End of Tenancy Cleaning in Brockley

A ground and lower ground floor maisonette in one of the grand Italianate terraces on Tyrwhitt Road — the street named after the Tyrwhitt-Drake family who developed this part of Brockley in the 1850s–1870s. The terrace is three storeys plus a lower ground floor, set back from the road behind deep front gardens. The couple had rented the maisonette for 2.5 years at £2,200/month, commuting via the Overground to Shoreditch. Managed by Acorn Brockley (established across SE London with deep conservation area knowledge).

The ground floor had the bay-fronted reception room — 12-foot ceilings, an ornate plasterwork ceiling rose with acanthus-leaf detailing, cornicing along every wall, a picture rail, and a decorative cast iron fireplace with a slate surround. The ceiling rose was the most detailed we'd seen in SE4 that month: the acanthus leaves had recesses where dust and cobwebs settle over time. Royal Cleaning used an extendable soft-bristle brush to dust the rose and cornicing without standing on the original pine floorboards with a stepladder (weight distribution on boards near the fireplace hearth can be risky in Victorian properties of this age). The fireplace slate surround was wiped with a damp cloth — slate is porous and absorbs moisture, so no excess water and no chemical products.

The kitchen was in the lower ground floor at the rear — the classic Brockley position. Darker than the rooms above, with a single sash window and a door to the garden. Limited natural ventilation meant the ceiling grease was heavier than average for the cooking level (moderate — the couple cooked regularly but not daily). A Belling range cooker — both oven cavities and the grill section dismantled and degreased (55 minutes). The garden door threshold had accumulated soil and debris from the sloping rear garden.

The coal cellar opened off the lower ground floor hallway — a brick-walled space approximately 2m x 1.5m, used by the tenants for bicycle and suitcase storage. The cellar had a faint damp smell and one wall showed moisture discolouration. Royal Cleaning swept the floor, wiped the brick shelving, and removed the tenants' residual items (two cardboard boxes, a deflated bicycle inner tube). The damp and moisture discolouration were photographed and documented for Acorn — building maintenance, not a cleaning issue.

Three bedrooms: the master on the ground floor (bay window, second ceiling rose — simpler than the reception but still decorative), two bedrooms in the lower ground floor. The lower ground rooms were darker with smaller windows. All had pine floorboards mopped with specialist wood cleaner. Sash window tracks vacuumed throughout.

The bathroom was squeezed into the lower ground floor rear — a compact space with a shower-over-bath and a frosted sash window. Moderate limescale at ~270 ppm. Silicone around the bath showed the start of mould growth — treated with anti-mould spray before the general descale.

The front garden path was swept (original mosaic tile path, pH-neutral mop). The rear garden access was via the lower ground floor — the sloping garden itself was outside scope but the patio immediately outside the kitchen door was swept.

Acorn inspected two days later. Their Brockley office handles a significant share of the conservation area lets. The checkout took 50 minutes: both ceiling roses inspected (the agent used a torch to check the acanthus-leaf recesses on the reception rose), the coal cellar damp documented against their records, the slate fireplace condition noted, and all three bedrooms checked. Royal Cleaning passed. Full deposit returned within 12 days.