Removals in West Brompton

Removals West Brompton: one Victorian estate, four ways of living in it

Very little of West Brompton is older than 1850. Kensington and Chelsea’s appraisal of The Boltons conservation area notes that in 1851 hardly any building had happened here; the newest thing on the map was Brompton Cemetery, opened in 1840 to Benjamin Baud’s design. The land between Old Brompton Road and Fulham Road had passed from William Bolton to Robert Gunter in 1807, and the Gunter family then built it out with the architects George and Henry Godwin. St Mary’s church went up in 1849–50, the villas round it followed in the 1850s, and from the 1860s the building moved west towards the cemetery, mostly in the hands of William Corbett and Alexander McClymont. Redcliffe Square was finished between 1869 and 1876.

The council designated the area a conservation area on 27 January 1970, and the same appraisal describes four kinds of housing in it. Big semi-detached villas on generous plots round The Boltons. Tighter terraces of gault and stock brick to the west. Mews built as stabling behind them. And, at the edges, mansion blocks from 1886 to the 1930s, with some 1950s flats and houses filling bomb sites on Finborough Road and Cathcart Road. Every one of those moves differently, so the first thing we ask is which you are leaving and which floor you are on.

The villas on The Boltons, Tregunter Road and Harley Gardens

The oldest houses are the most generous. The east side of The Boltons was built in 1851–52 as pairs of three-storey villas over basements, each with its entrance under a Doric porch set to the side. Those on Tregunter Road and Harley Gardens are similar in scale, set back behind front gardens with space between each pair. A whole house here is a full day for a large crew and usually a 7.5-tonne lorry, sometimes two vehicles. The walk from the gate to the porch is longer than on most London streets, so we bring floor and step protection for the path as well as the hall, and we plan the van’s position so the loading line does not cross a neighbour’s gate.

Many of these pairs have been extended at the side since they were built, and the furniture tends to match the rooms: long dining tables, tall wardrobes and bookcases made for high ceilings. We ask you to walk us round on a video call or let us visit, because a villa move priced from a bedroom count alone is almost always wrong.

Terraces on Redcliffe Square, Redcliffe Road and Coleherne Road

West of The Little Boltons the houses close up. The appraisal dates Coleherne Road, Westgate Terrace, Redcliffe Street and Redcliffe Road to 1861–71: long Italianate terraces fronted in pale gault brick, with stucco bays rising to the second floor. Most have their original half-basement, and in this part of the estate the lightwell sits right against the pavement, with stone steps down to a door tucked under the main front steps. The front door itself is up a flight of steps from the street.

Where one of these houses has been divided into flats, everything depends on the floor. A top-floor flat means a long stair with tight turns on the upper landings, and a sofa that went up before the house was divided may only come down in pieces now that partitions narrow the landings. A lower-ground flat means carrying everything up the lightwell steps and then up or down the street steps to the van. Our article on flats below street level with their own front area covers what to measure before you book, and our notes on pieces that will not go through a door or round a landing explain when we take something apart rather than force it.

The mews: setts, arches and no pavement

There are five mews in the conservation area: Bolton Gardens Mews, Coleherne Mews, Cresswell Place, Hollywood Mews and Redcliffe Mews. They were built as stabling for the big houses and almost all have been homes since the twentieth century. The appraisal describes granite setts that fall to a gutter in the middle, buildings of no more than two storeys with no basements, and fronts that open straight onto the cobbles with no pavement. Redcliffe Mews is entered under a free-standing arch dated 1869 at each end, and Coleherne Mews through an arch in the terrace on Wharfedale Street.

For a removal that changes three things. The arch decides which vehicle can come in, so we measure it before the day rather than guess. The setts are hard on trolleys and on anything with castors, so heavy items are walked rather than wheeled. And there is nowhere to put the van that does not block every other front door, so we keep the loading short, tell the neighbours the time, and use a second, smaller vehicle to shuttle if the lorry has to wait outside the arch. Hollywood Mews is private, so we ask whoever manages it before the date.

Mansion flats on Old Brompton Road, Drayton Gardens and Fawcett Street

The red-brick mansion blocks went up between 1886 and about 1905, with Onslow Court following in 1934. The largest, Coleherne Court, has frontages on Old Brompton Road, The Little Boltons and Redcliffe Gardens. We do not assume anything about a block’s lift or porters: before we quote we ask you which entrance you use, whether there is a passenger lift and what fits in it, whether the managing agent wants notice or an insurance certificate, and which door the van can stand nearest to. Those answers decide whether a two-person team in a Luton will do or the job needs more hands.

For the move itself we can bring materials and pack with our packing team, keep furniture in short or long-term storage if the completion dates do not line up, and handle a single wardrobe or a few boxes with our man and van service.