Office removals · Islington
Office removals in Islington, where the office is a townhouse over four floors
Office removals in Islington usually begin in a Georgian or Victorian townhouse converted into an office. The business is stacked up three or four small floors, with two or three desks to a room rather than one open-plan level. The only route between them is the staircase the house came with. Around Clerkenwell and the City fringe the occupiers are architecture practices, design consultancies and studios. Their contents are the difficult part: plan chests, sample libraries, large-format printers, model-making equipment and shelves of archive drawings. We walk every storey before pricing the job.
Written by Daniel, founder, Metro City Moves
The building
A townhouse in use as an office
The hard part
Plan chests and sample libraries
Quote
In writing, after a survey
What is different here
Office removals in Islington is its own job
What changes the plan and the price here, rather than a list that would fit any London postcode.
A business stacked vertically, not spread across one floor
The rooms in a converted townhouse are individually small and there are a considerable number of them. Terraces off St John Street, Exmouth Market and Rosebery Avenue hold a great deal of this kind of office. So do the quieter streets around Angel and Canonbury. Generally two or three people share each one, and the attic storey is often somebody's studio. The sequence therefore runs from the top floor downwards rather than room by room. Every load has to travel past the floors underneath it, so one flight stays clear and usable throughout. The staircase then determines what has to come apart. It was installed for domestic furniture, so a wide meeting table or a model-making bench either dismantles or it remains where it is. We take those measurements at the survey, and we tell you which pieces will travel in parts.
A plan chest is emptied first, then moved as separate units
A plan chest resembles a low cabinet and loads like a safe. Full of drawings it is considerably too heavy for a domestic staircase, and the drawers are the reason. The sheets therefore come out in the order they already sit in and travel flat in boxes. The drawers follow individually, and the carcass goes separately. We reassemble it on the floor it belongs to at the other end, rather than in the entrance hall. Number the drawers beforehand and the drawings go back where they came from on the same afternoon.
A sample library is weight rather than volume
Samples of stone, tile, timber, metal and glass occupy very little shelving and are extremely heavy. Packed into ordinary cartons they cannot be lifted at all, let alone carried down four flights of stairs. We deliberately pack them into small boxes instead, which produces considerably more cartons than the length of shelving suggests. That alters the carton count, the crew size and the hours, and it is what a studio most often leaves out of its own estimate. Give us the length of the shelf runs and we calculate from that.
A period building is not ours to alter
Many of these buildings are period properties and some may be listed. Removing a door from its hinges, lifting a handrail or fixing protection to the structure is the landlord's decision rather than ours. We request that permission in writing well before the date, and we work inside whatever comes back. If the landlord refuses, the piece dismantles further or it stays behind, and you hear which at the survey. Padding and sheeting still go down on the staircase and in the hall, and we lift them again before the crew leaves.
Where this applies
The parts of Islington this page is about
Named, because a page about an area in general is no use to anyone standing in one. These are the places where what is written above is what we actually find.
- Clerkenwell
- Exmouth Market
- St John Street
- Rosebery Avenue
- Angel
- Canonbury
- Before you fix a date
- Tell us how many storeys the business occupies and what sits on each one, because the load order runs from the top floor downwards.
- Ask the landlord in writing what we are permitted to do to the building: doors off hinges, handrails, fixings and floor protection.
- Empty the plan chests if you can, and tell us if you cannot, because they travel as drawers and a carcass.
- Measure the sample library by the length of its shelving rather than by the carton, and say what you are keeping.
- List anything built or installed in the room, such as a large-format printer or a model-making bench, so we can sequence the engineer first.
Questions
Office removals in Islington, answered
- Our office is a townhouse over four floors. How long does a move like that take?
- Longer than the same number of desks on a single level, and the survey measures that rather than estimating it. Each floor is a small move of its own and they share one staircase, so we work downwards from the top. We survey before we quote, the quote comes in writing, and the number you accept is the number you pay.
- Can you move plan chests full of drawings?
- We move the plan chest, but not full. The drawings come out in order and travel flat in boxes, and the drawers follow as separate units. The carcass goes on its own, and we reassemble it on the correct floor. Loaded, a chest is far too heavy for a domestic staircase.
- Our building may be listed. Does that prevent a move?
- No, although it does determine the method. We will not remove a door, lift a handrail or fix anything to the structure without the landlord's written permission. We request it early, because if the answer is no the piece dismantles further or it stays behind. Either way you know before the day rather than during it.
- Can you move a model shop and a large-format printer?
- Yes, with notice: a plotter, a laser cutter or a bench saw generally needs the supplier's engineer to disconnect it. Some of that equipment only comes down the staircase in pieces, so tell us what is in the room when you enquire. We then sequence our hours around the engineer rather than alongside him.
Keep reading
Everything else on office removals and on Islington
Office removals elsewhere in London
What people say
Reviews left by people we have moved
Left on our Google profile. Every card links back to it, so you can read the rest — including any we would rather you did not.
Good experience with Metro City Moves. 4 bedroom house seemed bit difficult to move from London to Liverpool, but they planned well and successfully executed. Thank you.
Saqib AwanRead on Google, opens in a new tab
Get started
Tell us where you are moving from
Send a postcode and we will come back to arrange the survey, which we can do on a video call.
What you get before you commit
- A survey first, by video call or in person, so the price is built on what is actually there.
- The quote in writing, listing what is included and what is not, so both sides read the same list.
- Anything you add before you accept is priced into the quote you sign off.
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