Emergency plumber in Swiss Cottage

Swiss Cottage grew up around a road junction and a railway, and its housing reflects that mix: tall late-Victorian houses with turrets and gables, red-brick mansion blocks, 1930s flats and the post-war towers of the Chalcots Estate. Each type of building fails in its own way, and we plan every call around the kind of home we are going to.

Low ground, shallow foundations and heavy rain

Much of the area east of West End Lane is now the South Hampstead Conservation Area, which was called the Swiss Cottage Conservation Area until 2011. Local historians describe houses on shallow foundations, a high water table and damp, with widespread subsidence after the droughts of the 1980s. Ground like that moves, and moving ground puts strain on old pipes and drains.

It also floods. On 12 July 2021, a storm that Thames Water described as a one in 179 year event flooded more than 100 homes across Camden. Goldhurst Terrace, Fairhazel Gardens, Belsize Road and Priory Road were among the worst hit, and basements, including the Winch community centre’s, filled with water. Camden has since built rain gardens on Goldhurst Terrace and at the corner of Belsize Road and Priory Road to slow the water down.

If you live below street level, a few precautions help: know where your stopcock and your fuse board are, keep valuables off the floor, and ask us about a non-return valve on your drain, which stops sewage backing up into the home.

Mansion blocks and towers

The red-brick mansion blocks of Fairhazel Gardens, Canfield Gardens and Compayne Gardens were built with shared pipework that runs through every flat. The Chalcots Estate’s towers on Adelaide Road and Fellows Road, built in the late 1960s, are up to 23 storeys high, with risers that feed floor after floor. In both, a leak in one home quickly becomes a problem for the homes below. We make your flat safe, find the source and give you a clear account of what needs fixing, whether that is in your flat, a neighbour’s or the building’s.

When the problem is in the street

Swiss Cottage has seen what a failed main can do. In December 2022 a large water main burst on Belsize Road and flooded around 100 properties, a week before Christmas. If water is pouring into the street, call Thames Water. If it is coming into your home, call us too, because we can protect what is inside while the main is repaired.

From Finchley Road to Fairfax Road, call 07862 142953 or WhatsApp us a photo. Our guide to a blocked toilet or drain explains what to do if water is coming back up.