Removals in South Harrow, HA2

From Roxeth to South Harrow: the homes we move here

For most of its history there was no South Harrow, only Roxeth. The Victoria County History of Middlesex describes Roxeth as a straggling hamlet along the road we now call Northolt Road, with farms and cottages spread down its length and a long green and common beside it. By 1759 one route, made up of Bessborough Road, Lower Road and Northolt Road, ran through the whole hamlet, linking Pinner and Harrow-on-the-Hill with Northolt. A pub called the Three Horse Shoes stood on the line of what is now Stanley Road. That old line of road is still the spine of the district, and it explains why the shops, the station and the busiest parking all sit along one street.

The change came with the railway. The District line opened an electric service from Park Royal to a new station called South Harrow in 1903, and Piccadilly line trains ran to South Harrow from 1932. Christ Church, which owned land here, sold its Roxeth estates between 1921 and 1933, and the county history says the open fields between Pinner and Roxeth were built up during the 1930s, so that South Harrow existed as a district in its own right by 1938. When someone tells us they are moving out of South Harrow today, they nearly always mean one of the homes built in or after that rush, on the streets either side of Northolt Road below Roxeth Hill. The sections below go through the kinds of home we see most, roughly in the order they were built.

The 1930s semis and short terraces

Most of South Harrow is private housing from the 1930s. The Harrow-on-the-Hill council drew up a residential scheme in 1933 with densities of 12 houses an acre or less, and the result is the familiar pattern of pairs of semis and short terraces set back behind front gardens. Houses of that age and type tend to share a layout: a hall with the stair rising from near the front door, two rooms downstairs that have often been knocked into one, three bedrooms and a box room upstairs, and in many cases a loft conversion added since.

Three things decide how long a move from one of these houses takes. The first is the stair: it is usually straight but tight at the turn onto the landing, so a king-size bed frame or a large wardrobe often comes down in pieces. The second is the loft room, which may be reached by a second, steeper stair and adds a full extra room to carry down. The third is the drive, where a front garden has become one. We want to know whether a Luton fits on it with the tail-lift down, or whether the van has to stand across the end of it. A drive also matters to Harrow Council, which says it rarely grants a parking dispensation to a household that has one. If you are unsure which size of vehicle your house needs, our notes on choosing between a transit, a Luton and a lorry set out how we size the load.

The 1920s cottage estates

Before the private builders arrived, the council had already put up homes for rent. The county history lists estates built under the housing acts of 1919 to 1925, including 272 houses on Eastcote Lane in Roxeth and the Honeybun estate of 202 houses and bungalows between Roxeth and Harrow Town. These are cottage-style houses rather than flats, built in groups along short roads and closes.

For a move, that means two things. Where houses face a green or a footpath rather than the road, the carry from the van is further than it looks on a map, so we ask how far your door is from the nearest place to park. And the bungalows on the Honeybun side suit a downsizing move, where an older owner is moving everything on one floor into a smaller home or a flat. We plan those with time to unpack the kitchen and make the bed on the day, and we can take away whatever is not coming.

Post-war flats and maisonettes

After 1945 the council built flats wherever it could find a site. The county history names three Harrow council estates in South Harrow: Alexandra Avenue (132 flats), Brookside (77 flats and houses) and a group of 46 flats and maisonettes on Northolt Road. Many blocks of that era were built with a shared stair and no lift. A maisonette can put your front door on an upper landing with a second stair inside the home, which means carrying every box up two flights rather than one.

Before we price one of these moves we ask for the block name, the floor, whether there is a lift and its inside size, and how far the entrance is from the nearest place the van can stop. Estate land has its own parking rules, covered in the section on parking further down. Our guide to a walk-up move with several flights and no lift explains how we pace a crew on the stairs and what you can pack differently to help.

Flats over the shops on Northolt Road

The shops around the station line the old village road, and many have a floor or two of flats above. The way in is usually a side door and a narrow stair. On the stretch of Northolt Road running north-east from the station, Harrow’s own map shows a loading restriction from 07:00 to 10:00 and from 16:00 to 19:00, Monday to Saturday, so a van cannot stand outside the shop door in the rush hours. We time those moves for the middle of the day or a Sunday, or load from the nearest side road or loading bay. Our note on moving into or out of a flat over a shop covers the stair and the timing in more detail.

Corbins Lane and the way in

Most of South Harrow is easy to drive round, with one exception that catches people out. Harrow Council’s records show a width restriction on Corbins Lane of 7 feet (2.13 metres), dating from 1985. A Luton van, mirrors included, is wider than that, so a removal van cannot take Corbins Lane as a short cut, and if your address is near it we plan the approach from the right end before the day. We check the route for every South Harrow address in the same way, so the driver is not finding a restriction with a full load on board.

Businesses, shopfronts and small offices

Not every move here is a house. The parade on Northolt Road is a mix of shops, cafés and small offices, and a business move is usually one unit or a few rooms rather than a whole floor. We plan those for an evening or a Sunday, when the loading restriction and the shoppers are both out of the way. Our office and business removals crews pack desks, stock and fittings, and our IT relocation team disconnects the computers and network and sets them up again at the new premises.

Packing, storage and the smaller jobs

A lot of the work here is smaller than a full house. A sofa and a few boxes going from a flat by the station to a semi in Rayners Lane, or a student’s room going home for the summer, is a job for our man and van service, priced by the load. When a sale completes before the next purchase is ready, our storage between completion dates holds everything until you have the keys. For a three-bedroom semi with a full loft, our packing crew can box the whole house the day before, so moving day is loading and nothing else. The whole of Greater London is inside the ULEZ, and our explainer on what ULEZ and the Congestion Charge add to a removal covers the cost of a route into the centre; anything that applies to your move is already in the fixed price.