Man and Van in Bloomsbury: Student and Flat Removals
Covering WC1A, WC1B, WC1E, WC1H, WC1N in Camden. Student halls, Georgian flats and university departments around Gower Street. Fixed price agreed before we start, with the parking, the lift and the access sorted in advance.
Bloomsbury runs on an academic calendar, and so does a lot of the moving here. Late June and late September are relentless: the Garden Halls on Cartwright Gardens emptying and refilling, postgraduate flats changing hands off Gower Street and Torrington Place, department offices shuffling between buildings around Gordon Square and Malet Street. The rest of the year is quieter and the flats are larger.
The garden squares give the area its shape and its awkwardness. A van can rarely stop directly outside a Bedford Square or Gordon Square address, so the carry is longer than the postcode suggests. We build that into the price rather than discovering it when the clock is running. East of Woburn Place, around Russell Square and the Brunswick Centre, the buildings and the jobs are different enough that we cover them on their own page.
The buildings in Bloomsbury
Four and five storey Georgian terraces dominate, on Gower Street, Bedford Square, Gordon Square and Tavistock Square, most of them converted into flats or into university and institutional offices with the original staircase left in place. The half landing turns are tight and the first flight from the street is often the worst of them. The late Victorian red brick mansion blocks, Bedford Court Mansions on Bedford Avenue and Ridgmount Gardens among them, do have lifts, but small ones, and long pieces go by the stairs. University halls make up the rest of the picture, and those have goods lifts, booking sheets and a security desk that will want to know who you are before anything comes through the door.
Parking, loading and access in Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury sits inside the Congestion Charge zone with Euston Road as the boundary just to the north, and the ULEZ applies here as it does across London; both are inside the price where they apply. Camden controls the parking and the bays around the squares are heavily used by residents and permit holders. Southampton Row and Woburn Place are busy bus routes with heavy restrictions, and Gower Street and Bloomsbury Street work as a one-way pair, so the approach has to be planned in the right direction. Torrington Place and Tavistock Place carry a protected cycle track, which has taken away kerb that used to be usable for loading. In practice we load from streets like Store Street, Chenies Street, Huntley Street or Montague Place and accept a short carry, or book a Camden suspension where the volume justifies it. Halls of residence almost always require a slot booked with the accommodation office.
Streets we work on regularly
- Gower Street
- Bedford Square
- Gordon Square
- Torrington Place
- Store Street
- Bedford Avenue
- Cartwright Gardens
- Great Russell Street
What we are usually asked for in Bloomsbury
- Student moves in and out of halls each June and September
- Postgraduate and academic flat moves within WC1
- Mansion block flat moves with small lifts on Bedford Avenue and Ridgmount Gardens
- University department and office relocations around Gordon Square
- Boxes and books to storage or out to the rest of the UK
Man and van in Bloomsbury: common questions
Do you do student moves out of halls?
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do in WC1. The halls almost all want a loading slot booked in advance and some restrict moving to certain hours during changeover week. Give us the hall name and the date and we will work to whatever their accommodation office allows.
Can the van get onto one of the garden squares?
Rarely right outside the door. The squares are ringed with permit bays that are full for most of the day, and some sections are restricted entirely. We usually load from the nearest side street, which adds a short carry. We take that into account in the price, so it does not turn into an extra charge later.
My mansion block lift is tiny. Will my furniture fit?
Boxes and chairs, yes. Sofas, wardrobes and long tables often do not, and in the Bedford Avenue and Ridgmount Gardens blocks those usually go down the stairs. Send us the lift door width and internal depth if you have them, or just a photo, and we will plan which pieces take which route before the day.
I only have books and boxes. Is that worth a van?
If it is more than a car load, yes, and it is cheaper than you would guess. Books are heavy for their volume, so what looks like a small job on paper often needs two people. Send a rough box count and we will tell you honestly whether a van is overkill.
Nearby areas we also cover
Moving in or out of Bloomsbury?
We reply to quote requests the same day, usually within a couple of hours.
Prefer to email? quotes@manandvancentrallondon.co.uk. We answer monday to sunday, 7am to 9pm.