Technicians on shift now
Nightshift Pest Control
A Victorian railway viaduct at night, its arches fitted out as bars and workshops and closed for the night, a converted warehouse across a cobbled street

Hackney

Pest control in Shoreditch

Much of Shoreditch was built to make, store and sell furniture. In the nineteenth century the furniture and printing trades filled these streets with showroom warehouses and workshops, and Curtain Road was lined with wholesale warehouses whose basements were used for packing and whose upper floors were served by hoists and loading doors. Much of that stock survives and little of it does what it was built for. Floors designed to hold timber and finished furniture now hold kitchens, bars and desks with food on them, which nothing in the construction anticipated.

Arrange a surveyReport a problem

Between Curtain Road and Shoreditch High Street runs a brick railway viaduct, built in the 1860s for the North London Railway and brought back into use for the London Overground in 2010, joining a new section at Holywell Lane. Arches along it hold event spaces, bars and workshops. An arch roof carries a working railway, water works through the brickwork, and most fit-outs answer that with a lining built inside the vault and a gap left behind it. The space that matters is behind the lining, and it is seldom opened.

The third thing is the clock. Curtain Road and Old Street are known for bars and clubs, some trading well past midnight, and the same streets fill with office and studio staff by morning. One converted building can hold a venue that closes in the small hours and offices above it, with cleaners and deliveries in between.

Nightshift works Shoreditch when it finally goes quiet, which here means the early morning rather than the evening. Technicians are on shift through the night rather than called out from home, and the phone is answered 24 hours a day, including weekends and bank holidays. We inspect lining voids, floor voids and roof terraces in that gap, specify proofing to suit the building, put in writing anything that needs the landlord's consent, and issue a written report the same day.

The building stock

Nineteenth century showroom warehouses and workshops from the furniture and printing trades, with basements, loading doors and hoists, converted into offices, studios, bars and restaurants with open floors and roof terraces, alongside brick viaduct arches let as event spaces, bars and workshops beneath a working railway, much of it within the South Shoreditch conservation area, with later office and hotel buildings at the edges.

Where the pressure comes from

The gap behind the arch lining

Most arch fit-outs handle water through the vault by setting a lining off the brickwork and draining the gap at floor level. That gap runs the length of the arch, dark and undisturbed, and is reached from the drainage channel along its base, which is exactly the route a rat takes. Nothing laid in the room touches it. Fixings into the arch structure are often restricted by the landlord, so proofing goes into infill walls, shutters, service entries and drainage outlets instead.

Showroom floors with food on every desk

Warehouse floors here were built open to display and store furniture, and office fit-outs have mostly left them open. An open plan office puts a kitchen, a breakout area and snacks at desks across one plate with no internal walls to interrupt movement, and the cabling to those desks runs through floor voids that reach every one. Monitoring follows those cable routes, because that is how mice reach the desks.

A venue below, offices above, one short gap

Where a late venue, a daytime café and offices share an address, the building passes from bar staff to cleaners to deliveries to office staff, and food is out somewhere in it for most of the day and night. Each occupier sees only its own hours, so none sees enough to report. The one view that shows the pattern is an inspection of the whole building in the short gap in the early morning, after the last closing time and before the first arrivals.

Event spaces that stand dark between bookings

Warehouse floors and arches hired for launches, exhibitions and parties are busy for a night and then shut, sometimes for days. Caterers bring food in, load-out leaves waste behind, and a population can settle with nobody on site to notice. Monitoring between bookings, with a visit straight after load-out, catches it early.

Food and drink served on the roof

Roof terraces on converted warehouses put food at the height where pigeons already sit on parapets and plant, and the birds learn service times quickly. Netting a terrace defeats the reason for having one. Clearing food and glass at close removes the reward, proofing goes on parapets and plant where fixings are acceptable, and falconry covers the rest.

A lining panel removed inside a railway arch fit-out, showing the dark gap and drainage channel between the stud wall and the curved brick
The gap behind the lining runs the length of the arch

Who we work for in Shoreditch

Common hotspots

Questions we are asked in Shoreditch

Is there 24 hour pest control in Shoreditch?
Yes. Nights are our technicians' standard shift rather than a callout, and the phone is answered 24 hours a day, including weekends and bank holidays. For a venue that closes in the small hours, that means a visit once the building is empty, when droppings and runs along a lining can actually be seen.
We lease a railway arch. What are we allowed to change?
Usually less than the fit-out would like, because the vault and piers are the landlord's and fixings into them are often restricted. We work inside that, proofing the infill wall, the shutter and the service entries and inspecting behind the lining where access allows. Anything needing the landlord's consent is identified in writing before it is fitted.
Mice turn up at desks in our office, not in the kitchen.
That is typical of an open warehouse floor with food spread across it, where the cable routes in the floor void connect every desk. We monitor along those routes, trace where mice come onto the floor, commonly from a riser, the lift pit or the basement, and proof those points.
Our event space is empty between bookings. When should you come?
After load-out rather than before the next event. An overnight visit once hirers and caterers have gone lets us inspect a clear space, deal with what was left behind and check monitoring before anything has had days to settle, and the written report is issued that same day.
Pigeons land on our roof terrace during service.
The work starts with a roof-level survey of where the birds wait between services: parapets, plant and nearby ledges. Those are proofed where fixings are acceptable. Where hardware is inappropriate, trained hawks are flown to disperse feral pigeons without harming them.
Will your paperwork stand up to an environmental health visit?
Every visit ends in a written report issued the same day, RAMS and COSHH are supplied for your file, and we can attend before opening or after close. We are BPCA members and CEPA certified. In an arch or a shared warehouse the report also records where a route runs beyond your own unit.

Related services

Pest control across other London districts

Arrange a survey in Shoreditch

Free and without obligation. Call 01892 871008 or request a survey. We answer 24 hours a day.