Tower Hamlets · E1 · Moving van hire
Same-week slots · Fully insured · Local Shadwell fitters · Fixed written pricesWe provide moving van hire in Shadwell E1 for houses and flats around Shadwell Basin. From £38, quoted in writing before the visit, with one driver as standard on all three van sizes, with a second loader added by the hour where stairs, a lift booking or heavy furniture make a solo load impractical Doorframes and stair edges are protected with blankets before large items are carried through.
Overview
Booked mostly by social-housing-led households around Shadwell, moving van hire here covers supply-free fitting from £38. With 92% of Shadwell's 5,744 homes in flats, lift access and stair carries in E1 shape the slot length we hold.
How it works
Step 1
Roughly how many rooms or items, and whether there are stairs at either end. That is enough to recommend a van size and a realistic hour count.
Step 2
Van size, minimum hours and any second loader shown as separate lines, plus ULEZ, Congestion Charge or a permit where the postcode needs one.
Step 3
The driver loads and straps the van themselves; a second loader, if booked, works alongside them from the same start time.
Step 4
Furniture and boxes carried in at the new address in the same order they came out, so nothing sits blocking a hallway.
Step 5
Billing runs to the minute past the minimum booking, with no rounding up to a full extra hour for a few minutes over.
Why choose us
Same-day and next-day slots are common outside weekend peaks; weekend bookings are best made two to three days ahead in the busier boroughs. Shadwell (DLR, Overground) is the nearest station, so a E1 visit rarely needs a whole morning set aside.
We expect precast concrete panels and dense blockwork in E1, often with surface conduit, with 41% social-rented stock locally, block access is agreed with the estate office first in E1, and we carry the anchors, through-fixings and long bits that match. The mistake we spend most time undoing here is drilling blind into a panel with reinforcement or a buried cable behind it, as the Shadwell stock goes, the reality on the streets around Shadwell Basin.
Goods-in-transit and public liability cover apply to every booking. Drivers are DBS-checked where a building requires it, and the vehicle's ULEZ and Congestion Charge compliance is confirmed before the job is booked.
One driver as standard on all three van sizes, with a second loader added by the hour where stairs, a lift booking or heavy furniture make a solo load impractical. The Highway red route, cycle-superhighway kerb build-outs and estate lift booking.
Fixed prices
| Job | From | Typical time | What sets the price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small van and driver, per hour | £38 | Min. 2 hrs | A short wheelbase van fits a handful of boxes and small furniture — the lowest hourly rate because one driver loads alone. |
| LWB Transit-class van and driver, per hour | £48 | Min. 2 hrs | A long-wheelbase van takes a one-bed flat's furniture in a single trip, which is why it is the rate most bookings land on. |
| Luton with tail-lift and driver, per hour | £58 | Min. 2 hrs | The tail-lift removes the need to carry a washing machine or wardrobe down steps by hand, and the box body takes a two-bed load without a second run. |
| Second loader, per hour | £22 | Per hour worked | Optional labour on top of any van size — the driver alone can load light items, but wardrobes, sofas and stairs need a second pair of hands. |
| Each additional hour, any van | Same as base rate | 60 min | No new call-out charge for running over — the clock simply continues at the booked hourly rate. |
| Return trip to a second address same day | £25 | Per trip | Covers the extra mileage and time where a job needs a tip run, a storage drop or a second collection address. |
Small van and driver, per hour
£38 · Min. 2 hrs
A short wheelbase van fits a handful of boxes and small furniture — the lowest hourly rate because one driver loads alone.
LWB Transit-class van and driver, per hour
£48 · Min. 2 hrs
A long-wheelbase van takes a one-bed flat's furniture in a single trip, which is why it is the rate most bookings land on.
Luton with tail-lift and driver, per hour
£58 · Min. 2 hrs
The tail-lift removes the need to carry a washing machine or wardrobe down steps by hand, and the box body takes a two-bed load without a second run.
Second loader, per hour
£22 · Per hour worked
Optional labour on top of any van size — the driver alone can load light items, but wardrobes, sofas and stairs need a second pair of hands.
Each additional hour, any van
Same as base rate · 60 min
No new call-out charge for running over — the clock simply continues at the booked hourly rate.
Return trip to a second address same day
£25 · Per trip
Covers the extra mileage and time where a job needs a tip run, a storage drop or a second collection address.
Domestic prices are the total you pay; landlord, business and letting-agent invoices are plus VAT at 20%. The driver loading their own van is included in the hourly rate; a second loader is booked separately where the job needs stairs or heavy furniture carried. Where a bay suspension, permit, ULEZ or the Congestion Charge applies it is itemised in the written quote before the van is booked, never added afterwards.
Scope
My daughter and her friend employed hello services to move the contents of their flat in Stevenage to their new flat in London. They arrived a little early to ensure they were ready to start at 9am The flat was at the top of the three story block of flats and the three of them… Read in full →
Booked them for one Bed Flat move from Hammersmith to Epsom. They packed all my stuff and loaded in less than 2 hours. I was also able to travel in the van to the destination. Thanks to Alan and his colleague. Forgot his name.
I hired hello service for my move from London to Leicester. I recommend them as best as movers compare to other companies, so I won't be worry for my next move as thinking the difficulty of house removals. I appreciate for their hard working, friendship and taking care all my belonging.
Read all 3 Removals and moving reviews from Greater London customers →
Quoted verbatim from reviews customers left on our public Google and Trustpilot profiles. Nothing is edited, shortened beyond the link above, or written by us.
