Emergency plumber in Notting Hill

Notting Hill’s great stucco crescents were built on the Ladbroke estate between the 1820s and the mid 1870s, following the curve of the hill. Many terraces back onto communal gardens that owners reach straight from their own rooms, and Ladbroke Square is often described as London’s largest private garden square. Further east, the painted houses of Colville Terrace and the villas of Pembridge Square complete the picture. Beneath all of it run Victorian sewers that were never built for the storms of today.

The worst of the July 2021 flood

On 12 July 2021, Notting Hill took the heaviest rain in Kensington and Chelsea. Radar estimates put it as high as a 1 in 185 year event. Notting Hill Gate and Holland Park stations closed, businesses on Portobello Road flooded and two local primary schools were affected. Water entered basements over the ground and by backing up through toilets and shower drains. Portobello Road, Ladbroke Grove, Pembroke Road, Colville Road and Westbourne Park Road were all named among the flooded streets.

Worth knowing: Arundel Gardens has a record of surcharging sewers going back to 1888. In 2016 and 2017 it became the site of a pilot scheme for rain gardens and other sustainable drainage to slow storm water down.

Burst mains

On the morning of 21 January 2021, a burst main closed Notting Hill Gate between Linden Gardens and Kensington Church Street. Water was about five feet deep in places and basements of homes and businesses flooded. If water comes in from the street, call 999 if anyone is at risk and report it to Thames Water, then call us to protect what is inside once it is safe.

Stucco terraces divided into flats

Most of the big houses here are now flats. Supply pipes, waste stacks and drains serve the whole building, and a leak on the top floor travels through everyone else’s ceilings. Communal gardens behind the houses mean drains often run through shared land too. We make your home safe, find the source and give you a clear account of what failed and whose responsibility it is.

Conservation and the front of the house

The Ladbroke Conservation Area, designated in 1969, counts pipework and wiring on front elevations among the changes that harm it, and the Pembridge appraisal says the same of plumbing, vents and flues on the outside of houses. If a repair needs new external pipework, we look for a route at the back first.

From Lansdowne Crescent to Pembridge Square, call 07862 142953 or WhatsApp us a photo. Our guide to a blocked toilet or drain explains what to do when water backs up.