End of tenancy cleaning in and around Narrow Street

On a Narrow Street wharf conversion the inventory clerk goes to the glass before anything else: the shower screen, the chrome riser, the floor-to-ceiling river windows, all of it filmed with hard-water scale that did not show in the check-in photos. That one surface decides more Limehouse deposits than the oven does. I run Monster Cleaning Ltd, a domestic cleaning company that has worked this stretch of the Thames in E14 since 2014, and we clean a move-out to the report the clerk is bringing, not to a general idea of tidy. It is £30 per hour per cleaner, with a 48-hour re-clean guarantee in the booking. Ring 0333 555 2076 for a price.

Last updated June 2026. We cover Narrow Street and the Limehouse waterfront across E14, with the neighbouring E1 edge towards Wapping. This page sits inside the borough directory at End of Tenancy Cleaning Tower Hamlets.

What the clerk finds first on a riverside flat

A deposit deduction is rarely about a flat being dirty in the way a tenant pictures it. It is a check-out report listing each item against the in-going inventory, with a figure attached to the gap. On the Limehouse waterfront the gaps fall in a pattern once you have done enough of them, and the pattern is shaped by the kind of flat more than by the tenant.

Hard water leads. Then the kitchen: extractor filters, oven glass, the film on the top of wall units in an open-plan warehouse space, the seal of an integrated fridge. Then the things a conversion hides, which a general clean walks straight past. Exposed brick that has held a season of dust. The deep reveal of a tall warehouse window. The runner channel of a sliding door onto a river-facing balcony, where grit blows in off the Thames. Floors come last in the report and matter more than people expect, because a lot of these flats are engineered timber or polished concrete, so the clerk’s eye drops to the edges and the skirting where a mop never quite reaches.

None of it is dramatic. It is specific. A clean that is not reading an inventory does not target any of it, and that is the whole reason a free Sunday with a sponge tends to lose the first round.

That one surface decides more Limehouse deposits than the oven does.

Three kinds of building, one short street

Narrow Street is not a street of identical flats, which is exactly why one method does not pass all of it. It splits three ways, and each one hands back differently.

The Georgian terrace on the south side

The early-Georgian brick terrace on the river side is one of the rarest things in the borough: a run of houses listed Grade II back on 7 April 1971, with The Grapes at the end of it, the riverside pub part-owned by Sir Ian McKellen and serving a tavern site recorded since 1583. Original timber, deep skirting, shutter boxes, old plaster that will not take an aggressive product. On a house like this the inspection turns on careful detail dusting and patient edge work, not on anything you can rush with a strong spray.

The wharf and warehouse conversions

Then the converted wharves. Dunbar Wharf is the one people name, itself Grade II listed, the old shipping warehouses carved into flats with double-height volumes, exposed brick and iron, mezzanines and tall industrial glazing. The dust here lives high, on the steels and the brick ledges and the tops of doors no ordinary clean reaches, and the glass is everywhere. Limekiln Dock sits in the same band of stock.

The Basin-side new-builds

And the modern riverside blocks wrapped around Limehouse Basin marina, glass and chrome and engineered floors, balcony doors facing the water. Here it is scale on the fittings, grit in the runner channels and floor edges that get written up. We brief the crew on which of the three a job is before we load the van, because the same 57-point checklist applied with the wrong emphasis still fails.

All of it falls inside the Narrow Street Conservation Area, designated in December 1975 and extended in October 2008, which runs from the lock entrance at Limehouse Basin along the waterfront with Three Colt Street as its eastern edge. That status does not change how we clean, but it tells you something true about the buildings: they are watched, kept and let to a standard, and the check-outs reflect it.

Narrow Street to the Basin: the streets we work

We cover the length of Narrow Street, river side and basin side, and the streets that run off it. In practice that is the waterfront and the conversions between Limekiln Dock and the moorings, the Georgian houses down by The Grapes, and the developments wrapped around Limehouse Basin marina and its lock. We also pick up the wider Limehouse pocket of E14 and the E1 edge towards Wapping.

