End of tenancy cleaning in Commercial Street

On the Commercial Street side of Spitalfields the first thing an inventory clerk walks to is the weavers’ attic skylight, the wide horizontal one across the back roof slope of a Fournier Street or Wilkes Street house, and if the inside of that original glass has gone hazy in the two years since check-in, the deduction is already half written. That is the job we turn up for. Monster Cleaning has worked this stretch of E1 since 2014, fixed price on a whole flat and £30 per hour per cleaner on a part job, every clean checked against the 57-point agent-approved checklist and carried by a 48-hour re-clean guarantee. Ring 0333 555 2076 for a price in about three minutes.

Last updated June 2026. We cover the E1 6 core around Commercial Street and Old Spitalfields Market in full, plus the E1 5 bleed east into Whitechapel and the EC2A edge up towards Shoreditch and Liverpool Street. This page sits inside the borough directory at End of Tenancy Cleaning Tower Hamlets.

The clerk, the skylight and how a Spitalfields deposit really gets decided

Start with the mechanism, because it is the whole game and almost nobody explains it. When you moved in, a clerk walked the flat and wrote a check-in report describing every surface, usually with photographs, usually with “new” or “as new” against the kitchen, the bathroom and any listed feature. Those words were true that day, because the flat had just been cleaned to a letting standard. At check-out a different clerk walks it again and marks you line by line against that report. Anything materially worse than the check-in entry, past fair wear and tear, is chargeable against your deposit. You are held to a professional clean, which is exactly why a mop and a spare Sunday rarely gets a Spitalfields flat over the line.

The money is not abstract here. Deposits in England are capped at five weeks’ rent under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, and rents on this patch are well above the borough average, so a one-bed in a converted weavers’ house or a Bishops Square apartment can carry a deposit north of £2,800, and a two-bed loft off Hanbury Street more again. That is the sum your agent has room to hold back over a missed cleaning step. It is also the sum we are protecting when we send a crew in.

Why is the clerk so thorough around Commercial Street specifically? Because the stock is unusually valuable and unusually varied, and because a great many of the addresses are listed. The clerk knows a haze on original crown glass, a dust line along an eighteenth-century cornice or a bloomed chrome mixer is a defensible deduction, and they are paid to find it rather than wave you through. That is not unfair. It just means you turn up with evidence and a clean that matches the report, not with optimism.

You are held to a professional clean, which is exactly why a mop and a spare Sunday rarely gets a Spitalfields flat over the line.

One street spine, three completely different flats

Commercial Street runs the length of Spitalfields, from the Shoreditch and Bishopsgate end down past Christ Church and Old Spitalfields Market to Whitechapel. Almost nothing about the housing stays the same along it, and the clean has to change with it. We work the patch as three archetypes, because one method does not pass all three.

The Georgian weavers’ houses east of the street

Behind Commercial Street sit the Huguenot silk-weavers’ houses on Fournier Street, Princelet Street, Wilkes Street, Elder Street and Folgate Street, most of them built between the 1720s and 1740s inside what is now the Brick Lane and Fournier Street conservation area. Four storeys and an attic on a narrow plot, a fair number Grade II or Grade II* listed, Dennis Severs’ House at 18 Folgate Street the best known of them. Some are single-family homes again; many are let as upper-floor or lower maisonettes. The deduction risk on these is the listed detail: the weavers’ attic skylight with its original glazing bars, the drawing-room cornicing, the wide pine floorboards, the shutters and the panelled doors. None of it takes anything aggressive. We dry-buff the boards, use distilled water on original glazing so the hard tap water does not bloom the old glass, and a soft brush on the plaster runs.

The market flats and Bishops Square west of the street

West of Commercial Street the stock turns modern and mixed. Bishops Square, the Foster and Partners scheme behind Christ Church, put a run of contemporary apartments over the old market ground, and the streets around Old Spitalfields Market itself, Lamb Street, Crispin Place, Steward Street, Gun Street, hold converted upper-floor flats above the shops and restaurants. Here the flags are different: limescale on chrome, grease baked onto the inner glass of an integrated oven, a bloomed shower screen, a marked balcony floor. Newer surfaces, so we can work faster, but the clerk checks the same corners.

The warehouse and office conversions

Running off Commercial Street and along Hanbury Street towards Brick Lane, the old warehouses and offices have gone to loft flats: tall industrial windows, exposed brick behind the kitchen run that catches airborne grease, polished concrete underfoot that wants a specific buff rather than a mop. Company lets and creative tenants churn through these fast. Tell us which of the three we are walking into when you book, and we bring the right kit for it.

