The SE20 stock around The Watermen's Almshouses is mainly Victorian. ONS records 60% flats, 40% houses and 8,101 households in Penge.
Private renting sits at 24% and owner-occupation at 43%; the first group books shed clearance and removal at short notice, the second plans it.
Penge substrates run to often with surface conduit — and precast concrete panels and dense blockwork — where 43% owner-occupation means the same home is booked again rather than a new tenant each year. Nothing is drilled until the wall has been sounded, because in SE20, drilling blind into a panel with reinforcement or a buried cable behind it — measured on the walk in from Penge East (Southeastern) rather than assumed from a map is the mistake that costs a SE20 customer twice.
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 two crew and a Luton on a standard timber shed; three crew where the shed is a workshop size, the base is concrete or the only route out is through the house. Fitters travelling in use Penge East (Southeastern).