Streets and stretches we are on regularly:

• Narrow Street itself, Georgian terrace at the river end through to the modern blocks by the Basin
• Three Colt Street and the flats towards St Anne’s Limehouse, the Hawksmoor church
• Ropemakers Fields and the conversions backing onto the park between the Basin and the river
• Horseferry Road, Branch Road and Butcher Row towards the Limehouse Link tunnel
• Dunbar Wharf, Limekiln Dock and the warehouse addresses along the Thames Path
• The riverside blocks ringing Limehouse Basin marina and the Regent’s Canal lock

It is an easy patch to reach, which helps when a check-out is tight. Limehouse station puts the DLR (between Shadwell and Westferry) and c2c National Rail out of Fenchurch Street right at the top of the street, Westferry DLR is a short walk along the Basin, and Canary Wharf is one stop on. If your address is in this part of E14 and is not on the list above, it is still very likely we cover it. Tell us the building on the call and we will confirm.

The water, and what it does to the glass

Thames Water supplies Limehouse and the water here is properly hard, sitting around 300 parts per million of calcium carbonate, which you can confirm on the Thames Water hardness pages. On a wharf-conversion bathroom or a Basin-side shower room that means a glass screen that hazes at the bottom, a chrome riser and taps that fur, a kettle that scales. The clerk photographs the screen against the clear move-in image and the difference is plain.

This is where most of these flats are won or lost. We take the screen back to clear on both faces, with the film off the lower section completely, then the riser, the head, the handset and the taps back to bright chrome. Tiles and grout get the scale lifted, not wiped over. In the Georgian houses the fittings are sometimes older chrome, so the brute-force route is out and the work is slower and by hand. The river-facing windows get the same attention, glass and frames, with the runner channels of the balcony doors cleared of the grit that blows up off the water.

Tower Hamlets licensing, and what 1 May 2026 shifted

Two bits of the legal backdrop matter here, and it is worth being precise because the borough is genuinely active on licensing.

Tower Hamlets runs a borough-wide additional HMO licensing scheme that took effect on 1 April 2024 and runs to 31 March 2029, so most of the older warehouse conversions carved into multiple flats sit inside it, and the licence fee for an additional HMO rose sharply in April 2026 to over £1,300. The council also runs selective licensing, but that covers only four named wards, Whitechapel, Weavers, Spitalfields and Banglatown, and Narrow Street is in none of them, so a single Limehouse let is not caught by selective licensing. You can check the position for a specific address on the council’s own pages, though the Tower Hamlets site tends to block automated visitors, so it is worth going in directly rather than through a link. Why does a tenant care? A licensed building is one the landlord and managing agent keep under closer watch, and the check-out on a licensed conversion tends to be run strictly to the inventory rather than waved through.

The other change is timing. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 went live on 1 May 2026. It ended fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies and moved renters in England onto periodic tenancies, so notice can land with less runway than the old routine gave, and a check-out can arrive sooner than you planned. The cleaning side did not move at all. Your deposit is still protected in one of the government-backed schemes, and a landlord can still only charge for cleaning needed to return the flat to its inventory condition, fair wear and tear aside. If you want the dispute side rather than my word for it, the adjudication guidance from the Tenancy Deposit Scheme sets out how cleaning claims are actually decided. The practical effect on Narrow Street is simple. Less slack in the dates, the same evidence standard from the clerk, so the clean has to be right the first time.

Less slack in the dates, the same evidence standard from the clerk, so the clean has to be right the first time.

The 57 things we work through, room by room

Every booking runs to a 57-point agent-approved checklist that we have refined over years of inventory check-outs with letting agents across London. The backbone is the same everywhere. What changes on Narrow Street is the emphasis, which is set by whichever of the three building types you are in.

Kitchen

Oven brought back to clean inside, on the glass and around the seal, well past a surface wipe. Extractor filters degreased and the canopy done. Hob and any induction trim. The tops and faces of wall and base units, including the cooking film that settles where a kitchen sits open to a warehouse living space. Splashback and tiling descaled. Sink and taps to bright metal, scale off the spout and the base. Integrated appliances cleaned inside, behind and on the seals: fridge, freezer, dishwasher and washing machine where they are fitted. Bins and the floor finished last.

Bathrooms and shower rooms

This is the room a Limehouse check-out turns on. The glass screen taken back to clear, both faces, the hard-water film off the lower section completely. Taps, riser, head and handset descaled to bright chrome. Tiles and grout cleaned and the scale lifted. Bath, basin and toilet inside and out, including the base and the hinges. Mirror, shaver point, extractor vent, any heated rail. Floor edges and the silicone lines finished, because the clerk checks the corners.