The ex-local-authority blocks at the Whitechapel end and the mansion-flat pockets near Toynbee Hall add a fourth flavour again, but they read like the market flats for cleaning purposes, so we fold them into that scope. What matters is that a clerk on the Spitalfields spine is briefed for whichever archetype the flat is, and the check-out template shifts with it.

Selective licensing, HMO rules and what 1 May 2026 shifted

Tower Hamlets runs one of the more active landlord licensing regimes in inner London, and the streets around Commercial Street sit squarely inside it. The council’s selective licensing designation covers the Spitalfields and Banglatown ward and the neighbouring Weavers ward, along with Whitechapel, and it runs from 1 October 2021 to 30 September 2026. Commercial Street forms the boundary between Spitalfields and Banglatown and Weavers, so selective licensing does apply along this spine: most one- and two-household private lets here need a council licence. On top of that the whole borough was designated for additional HMO licensing from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2029, and mandatory HMO licensing sits above both for larger shared houses. You can read the council’s own HMO licensing guidance on gov.uk if you are unsure which applies.

Why does a cleaner mention any of this? Because a licence carries a condition that the property is fit for letting at handback, and a failed cleaning hand-back can end up noted on the inventory file that sits behind that licence. A careful agent records it. Our checklist clean is built to clear exactly that condition. The letting agents working this spine, several of them running out of Aldgate and Shoreditch offices, know the licensing position better than most tenants do, and they inspect accordingly.

The other change worth naming is the law. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 went live on 1 May 2026. Section 21 no-fault eviction is gone, and existing assured shorthold tenancies have converted to rolling periodic ones, so a tenant can give notice at any point rather than waiting out a fixed term. Here is the part people get wrong: the cleaning side of a move-out did not change at all. The check-in benchmark still applies, the deposit maths is the same, and the deposit-return route is now the cleanest exit from a tenancy. What has changed is timing. Move-outs on this high-churn patch have got more frequent and less predictable, and clerks are taking longer over the walk, so book the clean earlier than you used to.

The 57 things we work through, zone by zone

Every booking runs to the same 57-point agent-approved checklist, split across four functional zones. The scope is identical on a Wilkes Street maisonette and a Bishops Square apartment; the time on the job varies, the list does not. The full itemised version comes with the quote.

Kitchen

Behind the cooker, behind the fridge, behind the washing machine where the plumbing lets us pull them out. Extractor filter degreased and dried before it goes back. Inside, outside and behind the oven, including the inner door glass, the corner of the seal a clerk lifts first and one of the single most common line-item deductions on this patch. Hob, splashback and surrounding grout. Cupboards inside and out, and the top of the run dusted; the market flats and Bishops Square kitchens often carry a high line, so the step comes with us. Sink and taps descaled, chrome dried and buffed. Bin washed and deodorised. Floor mopped under everything that moves.

Bathrooms

Grout scrubbed back, the inside corner of the shower enclosure included. Shower head taken off, descaled, refitted. Glass screen treated and rinsed so the chalky bloom is gone with no smear left behind. Toilet bowl, cistern exterior, base and the floor behind the pedestal. Mirrored cabinet inside and out. Extractor grille cleaned. We do not retile and we do not renew silicone; if the sealant has gone, that is a landlord repair, not a cleaning deduction, and we will say so.

Bedrooms and living areas

Skirting wiped end to end. Picture rails and any cornice run dusted; the older drawing rooms have them, and the dust line along the top is a slow accumulator a clerk’s torch finds in late-afternoon light. Every window cleaned inside, the original glazing done with distilled water and a soft cloth so nothing bites the old putty. Frames and reveals wiped. Wide pine boards in the period flats dry-buffed only, never wet-mopped. Carpets vacuumed throughout; carpet shampoo is a separate line if you want it.

Throughout

Doors and frames front and back. Switches, sockets, thermostat and the video-entry handset. Radiators, front face and the accessible top edge. Cobwebs and dust off the attic-skylight reveal where there is one. Internal stairs and landings to handover standard. The 57 points land itemised on the receipt in your inbox the same evening, with photographs of the finished kitchen, bathroom and any listed feature.

The scope is identical on a Wilkes Street maisonette and a Bishops Square apartment; the time on the job varies, the list does not.

