End of Tenancy Cleaning in Bloomsbury

Most end-of-tenancy cleans start with the oven. This one started with the ceiling. A first-floor flat in a Georgian townhouse on Bedford Place — the terrace connecting Bedford Square to Russell Square — with a ceiling rose so elaborate that the tenant (a visiting art historian from the Courtauld) had spent 11 months looking up at it from the sofa and had once described it to us at booking as 'the most beautiful thing in the flat, possibly including the view of the British Museum.' We needed to dust it without damaging it. Extension tool, soft brush attachment, slow circular strokes following the acanthus-leaf pattern. Three and a half metres above the floor, plaster that was 230 years old, and no margin for error. Four minutes. The most careful four minutes of the week.

The flat was a 1-bed conversion on the first floor — the piano nobile, the principal floor of the original Georgian house, which meant the grandest proportions: the tallest ceilings, the largest windows, the most elaborate fireplace. One bedroom, a living room (the former drawing room, still drawing-room-sized), a kitchen installed in what had been a dressing room, a bathroom partitioned from the rear of the bedroom, and a hallway with an original stone floor. The tenant — the art historian — had been there 11 months on a furnished academic let at £2,600/month, arranged through the university's accommodation service and managed by Marsh & Parsons. She was flying back to Vienna the following week. Inventory checkout with their clerk three days later.

Parked on a meter on Southampton Row — 8 minutes' walk from the flat, which was the closest space we could find at 9am on a Tuesday in WC1. Carried the kit along Bedford Place, past the British Museum railings, through the shared front door (original Georgian fanlight above — not our scope), up the stone staircase to the first floor.

The living room was the main event — both the biggest room and the most feature-dense. Two floor-to-ceiling sash windows facing Bedford Place, each with 6-over-6 panes. That's 24 individual panes across the two windows, plus the glazing bars, plus the runners, plus the sills, plus the shutters. The shutters: each window had a pair of panelled shutters folded into shutter boxes on either side. Four shutter leaves, each with three panels. We opened each leaf, wiped every panel front and back, dusted the shutter box interior, and folded them back. The windows themselves: each sash lowered or raised, glass cleaned pane by pane, glazing bars wiped, runners vacuumed, meeting rails cleaned. Total time on the two windows and their shutters: 25 minutes. A modern flat's entire window-cleaning allowance spent on two windows in one room.

The marble fireplace. A Regency surround in white statuary marble — fluted columns flanking the grate, a carved frieze of urns and swags across the lintel, an inlaid panel in the centre of each column. This was a fireplace you'd find in a museum collection, and it was in a rented flat being cleaned by two people with microfibre cloths and pH-neutral product. Each carved surface wiped carefully — no product in the crevices of the carving (it could pool and leave residue), just a barely-damp cloth worked into the detail. The fluted columns: wiped vertically, following the flutes. The frieze: wiped horizontally, each urn and swag individually. The hearth: vacuumed, the stone slab wiped with pH-neutral. The cast-iron grate (decorative, sealed): wiped dry. We checked for existing etch marks on the marble: one small ring on the mantel where something acidic had been placed — documented as pre-existing. 12 minutes on the fireplace.

The cornicing ran around the full perimeter of the room — deep, detailed, with dentil moulding and egg-and-dart pattern. Extension tool, soft brush, the full circuit. The picture rail below the cornice: wiped along its length. The walls above the picture rail: dusted (in a room with 3.5m ceilings, the upper walls collect dust that's invisible from eye level). The floor: original wide pine boards, waxed. Mopped barely-damp with specialist wood product. The furniture (the landlord's): a sofa vacuumed including under cushions, a writing desk wiped, a bookcase dusted shelf by shelf, a side table wiped. 20 minutes for the rest of the room.