Bedrooms and living areas

Full dust down from high level to low: tops of doors and frames, exposed steels or picture rails in a conversion, light fittings, the deep reveals on warehouse windows. Built-in wardrobes and storage cleaned inside and out. Skirting, switches and sockets. Windows cleaned internally, and the glass and frames of any balcony or terrace doors, with the runner channels cleared. Engineered timber or concrete floors cleaned to the edges. Carpet vacuumed thoroughly and treated as an add-on if it needs shampooing, which on this street is the exception rather than the rule.

Throughout

Hallway and entrance, internal glass and internal doors, the airing or service cupboard, the consumer-unit cupboard, marks lifted off paintwork where they come away without scarring old plaster in a period flat. Cobwebs out of the high corners a double-height conversion tends to grow. The flat is finished so it photographs against the in-going inventory, which is the only test that counts at check-out.

Two jobs sit slightly outside the standard clean and often pair with it here. The tall industrial glazing and deep reveals in a wharf conversion sometimes want window cleaning taken further than an internal wipe, and a furnished let can need upholstery cleaning on the sofas before the clerk arrives.

What it costs, with no riverside surcharge

Limehouse is on our base price list. There is no central-London or riverside markup on an E14 Narrow Street address, whatever some firms try to load onto the postcode. These are the standard rates.

If you would rather book by time than by size, it is £30 per cleaner per hour. Carpet shampooing is an add-on where there is carpet to do: £36 a bedroom, £43 for a living room, or £115 for a whole two-bed carpeted area together. Oven deep-cleans, itemised separately, are £77 single, £110 double and £114 for a 90cm range. Most flats on this street are one and two-beds, so the figure you will usually look at is £207 or £243, plus carpet cleaning only where the flat actually has carpet, which a lot of the conversions and Basin-side flats do not.

The 48-hour re-clean guarantee is part of the price, not an extra. If the inventory clerk flags a cleaning item within three days of us finishing, we come back and put it right at no further cost. We can offer that because we clean to the report in the first place, which is why our first-time pass rate sits at 97% across the check-outs we attend, and why we have helped tenants recover £1.2m in deposits over the years. The deposit itself is not our price to set: it is capped in law at five weeks’ rent for most tenancies, and that figure stays exactly what it was after 1 May 2026.

People book the wrong service more often than you would think, so here is the plain difference.

Check-in inventory report

The document the clerk writes on day one, with photos, describing every surface. It is the benchmark your check-out is judged against, which is why we clean to it rather than to a generic idea of clean.

End-of-tenancy clean

Built to pass that inventory and recover the deposit, done with the flat empty, at £30 per cleaner per hour with the 48-hour guarantee on it.

Deep clean

A deep clean resets a home you are staying in. Good thing, lived-in, no formal standard to hit, and on its own it will not win a deposit dispute.

Regular domestic clean

A domestic clean is ongoing upkeep, from £22 an hour weekly.

A wharf-conversion job from this spring

“I had a one-bed in one of the old warehouse buildings just off Narrow Street, lived there on my own for about two years before a job took me to Bristol. I work long hours and honestly thought a clean flat was a clean flat. The Franklyn James clerk did the check-out and the thing she kept going back to was the big glass shower screen and the chrome, all hazed up from the water down here, against the move-in photos where it was clear. She said that on its own was a deduction. Monster sent two of them on a Tuesday, took the screen, the riser and every tap back to clear glass and bright chrome, and did the window reveals and the balcony door runner while they were there. The clerk passed it second look with nothing written against the bathroom. Full deposit back, and I was on the train west by the Thursday.”
Daniel, former tenant, Narrow Street E14 8DP, April 2026

That is a fair example of the pattern on this street. A solo professional let, a flat that looked fine to the eye, and a check-out that lived or died on the glass. What turned it was the scrubbing, yes, and also the dated photo set that went out with the invoice, which is the part a DIY check-out almost never has when the agent pushes back.

Questions we get asked

How much is an end-of-tenancy clean on Narrow Street?

Studios are £156, one-beds £207, two-beds £243, three-beds £339 and four-beds £425. Limehouse is on our base price list, so there is no central-London or riverside surcharge for an E14 Narrow Street address. Carpet and oven add-ons apply only where the flat actually needs them.

Do you charge extra for a Limehouse riverside or wharf-conversion flat?

