The SE20 stock around The Watermen's Almshouses is mainly Victorian. ONS records 60% flats, 40% houses and 8,101 households in Penge.
24% of households rent privately and 43% own, which is why rubbish removal demand here peaks around tenancy changeovers and completion dates.
Walls are precast concrete panels and dense blockwork; locally that also means often with surface conduit — and with 24% of homes here privately rented, it sets the booking date as often as the job does, so the fixing that matters in Penge is chosen on site — the usual failure here is in SE20, drilling blind into a panel with reinforcement or a buried cable behind it — and with 35% one-person households in Penge, one adult is usually the only pair of hands on site.
Two streets can behave very differently in Penge: victorian terraces and almshouses below Crystal Palace, with a reviving high street. The quote reflects the street the job is actually on. Penge is outside the Congestion Charge zone but inside ULEZ; our vehicles are compliant, so nothing is added for it.
On access, steep approaches from Crystal Palace, narrow terraced streets and permit bays — one reason one person and a car for boot-loads; two crew and a 3.5-tonne Luton for anything from a quarter-load upward. Fitters travelling in use Penge East (Southeastern).