The kitchen — the former dressing room, about 6 sqm. A compact galley with a freestanding gas cooker (a Cannon, 2-burner with a small single oven), a stone worktop (a remnant of the Georgian building's repurposing — the stone was probably original to the house), a butler sink, and a sash window with 4-over-4 panes. The oven was academic-let light: 11 months of someone who drank wine and ate cheese more often than she cooked roasts. Single dwell, 15 minutes, one pass. The hob had two mild spill marks — targeted wipe. The stone worktop: pH-neutral, wiped dry. The butler sink: non-abrasive product, two passes — light staining from 11 months of tea. The sash window: 8 panes, cleaned. 20 minutes for the kitchen.

The bathroom — partitioned from the rear of the bedroom, about 4 sqm. A modern refit in the Georgian shell: a shower cubicle with a glass door, a wall-mounted basin, a toilet, ceramic floor tiles. The shower glass: descaler, 10-minute dwell, one pass — light limescale, the tenant had maintained it. Basin and toilet: descaled. The bathroom retained one Georgian feature: a panelled door with original brass hardware. The door panels: wiped. The brass handle and escutcheon: polished with a dry cloth (no acidic product on original brass — it removes the patina that took 200 years to develop). 18 minutes.

The bedroom. Furnished: a bed (frame wiped, underneath vacuumed, mattress surface vacuumed), a wardrobe (interior wiped — shelves, rail, base), a bedside table (wiped including drawer). One sash window with 6-over-6 panes and shutters — same process as the living room, 12 minutes. The floor: original pine boards, waxed, mopped. A second fireplace — simpler than the living room, a painted timber surround with a cast-iron insert. Surround wiped, iron dry-cleaned. 18 minutes.

The hallway. An original stone floor — York stone flags, probably laid when the house was built in the 1790s. These stones had survived 230 years of footfall and they'd survive a damp mop with pH-neutral product. Mopped barely-damp, dried. The front door of the flat (not the house front door): original panelled Georgian door with a brass knocker — panels wiped, brass polished dry. Coat hooks, fuse box. 6 minutes.

Total time: 3.5 hours. Two people. A 1-bed conversion — and anyone who thinks a 1-bed should take 2 hours hasn't cleaned one in a Georgian townhouse on Bedford Place. The two living-room windows and their shutters took 25 minutes. The marble fireplace took 12. The ceiling rose took 4. The cornicing took 5. These features don't exist in a modern apartment, and the time they add is the difference between a £175 modern 1-bed clean and a £249 Georgian 1-bed clean.

The Marsh & Parsons clerk arrived three days later. She was a Bloomsbury specialist — she'd inspected flats on and around the squares for years and knew Georgian proportions the way the Barbican clerks know brutalist concrete.

She started with the fireplace. Ran a fingertip along a fluted column (clean — no product residue in the flute). Checked the carved frieze at close range with her phone torch (no dust in the urn details). Found the pre-existing etch ring on the mantel — checked the check-in photos, confirmed it was there at the start. Noted, not charged.

The windows: she opened each shutter, checked the panel backs (this is the detail that separates a Bloomsbury clerk from a standard inventory inspector — the panel backs). Clean. She tested each sash — both living-room windows and the bedroom window. Checked the glazing bars of one window with her torch. Clear. She didn't check all 24 panes individually (some clerks do; she trusted the sample).

The ceiling rose: she looked up. She'd have noticed if it hadn't been dusted — the dust shows as a grey shadow in the deepest parts of the acanthus leaves. No shadow. The cornicing: she scanned the perimeter from the centre of the room. Clear.

Kitchen: oven opened (torch — clean), stone worktop finger-tested, butler sink inspected. Bathroom: shower glass checked, the brass door hardware inspected (she specifically checked that the patina was intact — 'some cleaners polish these with Brasso and it ruins them'). We hadn't. The York stone hallway: she walked it in socks.

All items passed. Report submitted within 24 hours — 7 pages, annotated photographs. The marble etch mark documented as pre-existing. The furniture condition noted as unchanged.

Deposit returned in full within 8 days. The art historian was already back in Vienna by the time the confirmation came through, preparing for a new semester and probably looking up at a different ceiling with less elaborate plasterwork and feeling a small, specific loss that only someone who has lived beneath a Georgian ceiling rose for 11 months can understand.