Kitchen extract cleaning in London

TR19® kitchen extract cleaning in London

London has more commercial kitchens packed into a small space than anywhere else we cover. Restaurants, pubs, hotels, staff canteens, school and hospital kitchens all push grease-laden air up through ductwork, and every one of those systems needs cleaning. We clean kitchen extract systems to BESA’s TR19® Grease specification across all of Greater London, including the City of London: canopy, plenum, filters, ductwork, risers, extract fan and discharge.

The process is the same wherever you are. We survey first, from your photos and details or on a site visit, then give you a fixed quote, usually within one working day. We clean when the kitchen is closed, then issue a TR19® certificate and a photo report with before and after pictures. As a BESCA Vent Hygiene Elite member, cleaning to BESA TR19® Grease, we give you paperwork your insurer and fire risk assessor will recognise. Our kitchen extract cleaning page explains each step.

If you’re not sure when the system was last cleaned, or a new lease has left you with someone else’s extract, a TR19 inspection with grease readings is a sensible first step. It shows where the grease is, how thick it is and what needs doing.

Basement kitchens, long risers and night work

Many London kitchens are not where a designer would put them. In older terraces and converted shops, the kitchen is often in the basement, with the extract running along the ceiling, up through several floors of offices or flats and out at roof level. Those long risers collect grease along their whole height, and they pass through floors where a duct fire could spread. A clean that only reaches the canopy leaves most of that grease behind. We follow the duct all the way, through access panels, and record any section that can’t be reached so it can be opened up with new access panels.

Busy restaurant streets, from the West End to local high streets in outer boroughs, mean kitchens that cook from lunch until late, often every day. That puts many of them in BESA’s heavier cleaning bands. It also means there is only one sensible time to clean: overnight, after the last covers. We work evenings, overnight and weekends as standard.

Getting there takes planning too. Many London streets have controlled parking, red routes and loading restrictions, and some buildings only allow contractors in at set times or through a managed loading bay. We agree access, parking and the route to the roof with you or your managing agent before the night, so the time on site is spent cleaning.

Tall buildings add another layer. Where a kitchen duct rises through offices or flats, it crosses several fire-resisting floors, often with fire dampers. Grease on a damper can stop it closing, so we can test dampers on the same night as the clean and record the result.

Food Standards Agency records list about 2,326 restaurants, cafés and canteens, 809 takeaways, 431 pubs and bars and 102 hotels and guest houses within roughly a mile and a half of the centre of London, plus 93 schools and colleges and 52 hospitals, care and childcare premises. Every one that cooks under a canopy has an extract that needs cleaning. Source: FSA food hygiene rating data, October 2026.

Our services in London

• Kitchen extract cleaning: Full TR19® Grease cleaning of your kitchen extract, from the canopy and filters through the ductwork to the fan and discharge, with a certificate and photo report.
• Canopy and hood cleaning: Kitchen canopies and hoods cleaned inside and out, along with the plenum behind the filters and the filters themselves, as part of a full TR19® Grease clean or between cleans.
• Ductwork cleaning: Kitchen extract ductwork cleaned along its full length, horizontal runs and vertical risers, through access panels, with grease readings before and after.
• Extract fan cleaning: Kitchen extract fans and their housings cleaned of grease, so the fan does its job and the last part of the system isn’t left as a fire risk.
• Fire damper testing: Fire dampers drop tested, reset and recorded, and smoke dampers tested through their controls, so you can show each one closes when it should.
• Air handling unit cleaning: Air handling units cleaned inside: filter sections, coils, drain trays, fans and internal surfaces, as part of TR19® Air ventilation hygiene.
• Ventilation duct cleaning: General supply and extract ductwork inspected and cleaned to BESA’s TR19® Air, the hygiene specification for ventilation beyond the kitchen.
• TR19 inspections and grease testing: Grease thickness testing, surveys and TR19® audits that show how much grease is in your kitchen extract and when it needs cleaning.
• Extract fan repair and replacement: Kitchen extract fans diagnosed, repaired or replaced, so smoke, heat and grease are pulled out of the kitchen and the extract system works as it should.
• Grease filter exchange: Dirty canopy grease filters swapped for clean ones on a regular schedule, so the first line of defence in your extract keeps working.
• Commercial kitchen deep cleaning: Commercial kitchens deep cleaned from ceiling to floor, including the places daily cleaning can’t reach: behind, under and inside the cooking equipment.
• Grease trap cleaning: Under-sink and inline grease traps emptied and cleaned on a schedule, so fats, oils and grease stay out of your drains and the sewer.

We also offer smoke damper testing, access panel installation, laundry extract cleaning, LEV testing, odour control maintenance and maintenance contracts.

Around London

From the centre, the nearest railway station is Elephant & Castle station. Well-known places nearby include Gabriel's Wharf (0.8 miles north-west), Surrey Dispensary (less than half a mile south-east) and Museum of Life Sciences (less than half a mile north-east). Around the centre, kitchens we look after include those in schools, pubs, cafés and halls near places such as Charles Dickens Primary School, Ark Globe Academy, London School of Musical Theatre and St George the Martyr. Green spaces within reach include Bellenden Road Nature Garden and Tower Hill.