Emergency Plumber in South London
South London is mile after mile of Victorian terraces split into upper and lower flats, with interwar suburbs beyond. Call 07861 933265 at any hour for a leak, a burst or a blocked drain. There is no call-out fee and we usually arrive within 60 minutes.
Stop the water: In a converted terrace each flat may have its own stopcock in the kitchen or hall cupboard, or one valve under the floor by the front door may serve both. Interwar houses usually have it under the sink or the stairs. Keep away from wet electrics.
Upper and lower flats
Through Brixton, Peckham, Camberwell, Clapham and Lewisham, the typical home is half a Victorian terrace. Two flats, two bathrooms and two kitchens now drain into pipes laid for one family, and many of these houses still share a water supply pipe with the house next door. The calls that follow are familiar: a leak from the upper flat through the lower one’s ceiling, and a blocked drain that both flats say belongs to the other.
Around Greenwich and the river
Greenwich and the riverside add older Georgian houses with basements and pumped waste, plus new blocks on heat networks where the fault can be in the building’s plant rather than your flat.
The interwar south
Further out, Croydon, Bromley, Orpington and Sutton are mostly 1920s and 1930s semis with loft tanks, airing-cupboard cylinders and long gardens. Overflowing tanks, cylinders running short of hot water and outside taps freezing in winter are the everyday emergencies there. Old clay drains under tree-lined roads let roots in at the joints.
Rate
One rate across south London, day and night: £110 for the first hour, then £45 per half hour, plus parts. See also Battersea, Balham and Wimbledon.
South London at a glance
- Postcodes we cover
- SE5
- SW1A
- SW7
- SW10
- Streets we often visit
- Old Kent Road
- Walworth Road
- Brixton Road
- Coldharbour Lane
- Rye Lane
- Lordship Lane
- Denmark Hill
- Clapham High Street
- Lavender Hill
- Balham High Road
- Streatham High Road
- Tooting High Street
- Lewisham High Street
- Greenwich High Road
- Norwood Road
- Local landmarks
- Clapham
- Brixton
- Greenwich
- Lewisham
- Croydon
- Dulwich
Questions people ask
The drain is blocked and the upstairs and downstairs flats each say it is the other's problem. Who is right?
Usually neither on their own. In a converted terrace the drain under the building is normally shared under the leases or belongs to the freeholder. Once it joins pipes from neighbouring houses, Thames Water says it is responsible for the shared section, even under a garden. Clearing the blockage first and sorting out the bill afterwards stops the damage getting worse.
We share a water supply pipe with the house next door. Who fixes a leak on it?
Thames Water says neighbours who share a supply pipe have joint responsibility for the shared part and its costs. The section that runs only to your house is yours. Many south London terraces were built with shared supplies, so this comes up often.
Which parts of south London do you cover?
All of it, from Battersea, Clapham, Brixton and Peckham through Lewisham and Greenwich to Croydon, Bromley, Orpington and Sutton.
What does a south London emergency call-out cost?
There is no call-out fee. It is £110 for the first hour and £45 for each half hour after, plus parts, at any hour.
Sources
- Sewer pipe responsibility, Thames Water
- Pipe responsibility, Thames Water