No. Some firms load a riverside or central premium onto E14. We do not. A Dunbar Wharf conversion or a Limehouse Basin block on Narrow Street is quoted from the standard base rates above, the same as anywhere on our list.

Why does the bathroom decide the check-out here?

Thames Water in Limehouse is very hard, around 300 ppm of calcium carbonate. On a glass shower screen, a chrome riser and the taps it leaves a film that photographs badly against the clear move-in image, and clerks deduct for it. We take the screen, riser and taps back to clear and bright as standard, which is the single biggest thing that wins a deposit on this street.

What is the 48-hour re-clean guarantee?

If the inventory clerk flags a cleaning item within 48 hours of us finishing, we return and put it right at no extra cost. It is built into the price because we clean to the check-out report from the start, provided the flat is still in the state we left it with nobody moved in.

Do you clean the Georgian terrace houses differently from the new-build flats?

Yes. The Grade II terrace on the south side has original timber, old plaster and deep joinery that need careful detail work and gentle products. The Basin-side flats and wharf conversions are about glass, chrome, high-level dust and floor edges. We brief the crew on which it is before we arrive, because the same checklist needs a different emphasis on each.

Can you handle a converted warehouse flat with double-height ceilings?

Yes. Conversions like those at Dunbar Wharf and Limekiln Dock have mezzanines, exposed steels and tall industrial glazing that collect dust an ordinary clean never reaches. We bring the access equipment for the high-level work and the deep window reveals.

Do these riverside flats even have carpet to clean?

Many do not. A lot of the conversions and Basin-side flats are engineered timber or polished concrete, so there is nothing to shampoo. Where there is carpet, in some Georgian houses and older flats, it is £36 a bedroom, £43 a living room or £115 for a whole two-bed carpeted area.

Does Tower Hamlets licensing affect my flat at check-out?

It can. The council runs a borough-wide additional HMO scheme that since 1 April 2024 has brought many converted blocks into licensing, and the fee rose sharply in April 2026. Selective licensing covers only four wards elsewhere in the borough, not Limehouse. Licensed buildings tend to be inspected strictly to the inventory, so we clean to that standard.

How does the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 change my move-out clean?

From 1 May 2026 it moved tenancies in England to periodic terms, so a check-out can land with less notice than before. Your deposit protection is unchanged, and a landlord can still only deduct for cleaning needed to meet the inventory, fair wear and tear aside. In practice it means the clean needs to be right first time, because there is less slack in the dates.

Do I need to be there when you clean?

No. Most Narrow Street jobs are done once the flat is empty and the keys are with us or the agent. We confirm when it is finished. Plenty of clients are already gone, often out of London, by the time we clean.

When should the clean happen relative to the check-out?

After the flat is empty and as close to the inventory appointment as possible, ideally the same morning or the day before. Tell us the clerk’s time on the first call and we plan the clean backwards from it.

Which letting agents around Limehouse do you work with?

We work with 300+ letting agents across London. Around Narrow Street and the Basin that includes firms with offices on the waterfront itself, such as Franklyn James, who have been at 29 Narrow Street since 2004, and Hurford Salvi Carr, who opened at Limehouse Basin in 2003. We clean to the inventory standard their clerks apply.

What if my flat is larger or in worse shape than a standard let?

The table covers standard flats. If a flat has been let furnished for years, has heavy build-up, or is bigger than typical, we say so on the quote and price it honestly rather than turn up short-handed. The 97% first-time pass rate depends on crewing the job correctly.

Booking it, timed to the check-out

Get the deposit conversation over quickly. Call Monster Cleaning Ltd on 0333 555 2076 or email [email protected] with the address, the bedroom count, the check-out time, and whether it is the Georgian terrace, a wharf conversion or a Basin-side block, because the building type changes how we crew it. You get a fixed quote from the base price list, plus carpet or oven add-ons only where the flat genuinely needs them, and a slot timed to land after the flat is empty and close to the inventory appointment. If your check-out is tomorrow, ring anyway and we will do what we can. Monster Cleaning Ltd has cleaned end-of-tenancy flats on this stretch of the Thames since 2014, and we would rather plan your clean backwards from the clerk’s appointment than guess at it.

Other Monster Cleaning services in Narrow Street

Staying put rather than moving out? We also offer carpet cleaning in Narrow Street, oven cleaning in Narrow Street and domestic cleaning in Narrow Street.