Office removals · South London
Office removals in South London, a region of small centres and few crossings
Office removals in South London rarely mean one business district. The office space is spread across Croydon, Bromley, Lewisham, Wimbledon, Sutton, Vauxhall and the Greenwich Peninsula. Most moves therefore run between two small centres, with no direct road and no railway connection that helps. Then the river gets involved: a cross-river office move is settled by which crossing the vehicle is allowed to use, and by the alternative if that crossing shuts. Both are decided before the day rather than on it.
Written by Daniel, founder, Metro City Moves
Settled first
The crossing, and its fallback
Usual building
A suite over a shop, or a unit on a yard
Quote
In writing, after a survey
What is different here
Office removals in South London is its own job
What changes the plan and the price here, rather than a list that would fit any London postcode.
The crossing is a decision, taken at the survey
An office move has an access window at each end of it. A vehicle held at the river loses the far end of that window, not merely an hour, so the route is a decision rather than a satnav instruction. The crossings do not behave alike either: Tower Bridge lifts for river traffic on times published in advance, and a listed lift can still be cancelled at short notice. The Woolwich Ferry runs to a timetable, and the service can stop in fog or on a high tide. The Blackwall Tunnel carries a user charge in each direction. We name the crossing and the alternative on the plan before you fix a date.
Two small centres, with nothing running between them
There is very little Underground south of the river. The network here is National Rail, the trams, the Overground and the DLR, and most of it points at the centre rather than across the region. A Wimbledon to Lewisham move is ordinary roads, junctions and traffic lights from beginning to end. It also means your team cannot carry the odd screen or box over by train, the way a central London office can. Everything that moves has to travel on the vehicle, so the inventory agreed at the survey is the inventory that arrives.
Suites over shops, and units on a shared yard
A lot of the office space here is a small suite above a parade of shops, or a converted light-industrial unit on a trading estate. Above a shop, the office door sits beside the shopfront, and the stair behind it is a domestic stair rather than a commercial one. The retailer below is trading while you move. The loading restriction on that frontage is usually timed, so we agree which end of the day the vehicle occupies it. On an industrial estate the shutter is generous and the yard is shared, which means other tenants' deliveries arrive while you are loading.
Getting a crew to a dispersed site, early or late
These moves happen outside trading hours. A site in Sutton, Bromley or Vauxhall is then reached by road, because the trains that do run are going somewhere else. The crew travels with the vehicle from the depot and arrives together, so what we give you is an arrival window rather than a time to the minute. It is also why the day is built around one loaded run. A second trip back across the region late in the evening costs more of the night than the mileage suggests.
Where this applies
The parts of South London 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.
- Tower Bridge
- Blackwall Tunnel
- Woolwich Ferry
- Wimbledon
- Lewisham
- Vauxhall
- Before you fix a date
- Send both full postcodes with the enquiry, and say if the move crosses the river — that is the first thing we plan.
- If the office is above a shop, ask the retailer below which part of the day the frontage can be blocked.
- Find out who physically opens up at both ends: in a small suite it is usually a landlord or an agent, not a security desk.
- On a trading estate, check whether the yard is shared and whether other tenants have deliveries booked for your day.
- Make the inventory complete at the survey — anything somebody plans to carry over later rarely gets carried over.
Questions
Office removals in South London, answered
- Our new office is north of the river. What changes?
- The route becomes part of the plan. We choose the crossing and its fallback at the survey. A vehicle turned back from a crossing has a long way round, and it is the far end of the day that gets lost. Where a crossing carries a user charge, it appears on the quote as its own line.
- Why does a move between two South London centres take longer than it looks?
- Because there is no through route between most of them. A Wimbledon to Lewisham run is ordinary roads the whole way, and the trains and trams are no help to a loaded vehicle. We time the run on the roads rather than on the distance, and we say which part of the day it is driven in.
- Our office is high up in a Croydon town-centre tower. Is this the right page?
- Read office removals in Croydon instead. A tower move turns on one building — the goods lift, the dock and the booking for both. This page is for a move across the region, where the crossing and the carry at either end decide the plan.
- How do you price an office move across South London?
- We survey before we quote, the quote comes in writing, and the number you accept is the number you pay. What moves the number here is the carry at each end, the crossing, and whether the vehicle can stand where the door is.
Keep reading
Everything else on office removals and on South London
Office removals elsewhere in London
Related reading
Before you book in South London
Parking suspensions, red routes and the ULEZ — read from the councils' and TfL's own pages, with the date each fact set was checked.
- Guide
Bromley parking suspension: the cheapest and fastest of the boroughs we track
Bromley charges £40 a bay per day plus a £30 admin fee and asks only three working days' notice, which makes it the cheapest and fastest borough we track.
Read it - Guide
Lambeth parking suspension: the fee before the fee
Lambeth charges a £98.83 admin fee before a single bay is held, £57.55 a space per day, and up to £156.31 more if you apply with under a week's notice.
Read it - Guide
Moving to Battersea: the two completely different moves it can be
Moving to Battersea is two jobs: a Nine Elms tower where the goods lift rules, or a Victorian terrace where Wandsworth charges £43.40 to hold the kerb.
Read it - Guide
Moving to Clapham: the flat share, the terrace, and the £156 you can avoid
Moving to Clapham usually means a converted Victorian terrace and a Lambeth bay suspension, where applying a few days late can add £156.31 to the same booking.
Read it - Guide
Southwark parking suspension: the £93 you pay whatever happens
Southwark charges £53.15 a space per day plus a £93 admin fee that it never refunds, asks for seven days' notice, and names removal vans as a reason to apply.
Read it - Guide
London parking suspensions for moving house: what every borough charges
The same one-day parking suspension costs £66.66 in Camden and £360 in Haringey. Fees, notice periods and removals concessions for nine boroughs, compared.
Read it
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.
Talk to us about your move
Every London postcode, 16 services, and answered at any hour — including nights and weekends.