St James’s flats: the short answer
Since the Second World War, St James’s has turned mostly to offices, clubs, galleries and shops, so the homes left to rent are flats: in Victorian chambers on Ryder Street, over the galleries of Duke Street, in blocks such as Arlington House.
Cleaning one at the end of a tenancy costs the same here as anywhere else we work in London: £225 for a one-bed flat, £261 for a two-bed, £357 for three bedrooms, and from £174 for a studio.
Last updated October 2026.
Being in the middle of the West End does not add a premium to the clean. What can add to it is getting there: the area is inside the congestion charge zone and the parking is metered, and any of that we pay to reach your flat goes on the quote at what it costs us. Ovens and carpets are optional extras, priced lower down.
Flat types in St James’s compared
The table matches the homes you find between Piccadilly and Pall Mall to the fixed price and to the part of the clean that takes longest.
| Home | Typical location | Price | Slowest part of the job |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio in a chambers building | Ryder Street, Bury Street | £174 | A kitchen fitted into a small room, a bathroom with no window |
| One-bed flat above a shop or gallery | Jermyn Street, Duke Street, King Street | £225 | Street dust on sills and frames, stairs from a street door |
| Two-bed flat in a purpose-built block | Arlington Street, St James’s Place | £261 | Long corridors of doors and frames, built-in wardrobes |
| Three-bed apartment | Upper floors of the period blocks | £357 | Two bathrooms, tall windows, a larger kitchen |
| Four-bed duplex or penthouse | Top floors of the larger blocks | £443 | Internal stairs, terraces, several bathrooms |
| Five bedrooms or more | Rare here, usually a whole house | quoted from the room count | Every floor of a town house |
| Part of a flat, or one room in a share | Anywhere | £30 per cleaner per hour | Your room and a share of kitchen and bathroom |
Rents explain why tenants here take the check-out seriously. The Office for National Statistics put the average Westminster rent at £3,196 a month in August 2026, with one-bed homes at £2,548 and two-beds at £3,305. A deposit is capped at five weeks’ rent when the annual rent is below £50,000, so on a two-bed at the city average that is roughly £3,800 held until the clerk’s report is agreed.
Crown Estate freehold and the old chambers
Henry Jermyn, Earl of St Albans, laid St James’s out after the Restoration as a district of grand houses, and much of the land still belongs to the Crown Estate. Until the Second World War it stayed one of the most exclusive places to live in London; since then most buildings have gone over to business, and the residential stock is what sits on the upper floors.
A lot of that stock is older than it looks from the pavement. The Survey of London records Ryder Street being rebuilt from the 1860s with residential chambers: St James’s Palace Chambers, a block of flats, went up in 1878 and 1879, and Ryder Street Chambers, with shops below and homes above, in 1902 and 1903.
Duke Street is now mostly art dealers, so a flat there is usually reached through a door between two galleries. Arlington House, on Arlington Street, is a residential block of flats.
For the clean, that history means high rooms, original joinery, fireplaces that are no longer used and kitchens added long after the building was finished. Read your check-in inventory before the cleaner arrives and flag anything you want looked at twice.
Getting a van into SW1Y
St James’s sits inside the London congestion charge zone. TfL charges £18 a day if paid on the day or in advance, between 7am and 6pm on weekdays and from noon to 6pm at weekends and on bank holidays. A clean that starts early still falls inside those hours.
Parking is Westminster’s zone E, which covers Mayfair and St James’s. On the council’s March 2026 tariff, pay-to-park bays there cost between £4.56 and £10.10 an hour depending on the vehicle’s emissions band. If your building has a loading bay, a goods lift or set hours for contractors, tell us when you book and we plan the arrival around them.
Licensing in St James’s ward
Westminster’s selective licensing scheme began on 24 November 2025 and covers 15 of the city’s 18 wards. St James’s is one of the three left out, along with Pimlico South and Vincent Square, so a landlord letting a flat here to one household does not need a selective licence. The ward is large: it stretches from Vincent Square to Chancery Lane and takes in Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square, and had 12,482 residents at the 2021 census.
Shared flats are a different matter. Westminster renewed its city-wide additional HMO scheme from 31 August 2026 for five years, so a flat where three or more people from two or more households share a kitchen or bathroom needs a licence. Details are on the council’s licensing page. Licensing is the landlord’s job and does not change the clean: the check-out compares the flat with the check-in inventory, and fair wear and tear is allowed for.
The checklist in a period flat
End of tenancy cleaning
from £174
For a studio, fixed by property size, agreed before we start.
Get your price0333 555 2076 · 8am to 7pm
Our cleaners are vetted with an in-person interview, insured, and trained on a 57-point checklist. In a St James’s flat the work that matters most is this:
- Kitchen: every cupboard and drawer inside and out, the hob, extractor and filter, splashback, sink, fridge and freezer, the dishwasher seal and filter, and the floor where appliances pull out.
- Bathrooms: shower screens, taps, heads and tiles descaled, grout, toilet, bath and basin, mirrors and the extractor grille. Marble and other natural stone get a stone-safe cleaner.
- Living rooms and bedrooms: cornices and ceiling roses dusted, fireplace surrounds, panelled doors, skirting, radiators and covers, sills, shutters and the inside of the windows, wardrobes and drawers emptied out and wiped.
- Floors: hoovered and washed, with wood and parquet cleaned damp, never wet.
The water is hard. Thames Water supplies the area and says all the water in its region is hard, since about a third comes from underground and it passes through chalk and limestone. Shower screens and taps show it, so descaling is part of every clean.
The oven is an add-on and never in the fixed price: £31 for a single or a single wide oven, and £62 for a double or a 90cm range cooker. The oven cleaning page explains the method.
Carpets booked with the clean cost £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 covers the service on its own. Furnished flats often have upholstered sofas listed on the inventory, and our upholstery cleaning service covers those.
We have cleaned rented homes in London since 2014. More than 300 letting agents use us, tenants have won back £1.2m in deposits, and we hold a 4.7 rating on Google. If the agent or clerk raises anything within 48 hours of the clean, we return and put it right free of charge.
Phone 0333 555 2076 from 8am to 7pm any day, or use the calculator at the top of the page. North of Piccadilly, our Mayfair page covers the other half of zone E, and the Westminster page covers the rest of the city.
St James’s end of tenancy FAQs
Is a St James’s flat charged more because it is so central?
No. The price is set by bedrooms, the same as across London. Only the congestion charge or parking we pay to reach you is added, at cost.
Does my landlord need a selective licence for a flat in St James’s?
Not for a flat let to one household: St James’s ward is outside Westminster’s selective scheme. A flat shared by three or more people from two or more households needs an additional HMO licence.
My building has a porter and a goods lift you have to book. Can you work around that?
Yes. Give us the building’s rules and the contact for the lift when you book, and we arrive in the window the building allows.
I am leaving a one-bed above a gallery on Duke Street. How much is the clean?
£225 at the fixed price. A single oven adds £31.
Can the clean happen on the morning of my check-out?
It can, but the day before is safer for a big flat. A 50% deposit holds your date, and the rest is due once the clean is done.
