Households in the Carnival area can book a free basement and frontage clean until 5pm on Thursday 10 September. The council cleared more than 300 tonnes of waste over two nights.

Households inside the Notting Hill Carnival area have until 5pm on Thursday 10 September to book a clean of their basement or frontage from the council. For most properties the service is free.

Around 200 staff and 30 waste vehicles cleared more than 300 tonnes of waste from the Carnival footprint over two overnight shifts, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea said on Tuesday. Street washing is still going on, and the council expects most streets to be back to a high standard by Saturday 5 September.

How to book the clean

The council runs the booking line itself. From its clean up after Carnival page:

  • Deadline: 5pm on Thursday 10 September. Bookings close then, free or paid.
  • Phone 020 7361 3001, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, or email the address given on the council’s page.
  • The service is free for residential basements and frontages inside the event area that were affected by Carnival.
  • It is not free where Carnival-related activities, such as a party, took place in your own basement or frontage. The council says it records the properties where that happens, and uses those records to decide eligibility.
  • If your property does not qualify, a basic sweep and litter clearance costs £31.50, and an additional wash down costs £78.75.

Graffiti: do not report it

The council is running a separate graffiti removal programme across the Carnival area over the coming month. Its instruction to residents is unusual and worth noting: you do not need to report graffiti caused during Carnival, because crews will work through the affected streets themselves.

The limit is height. The council removes graffiti at ground-floor level only. Anything above that is the property owner’s job.

What the clean-up involved

The council put the attendance at the 60th Carnival at more than two million people. Its waste figures for the operation that followed:

The Notting Hill Carnival 2026 clean-up in numbers Council figures for the clean-up after Notting Hill Carnival 2026: around 200 staff, 30 waste vehicles, more than 300 tonnes of waste cleared over two overnight shifts, and around 30 per cent of it expected to be recycled. Street washing is due to finish by Saturday 5 September, and cleaning bookings close at 5pm on Thursday 10 September. The Carnival clean-up in numbers Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, 1 September 2026 200 staff, working overnight 30 waste vehicles 300+ tonnes of waste cleared 30% of it to be recycled Two dates that matter: street washing finishes Saturday 5 September. Cleaning bookings close 5pm, Thursday 10 September. Source: RBKC, Carnival clean-up returns streets to normal, and its clean up after Carnival page. Graphic by The Kensington Post
The council's own figures for the operation that followed the 60th Carnival.

Crews worked through the night from Sunday into Monday and again from Monday into Tuesday. Around 30 per cent of the waste collected is expected to be recycled.

Cllr Josh Rendall, the council’s lead member for transport, parks and clean streets, said residents on the route need their streets “handed back to them quickly and in good condition”, and that “while the borough slept, hundreds of our staff were working through the night”.

Gary O’Hagan, regional manager for SUEZ, the council’s contractor, said cleaning the streets “not once but twice in 48 hours is a huge undertaking that takes months of careful planning and preparation”.

The post-Carnival meeting is on 10 September

The council has scheduled a post-Carnival meeting for the same day the cleaning bookings close:

  • Thursday 10 September, 6.30pm to 8pm
  • The Tabernacle, 34 to 35 Powis Square, W11 2AY

The details are on the council’s Notting Hill Carnival page, which also names Notting Hill Carnival Ltd as the event’s organiser.

Bins are back to normal

Rubbish and dry mixed recycling were not collected on Monday 31 August or Tuesday 1 September. Normal collections resumed on Thursday 3 September, which is today.

Two exceptions are still running:

  • Food waste due on 31 August or 1 September was collected on Wednesday 2 September instead.
  • Garden waste customers in the south of the borough have their next collection on Saturday 5 September, moved from Wednesday 2 September.

Our bin collection days page has the full schedule for the rest of the year.

What it means for you

If your basement or frontage took the worst of the weekend, the deadline is the thing to act on. Book by 5pm next Thursday and, in most cases, you will not pay. Leave it later and the council’s own page says bookings are closed, free or paid.

If you hosted anything on your own frontage, expect to be charged. The council is explicit that it logged which properties had Carnival-related activity, and that those records decide who qualifies.

If you have graffiti at ground level, do nothing. Reporting it will not speed anything up, because the crews are already working through the streets. Above ground floor, it is yours to sort out.

Roads in the area are open again, but the borough’s wider works programme has not paused. Our roadworks and travel page has the current closures, including eight junction closures along Kensington Road through September.

Sources