End of Tenancy Cleaning in Mile End

A 4-bed 'no lounge' maisonette on the first and second floors of a Victorian terrace off Mossford Street — a 4-minute walk from Queen Mary University, 6 minutes from Mile End station (Central, District, and Hammersmith & City lines). The layout: four bedrooms across both floors, a shared kitchen on the first floor, and a shared bathroom on the second floor. No lounge — the original reception room had been converted into Bedroom 4. Four second-year undergraduates had rented for 12 months at £700/room/month. Managed by W J Meade (Mile End & Bow office on Roman Road).

This was a September turnaround — the new intake was due to move in the following week. The landlord had four properties on surrounding streets and we were cleaning two of them that day, back to back.

The kitchen was the main event. A room used by four students for 12 months, cooking everything from instant noodles to full curries, with nobody assigned to clean it. The ceiling above the hob had a visible yellow-brown grease film — not as intense as a dedicated spice kitchen but a broader, more even coating from varied cooking. We applied alkaline degreaser to the ceiling in two passes. The wall tiles behind the cooker were greasy to the touch. The oven — a freestanding Indesit — was the worst condition of the day. We pulled it forward (the wall behind had a thick grease layer running down to the floor), removed the door glass (the inner pane was opaque with baked-on residue), and sprayed both cavities. Left 20 minutes. The grill tray was black. Paste degreaser, 15 minutes. The extractor filter was soaked twice — the first round of alkaline solution turned brown within minutes, so we drained it and soaked again. Total oven and extractor time: 55 minutes.

The fridge-freezer was a health education. The fridge shelves had dried spills from multiple students — each shelf removed, washed, dried, replaced. The freezer compartment had a 1cm ice buildup (nobody had defrosted it in 12 months). We left the freezer door open while cleaning the rest of the kitchen and cleared the melt water later. Door seals wiped — mould in the folds on both fridge and freezer. The cupboards were the student giveaway: three half-empty jars of cumin, a packet of expired rice noodles, two mugs that didn't match anything, and a phone charger. All bagged and left by the front door.

The kitchen floor was degreased with alkaline product, not just mopped. On a student kitchen, the floor develops an invisible grease layer that makes it feel slightly sticky underfoot — standard mopping pushes it around rather than removing it. Our process: apply degreaser, leave 5 minutes, mop with hot water, mop again with clean water.

The bathroom on the second floor — shared by four students. The shower cubicle had moderate limescale at ~270 ppm (lighter than outer East London because it's a different supply zone) and heavier-than-normal mould on the silicone around the shower tray. We applied anti-mould spray first (10-minute dwell), then phosphoric acid descaler on the glass, taps, and shower tray. Taps polished. Toilet cleaned inside the rim — limescale and a rust-coloured stain (common in student toilets where the cistern components are aging). Mirror, tiles, floor.

Four bedrooms, each cleaned and documented individually. Room 1 (front, first floor): 3 Blu-Tack marks on the wall (removed with rubbing — no paint damage), carpet stained near the window (noted, pre-existing from check-in photos), wardrobe wiped inside. Room 2 (rear, first floor, the former lounge): larger room, bay window (sash tracks vacuumed), a nail hole in the wall (documented — can't be cleaned away). Room 3 (front, second floor): clean condition, quick turnaround. Room 4 (rear, second floor): sticker residue on the window (adhesive remover), a small patch of mould on the wall behind the bed (the bed had been against an exterior wall — anti-mould spray, 10 minutes, wiped).

The shared hallway and internal staircase: vacuumed, handrail wiped. The communal entrance at street level: tenant's front door wiped both sides.

W J Meade inspected two days later with the landlord. Room-by-room checkout with individual check-in reports. The kitchen ceiling was the main focus — two-pass alkaline treatment had worked, no residual grease visible. The oven was checked cavity by cavity. The freezer was confirmed defrosted. Each bedroom assessed against its check-in photos: Room 1's Blu-Tack marks resolved, Room 2's nail hole documented, Room 4's mould treated. The carpet stain in Room 1 was confirmed as pre-existing. All four deposits released. The new students moved in the following Monday.