left on. It has to be switched off the night before so it is cool when we arrive. £143, about half a day.
The range oven cleaning page goes through a range in more detail. Either way the racks and trays come out and are soaked and cleaned separately, and the cavities and door glass are degreased by hand indoors.
Oven cleaning prices in Upper Shirley
| 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 |
Each appliance has one price, and the figure agreed on the phone is the one you pay.
Getting the van to a house set back from the lane
Croydon's list of 20 parking zones has no Shirley zone, though any local signs still apply. The issue is distance. Croydon's character appraisal says many houses here are set back and reached by a drive through their grounds, and the heritage review says the Bishop's Walk lanes have no formal footways. If the van can come onto the drive, say so when you book; if not, tell us how far the kitchen is from the road.
Upper Shirley oven cleaning questions
We have an AGA in a house on Pine Coombe. What do we need to do?
Switch it off the night before so it has cooled by the morning. The clean takes about half a day and costs £143 for a two-oven AGA.
Can the hob on top of the range be done at the same visit?
Yes. The hob or hood of a range cooker is £48, added to the range price.
Is it dearer because the house is big?
No. The price is set by the appliance, not by the size of the house: a single oven is £77.
How do I know if my range is 90cm or 100cm?
Measure across the front. A 100cm range is £167; a 90cm range is £143.
Reviews from our rounds
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.
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.
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 Upper Shirley sits
Nearby areas we cover
Shirley · Heathfield · Selsdon and Ballards · Addington · Addiscombe · Ashburton
Elsewhere in Croydon
Coombe Forestdale Monks Orchard Woodside Selsdon South Croydon East Croydon Fairfield Sanderstead South Norwood West Croydon Purley Oaks Selhurst Waddon Broad Green Purley New Addington Riddlesdown Every Croydon area
To book in Upper Shirley: 020 8077 5225 any day, or send the quote form and we ring you back.