Serving Essex & Hertfordshire Borders
Suede & Leather Cleaning in Essex & Hertfordshire Borders
Suede and leather cleaning in Essex and Hertfordshire reaches us in one of three ways, and which one applies depends on the letters at the start of your postcode. Ace of Suedes is in Edmonton, close to where London meets both counties. Addresses in the nearer half of each county are inside our door-to-door collection area.
Addresses further out use our tracked postal service. And because the workshop is near the A10 and the North Circular, driving a coat in yourself is often the easiest route of all. This page sets out which option fits where you live.
Which side of the line you are on
Our collection area is defined by postcode area, meaning the letters before the first number. If your letters are on the list, the whole of that postcode area is covered.
Collected from your door
| Postcode area | Essex and Hertfordshire places it includes |
|---|---|
| EN | Waltham Cross, Cheshunt, Waltham Abbey, Broxbourne, Hoddesdon, Potters Bar |
| IG | Loughton, Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell |
| RM | Romford, Hornchurch, Upminster, Grays |
| CM | Epping, Harlow, Brentwood, Billericay, Chelmsford, Bishop's Stortford |
| SG | Hertford, Ware, Stevenage, Hitchin |
| AL | St Albans, Harpenden, Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City |
| WD | Watford, Borehamwood, Radlett, Rickmansworth |
Sent by post
| Postcode area | Places it includes |
|---|---|
| SS | Southend, Basildon, Rayleigh, Wickford |
| CO | Colchester and the Tendring coast |
| CB | Saffron Walden and the far north-west corner of Essex |
| HP | Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring |
You do not need to work this out by hand. The online booking form reads your full postcode and offers collection where it is available and the postal service where it is not.
Collection, post or drive: how the three compare
The cleaning is identical whichever way an item arrives. What differs is the cost of the journey and how much effort it asks of you.
| Collection | Postal service | Bringing it in | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who can use it | Covered postcodes | Any UK address | Anyone |
| What the journey costs | Free on orders of £50 or more, £10 on smaller ones | You pay to post it to us, then return postage of usually £20 for each item | Nothing |
| How it is charged | Once for the whole order | Per item sent back | Not charged |
| Suits | Several pieces, bulky coats, rugs | One or two smaller pieces from further away | Anyone who passes this way on a weekday |
Two points follow from that table.
First, the postal charge multiplies and the collection charge does not. One jacket by post is a single return fee. Three coats is three. If you live just beyond the boundary, in Basildon or Hemel Hempstead for example, and have a wardrobe's worth to send, loading the car is likely to cost less than posting.
Second, size matters. Shoes, bags, gloves and most jackets travel well in a box. A full-length sheepskin, a fur coat or a hide rug is heavy and awkward to pack. The postal service page gives the current weight and insurance limits, and for anything large it is worth checking those before you tape up a parcel.
Driving to the workshop from Essex and Hertfordshire
The address is Unit F23a, Hastingwood Trading Estate, 35 Harbet Road, London N18 3HU, and the phone number is 0208 981 3232. Harbet Road is a turning off the Angel Road section of the North Circular.
- From Hertford, Ware, Hoddesdon and Cheshunt: the A10 runs straight down to the North Circular. Turn east there for Angel Road.
- From the M25: leave at junction 25 for the A10 southbound and follow the same route.
- From Harlow, Epping and Bishop's Stortford: take the M11 to its southern end, join the North Circular westbound and stay on it to Angel Road.
- From Brentwood and Chelmsford: the A12 meets the North Circular at Redbridge. Head north and west from there.
One thing to plan around: the workshop keeps weekday hours only, 9am until 3pm, Monday to Friday. There is no Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday opening, so a drop-off has to fit into a working day. If that is not possible, collection or post will suit you better.
Suede and leather cleaning in Essex and Hertfordshire: what life outside London does to it
Clothes worn in the commuter belt and the countryside beyond it age differently from clothes worn on the Tube. Two causes come up that city wardrobes largely escape.
Life in the car
Anyone who drives every day puts the same wear on a coat in the same places.
