Hurlingham is the quiet end of Fulham: the streets between the New King’s Road and the river, wrapped round the Hurlingham Club and Hurlingham Park. The club has been here since 1869. The park beside it was once the club’s number one polo ground. The London County Council bought it in 1951, and since 1954 it has been a public park, with a running track and tennis courts laid out on the old polo field.
Family houses by the park
The houses run larger here than in most of SW6. Hurlingham Road looks straight out over the park, and some of the houses along it are detached and set back behind their own gates. From Napier Avenue across to Broomhouse Lane, kitchens in homes this size get cooked in for a crowd, and a common set-up is a built-in double in a tall unit, a five-burner gas hob and a chimney hood above it.
Self-cleaning ovens
A lot of refitted kitchens now have a pyrolytic oven, which runs a very hot programme and burns spills down to a pale ash. That looks after the enamel. On many models, though, the racks and runners must be taken out before the programme starts, so they stay as greasy as ever, and fat that has crept in between the panes of the door glass is still sitting there afterwards. When we clean one, the racks come out to soak, the ash is wiped out by hand, and the door is split wherever the maker built it to come apart.
Hobs and hoods
With a five-burner gas top, the pan supports, caps and crowns are soaked alongside the oven racks, and the mesh or baffle filters from the hood follow them in. A double with a gas hob is £138; add the extractor and the three come to £143 as a set. Allow about three hours for the double, and roughly another hour if the hob and hood are on the same visit.
Getting to Hurlingham
Putney Bridge station is about five minutes’ walk from the club’s main gate on Ranelagh Gardens, but the streets further east are a long walk from any station. That makes no odds to us, because we drive and bring everything we need. If the house has a drive, the van can pull in off the street. If not, these roads are in Hammersmith and Fulham’s pay-by-phone zones, and a paid bay is charged at cost.
Hurlingham prices
| Clean | Price |
|---|---|
| Single oven clean | £77 |
| Two-cavity oven | £110 |
| Single wide oven | £114 |
| 90cm range cooker | £143 |
| 100cm range | £167 |
| AGA, two oven | £143 |
| Hob, ceramic | £23 |
| Gas hob | £28 |
| Cooker hood | £28 |
| Oven, booked with a tenancy clean | £31 |
A bigger house does not mean a bigger bill: the list is the same as on any Fulham street. Double oven cleaning and extractor hoods each have a page of their own, and Parsons Green is just north across the New King’s Road. Every smaller extra, down to a warming drawer door or a bulb change, is on the price list.