What Thames Water hard water does to an E1 bathroom

The water in E1 is hard. Thames Water draws it from a chalk-fed supply and it runs at the harder end of the London range, comfortably above 300 milligrams of calcium carbonate per litre for this postcode (Thames Water water-hardness data). At handover that means every chrome shower head, kettle and mixer base in a market flat or a weavers’-house bathroom carries a chalky film within a fortnight of the last clean. Clerks on this patch look for it on the kettle, on the underside of the tap rim and around the washing-machine soap drawer, and a general kitchen spray will not shift it.

We use a measured weak-acid descaling soak with proper dwell time, then buff, then dry-wipe, and the chrome comes back to how it looked on a new install. On the listed properties there is a second rule: original chrome, brass and old glazing get the careful version, distilled water and a soft cloth, never the brute-force descaler a newer flat would shrug off. Limescale that has set into a joint is not a quick job, and it is one of the reasons a period-flat clean here runs longer than the square footage suggests.

Grout is the other reliable one. Kitchen and bathroom grout is the line between a pass and a deduction more often than anything to do with carpets. We scrub it rather than wipe it, and where it is genuinely past saving after a long let we photograph the state before we start, so the clerk cannot bill you for wear that was already there at check-in. A dated photograph settles that argument before it becomes one.

What it costs, and the deposit maths behind it

Spitalfields is not a premium-priced patch for us, so Commercial Street runs at our standard London rates. Here is the table.

Add-ons sit on their own lines so nothing is buried: carpet shampoo is £36 a bedroom, £43 a living room, or £115 for the whole carpeted area of a two-bed; oven work is £77 for a single, £110 for a double, £114 for a 90cm range. Part jobs, where you want a smaller scope or us back in to finish a self-cleaned kitchen, run at £30 per cleaner per hour. Listed-building care and the attic-skylight work on the Georgian stock are inside the headline price. We do not run a separate line for working slowly on old glass; it would be a bit much to charge twice for care.

Run the maths the way the deposit makes you. A one-bed at £207 to protect a deposit sitting near £2,800 is not really a decision. Every booking carries the 48-hour re-clean guarantee: if the clerk flags a cleaning issue inside 48 hours of us handing back, we come back and put it right at no charge, provided the flat is still as we left it with nobody moved in. Our first-time pass rate on this kind of work sits at 97%. There is a reason agents keep our number: we are on the books of 300+ letting agents, and over the years that work has helped tenants recover £1.2m in deposits that would otherwise have gone on cleaning deductions.

Three jobs get muddled at this point, and it pays to book the right one.

Check-in inventory report

The document the clerk writes on day one describing every surface, with photographs. It is the benchmark your check-out is judged against, which is why we clean to it and not to a vague idea of tidy.

End of tenancy clean

The hand-back clean built to pass that inventory and get a deposit back, flat empty, checklist itemised, 48-hour guarantee on it.

Deep clean

What you book when you are staying and want the kitchen and bathroom reset to first-let condition. No formal standard to hit, so it runs at £30 an hour.

Regular domestic clean

Ongoing weekly or fortnightly maintenance once the next tenancy starts, from £22 an hour.

A Fournier Street job from this spring

“We handed back the top two floors of a Grade II listed weavers’ house on Fournier Street after three years, both of us architects, so we knew what the clerk would go for. It was the attic skylight, the wide original one across the back slope, the inside of the glass had not been touched in years and you could see the dust from the floor when the morning light came through. Monster sent two cleaners for a long day, microfibre tower brush on the underside of the skylight, distilled water on the original glazing, a soft brush on the drawing-room cornice, dry buff on the pine boards, nothing harsh anywhere near the listed detail. Passed first time, full deposit back the following Friday. Worth every penny for the flat we were most worried about in Spitalfields.”
Eleanor and James, Fournier Street E1, March 2026

That is a fair picture of the pattern on the weavers’ streets: a long let, a listed feature nobody had cleaned properly, and an agent who checks. The clean cost a fraction of the deposit at stake, and what turned it was not the scrubbing alone but the dated photo set that went out with the invoice, which is the part a DIY check-out almost never has when the clerk pushes back.

Questions we get asked

How much does end of tenancy cleaning cost around Commercial Street?

A studio starts at £156, a one-bed flat or maisonette at £207, a two-bed at £243, a three-bed at £339 and a four-bed at £425. Carpet shampoo and oven work sit on separate lines. Listed-building care on the Georgian weavers’ houses is included in the headline price, not charged as an extra.

