Areas we cover

Window cleaning in the City of London

SeeForth cleans the glass and facades of offices, restaurants and residential buildings across the Square Mile, from Smithfield to Leadenhall Market. Our office is at 86-90 Paul Street, EC2, a few minutes from Old Street, so a City job is a short drive rather than a day's travel.

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Two City buildings we have looked after

Every area page on this site is built on work we have actually done there. These two jobs show the kind of building the City throws up and how we handled each one.

Leadenhall Market, EC3

A wine bar and restaurant inside the market

High level reach and wash clean of the external glazing and an internal clean of the ground floor, carried out three times between September 2018 and March 2019. The building sits inside the covered Victorian market, so each visit was booked for a 6 am start, before the traders and the lunchtime crowd arrived. The client came back to us for a price on the awning and fascia after the first visit.

Long Lane, Smithfield, EC1

A design studio on the second floor

An urgent external and internal clean in April 2022. A slot opened up at short notice, we offered it that morning and the work was done the next day. Reach and wash from the pavement for the outside, hand tools and a squeegee inside, and a water mark free finish on both.

What we clean in the City

High rise window cleaning

Rope access and MEWPs for office towers and residential blocks, planned around the building's anchors and the streets below. See our high rise window cleaning page for the access methods.

Commercial window cleaning

Reach and wash from the ground for buildings up to five storeys, on a monthly, quarterly or one-off basis. Ground floor frontages, shopfronts and restaurant glazing included. Details on the mid rise window cleaning page.

Internal glass

Partitions, atriums, lobby glazing and internal windows, cleaned with hand tools and a squeegee so the finish is streak free and the office can carry on working.

Cladding and render

Soft washing of panels, render and stone at low pressure, so the finish comes clean without damage. See cladding and render cleaning.

Gutters and eyebolts

Gutter clearance before the autumn leaves block the downpipes, and eyebolt testing so the anchors are certified before anyone goes over the parapet.

Fire risk assessments

Offices, mixed-use buildings and blocks of flats across the City, assessed by IFSM registered Level 6 assessors. See fire risk assessments.

Working in the Square Mile

The City is a small area with a lot of rules, and most of them affect when and how we can get at the glass. This is how we plan around them.

  • Early starts. Most City buildings want external work finished before the pavements fill up. Our crews can start at 6 am, which is how the Leadenhall Market visits were booked, and work weekends where a street is too busy on a weekday.
  • Highway licences. A MEWP or a cradle standing on the public highway needs a licence from the City of London Corporation, and the licence takes time to come through. We tell you at quotation whether the job needs one and what that does to the start date.
  • Pedestrians and cordons. Pavements in the City are narrow and never empty. Where equipment is overhead we cordon the pavement and keep a person on the ground, and the method statement shows where both go.
  • Roof anchors. Rope access needs tested anchors. If the building's eyebolts have no current certificate we test them first, and we say so in the quote rather than on the day.
  • Older and listed buildings. Leadenhall Market, Smithfield and the streets around St Paul's are full of listed frontages. We use purified water and soft brushes on those, with no detergent and no pressure on the stone.
  • Paperwork before people. Site-specific RAMS, a named supervisor and our insurance documents go to the building manager before the first visit, in the format their permit-to-work system asks for.

Streets and districts we cover

Bank and Cornhill. Moorgate and London Wall. Liverpool Street and Bishopsgate. Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street. Aldgate and Tower Hill. St Paul's and Cheapside. Blackfriars and Fleet Street. Smithfield and the Barbican. Shoreditch and Clerkenwell sit just outside the boundary and are on our doorstep. For Docklands see our Canary Wharf page, and for the counties see Essex and Cambridge.

How to book a City window clean

  1. Send the address and a photo of the frontage or the elevation you want cleaned, and tell us whether it is a one-off or a schedule.
  2. We look at the building. For anything above five storeys or with awkward access we visit first. For a ground floor frontage a photo is usually enough.
  3. Fixed quote. The price, the access method, the start time and any licence lead time, all in writing.
  4. The clean. A crew arrives at the agreed time with the RAMS already signed off. You get a note when the job is done and an invoice that matches the quote.

Common questions

Do you need a permit to clean windows in the City of London?

Reach and wash from the pavement does not usually need one. A MEWP, a cradle or any equipment standing on the public highway needs a licence from the City of London Corporation. We tell you at quotation whether your job needs one, and we allow for the lead time in the programme.

How early can you start?

Our crews can start at 6 am, which is how the Leadenhall Market visits were booked. Weekend work is available where a weekday start would clash with deliveries or a busy pavement.

Can you clean the windows of a listed building?

Yes. We use purified water fed through carbon fibre poles with soft brush heads, and no detergent. On stone and timber frontages that is the method conservation officers prefer, because nothing is left on the surface and there is no pressure on the fabric.

Do you clean inside as well as outside?

Yes. Both City jobs described on this page included an internal clean. Inside we use hand tools and a squeegee, wipe the frames and sills, and work around the office so nobody has to move out.

How often should a City office have its windows cleaned?

A typical office schedule is quarterly for the external glass and monthly for a ground floor frontage, which collects traffic film and hand marks faster than the upper floors. We suggest a frequency after seeing the building, and you can change it at any time.

Are you based near the City?

Our office is at 86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE, a few minutes from Old Street and a short walk from Moorgate and Liverpool Street. Call 020 4634 3089 to talk to us about a building in the City.

Tell us the building and we will tell you how we would clean it. Call 020 4634 3089 or send the address and a photo.

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Contact us about your property

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