Plumber & drainage engineers in Clerkenwell & Farringdon

Clerkenwell grew up as a working district of printers, watchmakers, gin distillers and warehouses, and much of that building stock survives in new uses. Former factories and warehouses have become loft apartments, design studios and offices, while Georgian terraces around Myddelton Square and Amwell Street sit alongside Victorian housing blocks and post-war estates. Most of the area is in the London Borough of Islington; the southern edge of Farringdon, around Smithfield, falls within the City of London.

Warehouse conversions are a particular source of drainage trouble. The original buildings were designed for a few toilets on each floor, not a kitchen and bathroom in every flat. Conversions often add long horizontal waste runs, pumped systems and connections into old clay or cast-iron drains below the ground floor. Shallow falls, tight bends and joints between old and new materials are where blockages and leaks tend to start, often several floors away from where the symptoms appear.

The district also has the River Fleet running beneath it. The Fleet was covered over long ago and now flows under Farringdon Road as part of the sewer network, heading for the Thames at Blackfriars. In very heavy rain any combined sewer can surcharge, and low-lying properties feel it first. When we are called to a flooding drain, we work out whether the problem is a blockage in your own pipework or an overloaded sewer, clear what can be cleared with jetting, and inspect the line with CCTV.

Restaurants on Exmouth Market, St John Street and around Smithfield add commercial grease to the mix, and Farringdon station, now served by the Elizabeth line, keeps the surrounding streets busy with office workers. Access is generally better than in the West End, but much of the area has controlled parking, Farringdon Road is busy, and most of Clerkenwell is inside the Congestion Charge zone and ULEZ. We plan each visit around the street, and because we work 24 hours a day, out-of-hours visits for businesses are easy to arrange.