Removals in Ickenham UB10

Ickenham removals: what the old parish was built as, street by street

The old parish of Ickenham lay between the River Pinn to the west and the Yeading Brook to the east, about two miles north-east of Uxbridge. Until the 1930s no main road crossed it. Long Lane ran north to Ruislip and south to Hillingdon, Back Lane led west past the church towards Uxbridge, and the village itself stood where the two met, round a roughly triangular space with the pump and the pond in the middle. The Metropolitan line reached Uxbridge in 1904, a station opened on Glebe Lane the following year, and Piccadilly line trains began running through in 1933. Western Avenue, the arterial road to Oxford, was cut through the south of the parish in 1934.

What turned the village into a suburb was the sale of most of the Swakeleys estate in 1922. The Victoria County History account of Ickenham traces the change: by 1934 Swakeleys Road was lined with houses on both sides, flats and larger houses had gone up near Swakeleys House and along Long Lane, and detached houses were about to be built round a green at Milton Court. Thirty years later the parade of shops had been extended, a large estate of private houses had been laid out north of Swakeleys Road, and new suburban streets had spread south of Glebe Avenue over the old open fields. These are the homes we are asked to move most often in Ickenham, and what each one changes on the day.

The old village round the pump

The Ickenham Village conservation area was designated in January 1970 and extended in 1983, 1990 and 2008. It holds three Grade I buildings, Swakeleys, its outbuildings and Ickenham Manor, along with St Giles's church, the pump on its island, Gell's Almshouses, the Home Farmhouse and the Coach and Horses. A few of the homes here are old cottages: Risdale Cottages on The Green, Appletree Cottage and Swakeley Cottage, the former lodge on the corner of The Avenue. Others are converted outbuildings, such as the stable block of The Buntings, which the County History records as surviving as two dwellings.

An old cottage is a different job from the houses round it. Doorways can be low, a staircase can turn sharply between floors, and furniture that came in before an extension was built may not go out the same way. We ask for photographs of the stair and the front door before quoting, and plan which pieces are taken apart in the room. If something came in through a window, our notes on getting a piece out when it is wider than the door explain the options.

Swakeleys Road and the interwar houses

Swakeleys Road was called Back Lane before the estate was broken up, and by 1934 it was lined with houses on both sides, with residential roads running off it. The shops at the old village centre were built along its south side and later extended into a longer parade. Many of the homes we move here are semi-detached or detached houses with a front drive, a loft and a garage, and some have been extended at the back or into the roof.

The kerb is rarely the problem on these roads. Volume is. A family that has lived in a four-bedroom Swakeleys Road house for twenty years usually has a loft full of boxes, a garage of tools and bikes and a shed at the end of the garden, and none of that shows up in a bedroom count. We ask about each one when we quote, and if you have time before the day, our guide to clearing out before a house move is the cheapest way to bring the price down. For a flat above one of the Swakeleys Road shops, the question is the side door and the stair, and the bays out front are short-stay parking.

Milton Court, Long Lane and the flats near Swakeleys House

The more expensive houses of the 1930s were set round a green at Milton Court, and larger houses and blocks of flats were built near Swakeleys House and along Long Lane. Heath House on Milton Road is on Hillingdon's local list of buildings of interest. Long Lane is still the main road north and south through Ickenham, carrying traffic between Ruislip and Hillingdon past the village centre.

For a detached house round the green, we plan the crew around the size of the house and the length of the drive. For a flat in one of the blocks, we want the floor, whether there is a lift, and where a van can stand that is legal and close to the entrance, since a block's own car park often belongs to the residents' cars. On Long Lane itself the van needs to be off the main carriageway, so we look for the side road or the service area first.

North of Swakeleys Road and south of Glebe Avenue

By the early 1960s a large estate of private houses had been laid out north of Swakeleys Road, on land that had held the rectory and Ivy House Farm, both demolished for it. South of Glebe Avenue, more suburban streets were laid out over the fields that were inclosed in 1780. For a move, these streets mostly mean family houses with gardens, and often a drive and a garage as well.

Many of the people we move from these streets have been in the same house a long time and are leaving for something smaller, or helping a parent do the same. That kind of move usually needs more packing time than lifting time, and some of what is in the house goes to family, to storage or to a charity rather than to the new address. Our guide to moving an elderly parent out of a family home covers how we split one house across several destinations on the same day.

Glebe Avenue and the station

Glebe Avenue was Glebe Lane until it was built up, and the station still stands on it. The road runs from the old village past Ickenham Hall, a Grade II house with a walled forecourt, and the locally listed villas at 61 to 67 Glebe Avenue. The houses at the east end were already there by 1934, and by the 1960s houses lined most of the avenue. Several of the streets around it are inside Hillingdon's Ickenham parking scheme, which is set out further down this page.

Ickenham is well outside the Congestion Charge zone, and the whole of Greater London has been in the ULEZ since August 2023, so a move within UB10 pays neither charge for our vans. If the load is going into central London, our note on what the ULEZ and Congestion Charge rules mean for a removal van sets out how that is priced.

Call 020 3983 5199 with the street, the number of bedrooms and what is in the loft and the garage, and we will work out a price from that.

Ickenham removal prices

Use these bands as a starting point. The figure we confirm is fixed once the loft, the garage and the parking are known.

Guide figures only. A four-bedroom house with a full loft, a garage and a garden building usually sits towards the top of its band, whatever its postcode.

Districts around Ickenham

Each of these neighbours has a page of its own: