Removals in Kensington W8, from Campden Hill to Edwardes Square

House removals Kensington: the four kinds of W8 move

This page is about W8, the Kensington postcode. Holland Park, Notting Hill, South Kensington and Earl’s Court each have their own page, linked lower down. Inside W8 the moves we plan fall into four groups, and the group decides the vehicle, the size of the crew and how early the paperwork has to start.

Campden Hill and the streets north of the high street. Between Kensington High Street and Notting Hill Gate the ground rises, and the houses rise with it: Phillimore Gardens, Upper Phillimore Gardens, Campden Hill Square and the roads off Campden Hill Road are mostly large Victorian houses on four or five floors, many with a basement and a flight of steps up to the front door. These are the biggest house moves in the postcode. A five-bedroom house here is a full day for a large crew, and the slope matters: furniture going down the steps of a house on Campden Hill Square is carried on a gradient, so we put more people on the carry rather than rush it. The narrower lanes behind Kensington Church Street, such as Gordon Place and Holland Street, are where we usually send a Luton rather than a lorry.

Mansion flats near Kensington Gardens. Kensington Court, De Vere Gardens and the streets between the high street and the park are dominated by late Victorian red-brick and stucco blocks divided into large flats. Here the street is rarely the problem; the building is. Most have a porter or a managing agent who sets the rules: which entrance removals use, whether the passenger lift can be used or only the service lift, which hours are allowed and what insurance the remover must show. We ask for the block name and the agent’s contact at the quote stage, send our certificate of insurance and agree the lift time in writing. Our guide to moving into a block of flats in London lists the questions to put to an agent before you book any remover.

Edwardes Square, Scarsdale and Abingdon. South of the high street, around Edwardes Square, Scarsdale Villas, Abingdon Road and Allen Street, the streets are terraces and villas that were mostly built as family houses, now a mix of whole houses and flats on each floor. They are easier to load than the hill, but the bays are tight and the turns at each landing are tight too, so wardrobes and bed frames come apart in the room. Most two- and three-bedroom moves here are a half or full day with a Luton.

Flats above the high street and around Kensington Square. Flats over the shops on Kensington High Street and Kensington Church Street usually have a separate street door and a long, narrow stair with no lift, and the van cannot stand on the high street itself while buses are running. We load from the nearest side street and plan a longer carry, which is why a one-bedroom flat above a shop can take as long as a two-bedroom flat with a lift. Our flat removals crew measures the stair turns before the day.

Much of W8 is protected. Kensington Square, Kensington Court, De Vere and Edwardes Square, Scarsdale and Abingdon are among the borough’s conservation areas, so anyone buying a period house and planning work on its outside should expect to need consent first. That often means the new house is not ready when the old one has to be empty, and the furniture goes into storage for a few weeks.

Call 020 3983 5199 or send the form with your street and floor, and we will tell you which group your move falls into and what it means for the price.

Kensington removals: price guide for W8

These are the ranges W8 moves usually fall into with us. Where the street needs a council bay suspension, that cost is built into the fixed price, not added afterwards:

Where a move sits in its range depends on the number of floors, whether there is a lift, how many days the bay is suspended and how far the van stands from the door. Our guide to what removals cost in London explains each factor.

Office removals Kensington: studios, practices and offices over shops

Business moves in W8 are rarely a whole office floor. They are dental and medical practices, architects and design studios in converted houses, estate agents and galleries on Kensington Church Street, and small offices above the high-street shops. Each one is limited by the stair and the street door more than by the amount of furniture. RBKC only grants bay suspensions for vans, lorries and trucks, and the same 10-working-day notice applies to businesses, so we apply as the remover with the company’s details. We move offices on a Friday evening or over a weekend so staff come back to working desks; the office removals service has the full process, and our IT relocation team disconnects, labels and reconnects screens, servers and comms cabinets.

Removals and storage Kensington: when the dates do not line up

Period houses in W8 change hands with building work planned, and building work in a conservation area runs to the timetable of the consent rather than the completion date. When the old house has to be empty before the new one is ready, we collect on the agreed day, hold everything in our storage, and deliver when the rooms are finished, booking a second bay suspension for the delivery day. If the move is going abroad, our international removals team packs and documents the shipment from the same W8 address.

The rest of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

These places are in the same borough, so the RBKC bay rules on this page apply to them too. Each has its own page with the detail for that neighbourhood. Next door to the west, West Kensington is in Hammersmith and Fulham and works to that council’s rules.