Checking out of a flat on the Isle of Dogs
Almost every tenancy on the Isle of Dogs ends in a flat: a tower on Marsh Wall or at Crossharbour, a low block on the old Millwall Dock quays, or a council-built flat on the Barkantine or Samuda estates. We clean them for a fixed end of tenancy price, set by the number of bedrooms: £156 for a studio, £207 for a one-bed, £243 for a two-bed and £339 for a three-bed.
Last updated October 2026.
Rents on the island are high, and so is the deposit riding on the check-out. The ONS average for a two-bedroom home in Tower Hamlets was £2,418 a month in August 2026 and £2,750 for three bedrooms. The inventory clerk who walks your flat on the last day decides how much of that deposit is argued over.
What the clerk checks in a tower flat
A clerk works through the flat following the check-in report, comparing each line with what is in front of them. In a new-build flat on the island that route usually runs like this, and the cleaners work to the same order on our 57-point checklist.
The clerk starts at the front door: the door, its spyhole and the frame, the video entry handset, the consumer unit cupboard and the utility cupboard that holds the boiler or heat interface unit and often a washer-dryer. Dust settles on top of everything in that cupboard. The cleaners wipe it down, pull the lint from the dryer filter and clean the door seal and the detergent drawer.
Next is the kitchen. Open-plan kitchens in the towers often have gloss or matt handleless cupboard fronts that show every fingerprint, an induction hob, and an extractor whose filter is often grey by the end of a tenancy. The cleaners empty and wipe each cupboard, degrease the hob, extractor and splashback, clean the fridge and freezer (off and defrosted the night before) and do the integrated dishwasher’s filter and door edges.
In the living room, floor-to-ceiling windows are the first thing a clerk sees. The cleaners wash the glass from the inside, wipe the frames and the tracks of any sliding balcony door, and sweep and wipe the balcony where it is safe to reach. The outside face of high windows is normally cleaned by the building’s management and is not on your inventory.
Floor-to-ceiling windows are the first thing a clerk sees.
Then the bathroom. Thames Water supplies the island, and it says all the water in its region is hard. Frameless shower screens and chrome fittings show limescale within weeks. The cleaners descale screen, taps, shower head and tiles, scrub the grout, and clean the toilet, basin, bath, mirror cabinet and the extract grille in the ceiling.
The bedrooms come last: inside fitted wardrobes, the shelves and rails, skirting, doors and frames, sockets and switches, and the window glass. Carpets are vacuumed and hard floors washed as the cleaners back out of each room.
Isle of Dogs prices by flat size
| Home | Price |
|---|---|
| Studio flat | £156 |
| One-bedroom flat | £207 |
| Two-bedroom flat | £243 |
| Three-bedroom flat or house | £339 |
| Four-bedroom house or maisonette | £425 |
| Five or more bedrooms | Quoted from the room count |
| Single room or part of a flat | £30 per cleaner per hour |
The oven is an add-on: £31 for a single or a single wide oven, and £62 for a double or a 90cm range cooker, booked with the clean. See oven cleaning for how it is done. Carpets with the clean are £29 a bedroom, £36 a living room, £47 a through lounge, £35 a flight of stairs, £20 a hallway and £8 a landing; the carpet cleaning page has the detail. Read your tenancy agreement for a carpet clause before you add them.
Your total is one step away in the price calculator at the top of the page. You can also call 0333 555 2076 from 8am to 7pm, every day of the week.
We have cleaned in London since 2014. Our cleaners are vetted at an in-person interview, insured and trained on the 57 points, more than 300 letting agents work with us, and tenants have recovered £1.2m in deposits. Our Google rating is 4.7. If the agent or clerk raises a point about the clean within 48 hours, we come back and put it right free.
Towers, docks and estates on the island
The tallest homes are on Marsh Wall. Landmark Pinnacle, finished in 2020, is 233 metres high with 75 habitable floors and around 822 flats, and it is the tallest residential tower in the UK.