Coverage
Also in this area
Per-job pricing for a single load or a small flat move, not an hourly van hire.
Whole-property moves quoted as one fixed price from a video survey.
Desks, IT and storage moved out of hours with a fixed reinstatement date.
Matched with a crew that already works your borough's streets and blocks.
Standard crews are two people with a 3.5-tonne Luton; bigger clears run two vans or return the same day rather than overfilling.
Sofas, beds and wardrobes taken away and reused or recycled wherever they still can be.
Working in Shadwell
Shadwell E1 is post-war and social-housing-led: 92% of homes here are flats and 8% are houses, across 5,744 households (ONS Census 2021).
With 34% private renting against 25% owner-occupied, most E1 bookings land on a move-in day rather than a weekend.
Shadwell substrates run to precast concrete panels and dense blockwork in E1, often with surface conduit, with 41% social-rented stock locally, block access is agreed with the estate office first. Nothing is drilled until the wall has been sounded, because drilling blind into a panel with reinforcement or a buried cable behind it, as the Shadwell stock goes, the reality on the streets around Shadwell Basin is the mistake that costs a E1 customer twice.
Shadwell sits inside the Congestion Charge zone as well as ULEZ, so both are itemised on the quote rather than absorbed into an hourly rate. What shapes the job more is the neighbourhood itself — basin flats, Watney Market and the streets between Whitechapel and the river — which is why a E1 quote is not a Tower Hamlets average.
The Highway red route, cycle-superhighway kerb build-outs and estate lift booking. Nearest station is Shadwell (DLR, Overground), and one driver as standard on all three van sizes, with a second loader added by the hour where stairs, a lift booking or heavy furniture make a solo load impractical.
Area at a glance
Who lives in Shadwell and what they live in decides how moving van hire is quoted and how long a visit takes. These are the published Census 2021 figures for the Shadwell Basin & Ratcliffe and Shadwell North neighbourhood itself — not Tower Hamlets-wide averages, and not estimates.
15,674
Residents
Shadwell Basin & Ratcliffe and Shadwell North neighbourhood, Census 2021
5,744
Households
Median age 30.9
Flats vs houses
Residents by sex
Single-person households
31.9%
Privately rented
33.6%
Source: ONS Census 2021 via Nomis (TS008, TS041, TS007A, TS044, TS054, TS003), MSOA geography. Figures cover the ONS neighbourhoods Shadwell Basin & Ratcliffe, Shadwell North (E02000885, E02000888) — the published geography that covers Shadwell, not the whole borough. Neighbourhood names: House of Commons Library MSOA Names (OGL). Coordinates for the E1 district: 51.5174, -0.0594 — Outward postcode centroid, postcodes.io (Ordnance Survey Open Data).
Small van and driver, per hour starts at £38 in Shadwell, with 5,744 households on this patch — and 32% one-person households here, and every job is quoted as a fixed written price before a fitter is booked. Van size first, then whether a second loader is needed on this side of Tower Hamlets. A short wheelbase van suits a few items; a Luton with tail-lift is the rate most two-bed moves land on once the tail-lift's time saving on stairs is weighed against its higher hourly cost on E1 jobs — and 8% of Shadwell homes being houses, with this being London Borough of Tower Hamlets territory.
Most one-bed moves around Shadwell Basin fit a long-wheelbase van at £48 an hour; a two-bed with a washing machine or a wardrobe usually goes better in a Luton with tail-lift at £58 an hour, since the lift saves carrying heavy items down steps by hand on E1 jobs — and 5,744 households on this patch, with Tower Hamlets parking rules in play.
London Borough of Tower Hamlets runs controlled parking across much of Shadwell around Shadwell (DLR, Overground), with this being London Borough of Tower Hamlets territory — and 32% one-person households here, and loading a van from an unpermitted bay is exactly the situation a suspension is for. We check the street before booking and itemise a suspension only where it is genuinely needed across E1, with a median age of 31 in this neighbourhood.
Yes, a driver alone can manage boxes and light furniture in Shadwell, with this being London Borough of Tower Hamlets territory — and 41% social-rented stock nearby, but with 92% of homes here being flats, most bookings from an upper floor add a second loader at £22 an hour so a sofa or wardrobe on stairs does not slow the van down to a single item at a time.
For a small load, yes — you pay for driver and van time rather than a fixed whole-property quote across E1, with 8% of Shadwell homes being houses. With 34% of Shadwell homes privately rented, a short-notice room or studio move is the typical booking that suits the hourly rate better than a full removal on this side of Tower Hamlets — and 25% owner-occupation locally, with Shadwell Basin a few streets away.
Shadwell Basin is the marker we route to on E1 jobs, with Shadwell Basin a few streets away, and the Highway red route, cycle-superhighway kerb build-outs and estate lift booking. A E1 slot added to an existing Tower Hamlets round usually lands the same week rather than the next on the Shadwell rounds, with 8% of Shadwell homes being houses.
Same-day and next-day slots are common outside weekend peaks; weekend bookings are best made two to three days ahead in the busier boroughs around Shadwell (DLR, Overground), with this being a short walk from Shadwell (DLR, Overground). Shadwell sits close to Shadwell (DLR, Overground), with 25% owner-occupation locally, so we can usually add a E1 job to an existing Tower Hamlets round at short notice in Shadwell.
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Free quote · 1-hour reply
Two ways to go: price it yourself on the quote page, or pick a slot on the live booking calendar. Shadwell E1 jobs are confirmed in writing before anyone travels, and the same crew covers the rest of tower hamlets.
No deposit is taken until the price and slot are confirmed in writing.