- Seat belt shine. The belt crosses one shoulder and the chest, and on suede it presses the nap flat into a glossy diagonal band. Where the fibres are only flattened, they can usually be lifted again. Where they have been worn away, the band is permanent.
- Fading on one side. Sunlight through a side window falls on the same arm and shoulder day after day. Dyed suede and leather lose colour in light, and the result is a garment that is paler on one side. That is colour loss, not dirt, so cleaning will not even it out.
- Heat. A jacket left on a back seat or parcel shelf through a summer afternoon is being slowly baked. Leather that is repeatedly overheated dries out and stiffens.
- A worn patch at the hip or cuff. Seat bolsters and steering wheels rub the same spots on every journey.
Smooth leather is handled through our leather garments service and suede through suede, sheepskin and shearling garments. Thin or split areas can be looked at as a repair.
Wood burners and open fires
A stove or an open fire is common in village and country houses, and it affects coats in two ways.
The first is smell. Wood smoke gets into anything hung in the same room or the hall beyond it, and sheepskin and fur hold it for a very long time. You stop noticing it at home. Other people notice it the moment you walk into a warm room. Because the smell is inside the fleece or the lining, surface cleaning does not reach it, which is the reason we offer ozone treatment and odour removal as a separate step.
The second is dryness. The warmest spot in the house is the natural place to hang a wet coat, and it is the worst one. Skins dried quickly in front of a fire lose their oils and turn hard. A cool room and a day's patience do far less harm.
For sheepskin in particular, our sheepskin and shearling coat guide goes into drying and day-to-day care in detail.
If you are posting from further out
For SS, CO, CB and HP postcodes, and anywhere else in the UK, the process is simple. Book online, then pack the item in a rigid box with tissue or a cotton bag around it, never plastic. Include the contact and consent form from the postal service page so we know who the parcel belongs to and where it is going back to. Use a tracked and insured service to send it. The item is assessed when it arrives and returned by tracked post once the work is finished.
Frequently asked questions
- Do you collect from Essex?
- From a large part of it. The IG, RM, CM and EN postcode areas are all covered, which takes in Loughton, Romford, Brentwood, Epping, Harlow, Chelmsford and Waltham Abbey among others. The SS, CO and CB areas, including Southend, Basildon, Colchester and Saffron Walden, use the postal service.
- Do you collect from Hertfordshire?
- Yes, across most of the county. The EN, WD, AL and SG postcode areas are covered, so Cheshunt, Watford, St Albans, Hatfield, Hertford and Stevenage are all included. HP postcodes around Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring are outside the area and go by post.
- How do I know which option my address gets?
- Start a booking online and enter your full postcode. The form checks it against the collection area and shows collection if you are covered, or the postal service if you are not. Dropping an item off in person is open to everyone.
- I live just outside the collection area. Can I drive my items to you?
- Yes. Anyone can bring items to the workshop at Unit F23a, Hastingwood Trading Estate, 35 Harbet Road, London N18 3HU. A drop-off is free. Opening is Monday to Friday, 9am until 3pm.
- Is posting more expensive than having items collected?
- It can be when you have more than one piece. Collection is charged once per order, free at £50 or more and £10 below that. Return postage is usually £20 for every item sent back, on top of what you pay to post the parcel in. For a single small item from a distance, post is still the practical choice.
- My suede jacket has a shiny stripe where the seat belt sits. Can it be removed?
- Often, yes. The stripe is usually nap that has been pressed flat and polished, and that can be lifted during cleaning. If the belt has worn the fibres away altogether, the surface cannot be rebuilt, so the result depends on how far it has gone.
- One arm of my leather jacket has faded from the sun. Will cleaning fix it?
- Not on its own. Fading is dye that has been lost to light, so there is nothing to wash out. Evening the colour up is restoration work, and whether it is worthwhile depends on the leather and how marked the difference is. It needs to be seen to be judged.
- Are you open at weekends?
- No. The workshop is open on weekdays only and is closed on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays. If you cannot get here during the week, book a collection if your postcode is covered, or use the postal service.