Further south, Baltimore Tower at Crossharbour Plaza (the one known as the Slinky for its twisting shape) has 366 flats over 45 storeys and was completed in 2017 on the site of the old London Arena. Blocks this size mean a booked service lift, a concierge who wants the cleaners’ names in advance, and sometimes a set window for contractors.
Crossharbour DLR station opened on 31 August 1987 and is named after Glengall Bridge, which crosses Millwall Inner Dock beside it. Millwall Dock opened in March 1868 and closed to shipping in 1981; low-rise housing such as Clippers Quay and Mill Quay now lines it. These are smaller blocks and some houses with their own front doors, closer to an ordinary London clean.
The island also once had the highest concentration of council housing in England, and plenty of it is still there. In Millwall, the Barkantine Estate opened its first block in 1968 and originally had 634 homes.
On the east side of Manchester Road in Cubitt Town, the Samuda Estate was built between 1965 and 1967, and its 25-storey Kelson House is made of interlocking maisonettes on three levels. A maisonette means internal stairs, so count the flight if it is carpeted. Between the two, Mudchute Park and Farm covers 13 hectares of land built up from the spoil dug out of Millwall Dock.
Heron Quays, the DLR and getting the kit upstairs
Heron Quays, at the northern end of the island, is offices: 25 Bank Street, 40 Bank Street and 10 Upper Bank Street stand on what were West India Docks warehouse quays. Its DLR station, rebuilt and moved south as the Canary Wharf estate grew, sits between Canary Wharf and South Quay.
Tenants on the flats around Heron Quays and the north side of Marsh Wall are close to the Jubilee line and the Elizabeth line, which opened at Canary Wharf in 2022. The DLR runs on south through Crossharbour and Mudchute to Island Gardens.
Cleaners bring vacuums, steps and solutions, so the van needs to be close. Some towers have a loading bay or a visitor space that can be booked through the concierge; ask before the day. If we have to pay to park, the charge goes on your quote at cost.
When you book, send us the postcode, the building name and floor, the bedroom count, the check-out date and any oven or carpets, plus any rules the building has for contractors. The flat should be empty, with electricity and hot water on.
Licensing for flatshares in tower blocks
Tower Hamlets’ borough-wide additional licensing scheme runs from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2029. It covers a home let to three or more people from two or more households who share a kitchen or bathroom, and it also reaches some purpose-built flats where five or more tenants from separate households live in a building of three or more flats. A three-bed flatshare in a Marsh Wall tower can fall inside it.
The island was never in the borough’s selective licensing scheme, which covered three wards further west and closed on 30 September 2026. The council’s additional licensing page sets out the rules. Your landlord’s licence makes no difference to the check-out itself: the clerk still measures the flat against the check-in report, allowing for fair wear and tear. The rest of the borough’s areas are on our end of tenancy cleaning Tower Hamlets page.
Isle of Dogs end of tenancy FAQs
My building only lets contractors use the service lift at set times. Can you work to that?
Yes. Tell us the slot when you book and we will arrange the cleaners’ arrival around it. Give the concierge their names if the building asks for them.
Do you clean the outside of the windows in a tower?
No. We clean the inside of all glass and any balcony we can reach safely. The outside of high windows is cleaned by the building, so it is not on a tenant’s inventory.
I am leaving a Kelson House maisonette on the Samuda Estate. Is it priced as a flat or a house?
By bedrooms, like any home, so a two-bed maisonette is £243. If the stairs are carpeted and you want them done, a flight is £35.
We are three sharers in a Marsh Wall flat and one of us leaves first. What should they book?
Their own room and a fair share of the kitchen and bathroom, by the hour at £30 per cleaner. The last tenant out then books the whole flat at the fixed price.
Can you clean on the day the keys go back?
Usually, if the check-out is in the afternoon and the building allows morning access. If your date falls at the end of a month, book early, because those days fill first.