After builders cleaning in Wanstead, E11

Wanstead was still a village when Snaresbrook station opened in 1856. In the ten years from 1861 the parish nearly doubled, from 2,742 people to 5,119, and estates such as the Grove went up piece by piece from 1889. The council's appraisal notes that these late Victorian and Edwardian houses were large for the area, many of them semi-detached or detached, and that wartime bombs left gaps later filled with newer homes. The Valuation Office count for March 2025 matches: of homes with a recorded build date, 27.2% predate 1919, 32.6% are from between the wars and 20.3% from 1973 to 1999.

In a big period house the rooms are tall, so the crew's ladders (up to about 2 metres) reach the cornice in most rooms but not the top of a three-storey stairwell; we look at the photos and say before the day what we can reach. The dust also has more to sit on: deep skirtings, panelled doors, shutters, tiled hearths. Allow 3 cleaners for 4 hours (£392) for a 4-bed after a refurbishment, more if three bathrooms were redone.

Within the same 800 metres are the Grade I Church of St Mary, the Grade II* Christ Church by George Gilbert Scott (consecrated 1861) and Grade II* garden buildings in the back gardens of two village houses. Wanstead Park itself is a Grade II* registered park. Works to a listed house need listed building consent, and original fireplaces, floors and joinery are often boarded over while the builders work.

The crew lifts that protection only where you ask, cleans original plaster mouldings with a soft brush and a barely damp cloth, and tries a hidden corner before using any product on old stone or timber. Paint spots on old glass come off slowly or not at all; the crew tells you which. The same care applies to paint and labels off new windows where new double glazing went in behind the old frames.