Is Spitalfields more expensive than the rest of London?

No. Commercial Street runs at our standard London rates, the same figures as most of the boroughs we cover. The prices above are the full price with nothing added for the postcode.

How long does the clean take?

A one-bed flat is usually a five- to seven-hour job for two cleaners. A three-bed weavers’-house maisonette on Wilkes or Princelet Street is closer to a long day, mostly because the listed features need slow, careful work and we will not rush the attic skylight or the original cornicing.

Do you cover the Georgian weavers’ houses on Fournier and Wilkes Street?

Yes, and it is the bulk of what we do east of Commercial Street. Most of the stock on Fournier, Wilkes, Princelet, Folgate and Elder Street is Grade II or Grade II* listed inside the conservation area. We work to listed-building care: distilled water on original glazing, a soft brush on cornicing, dry buff on the pine boards, and nothing aggressive on any listed feature.

Do you cover Bishops Square and the Old Spitalfields Market apartments?

Yes. The modern flats behind Christ Church, around Crispin Place, Lamb Street, Steward Street and Gun Street, are part of the standard rota. On those the common deduction risks are limescale on the chrome and grease on the oven inner glass, and both are inside the normal scope.

Do you handle the warehouse loft conversions off Hanbury Street?

Yes. The tall industrial windows, the exposed brick behind the kitchen run and the polished-concrete floors each need different kit, and we carry it as standard. Tell us at booking if you have a polished-concrete floor, because we use a specific buff product on it rather than a mop.

Do you guarantee my deposit back?

We cannot guarantee the return itself, because the deposit sits between you, your landlord and the scheme, and the clerk has the final call. What we guarantee is the clean: the full 57-point agent-approved checklist with a 48-hour re-clean guarantee, so if the clerk flags a cleaning issue inside that window we come back free. Our first-time pass rate is 97%, and across the firm our work has helped recover £1.2m in deposits.

What if there is a dispute over the check-out report?

All three statutory schemes, the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, mydeposits and DPS, run a free dispute process, and the clerk’s narrative carries the weight, which is why we clean to a written checklist and leave you a dated photo set. Shelter’s tenancy-deposit guidance walks through the steps if it comes to that.

Are you insured?

Yes. Public liability cover sits at £5m, we hold employer’s liability, and listed-building work is included on the policy. We will email the certificate before the booking if you ask.

Do I need to be there?

No. Most Fournier Street, Folgate Street and Bishops Square jobs run on a key handed over by the letting agent the night before, with us starting early so the flat is finished before the clerk’s window. Tell us if your agent has a different handover arrangement.

Do you bring all the cleaning products and kit?

Yes. Cloths, mops, the step for the higher market-flat kitchen lines, the soft brush for original cornicing, distilled water for listed glazing, the descaling soak, oven kit and carpet gear if it is booked. Nothing of yours in the cupboard is touched. We carry it all in by hand, because van access on Commercial Street and the narrow Georgian streets is awkward.

Do you handle properties under Tower Hamlets selective licensing?

Yes. The Spitalfields and Banglatown and Weavers wards along Commercial Street are inside the council’s selective licensing scheme, which runs to 30 September 2026, and the whole borough is under additional HMO licensing to 31 March 2029. Both carry a fit-for-letting condition at handback, and that is precisely what the checklist clean is built to clear.

How quickly can you book me in?

Same-week is normal across E1 6, and same-day is sometimes possible on a smaller studio or one-bed. The last two or three days of the month are the busiest of the year here, so a handover dated 31 March or 30 June fills early. If yours lands on a quarter-day, book a fortnight ahead.

Do you do short-let and Airbnb turnarounds in Spitalfields?

Yes. We run a separate short-let turnaround scope on the Bishops Square flats and the market-side upper-floor apartments. It is tighter than a full end of tenancy clean, but the same checklist quality applies.

Book the clean

Phone 0333 555 2076 or email [email protected]. Tell us the address, the bed count, the handover date and time, which of the three flat types it is, and which letting agent. We hold the slot, send a written quote with the 57 points itemised, and crew the job so it is finished before your check-out window. Moving within the patch or one street over? We also cover Whitechapel down the E1 5 end, Brick Lane a block east, and Shoreditch High Street up at the EC2A boundary. For a deep oven on a Bishops Square integrated double see our oven cleaning service, and for carpet shampoo across a Hanbury Street loft see our carpet cleaning service.