Need an electrician in Archway? F & A Electrical covers all of N19 — Archway itself, Upper Holloway, Whitehall Park, the Hillrise and Girdlestone estates, St John’s Way and the streets climbing towards Highgate — from our base in Tottenham, ten minutes down Seven Sisters Road and up Holloway Road. NICEIC registered, Part P registered, 9.32/10 from 242 reviews on Checkatrade. Minimum charge £90 + VAT (£108 inc VAT); every price below is labour and certification only, with materials itemised separately. Call 07407 627542 or 07500 721453, or send a photo of the board on WhatsApp for a fixed quote.
Tufnell Park sits immediately south of Archway on the same N19 streets, and the villas and converted terraces there need a different approach to Archway’s flats — if your address is on Tufnell Park Road, Carleton Road, Dalmeny Avenue or the Celia and Hugo Road grid, read our Tufnell Park page instead, which covers the Islington–Camden boundary and the conservation area Article 4 direction.
What we do in Archway
N19 is tall Victorian terraces cut into flats, and that is where most of our Archway work comes from: three or four flats sharing one original intake in the hallway, a consumer unit for each flat squeezed under the stairs, and EICRs that come back with C2s for missing RCD protection, undersized tails and borrowed neutrals between floors. When the report is unsatisfactory the fix is usually a consumer unit replacement rather than a rewire, but the Whitehall Park houses that have never been touched since the 1970s do sometimes need one — our rewire cost guide has honest 2026 numbers.
On the estates — Hillrise, Girdlestone off Highgate Hill, Elthorne up on Hornsey Rise — it is council and housing-association stock, which means storage heaters on an off-peak supply, immersion timers, rewireable boards and a communal riser that belongs to the landlord rather than to you. Archway also has a real HMO population: Whittington Hospital staff, students, shared professional lets. A large share of our N19 EICRs are the HMO version written up for Islington’s additional licensing. Anything that has actually gone off goes through our emergency electrician Islington page, and we cover the rest of the borough from N1 — Angel, Barnsbury and Canonbury up to Holloway N7.
Archway prices — labour and certification only
| Job | Price |
|---|---|
| Minimum charge / small jobs (sockets, switches, minor faults) | £108 (£90 + VAT) |
| Standard labour, per hour after the first | £90 + VAT |
| EICR — flat or small house | from £140 — see EICRs in Islington |
| EICR — HMO or large house | from £180 — HMO EICR guide |
| EICR remedial work (C1/C2 fixes) | from £108 — remedial cost guide |
| Consumer unit (fuse board) replacement | from £550 — fuse boards in Islington |
| Main earthing and bonding alongside a board | from £108 |
| Extra double socket (surface or chased) | from £108 |
| EV charger (off-street or allocated bay) | from £450 labour — EV chargers in Islington |
| PAT testing (HMOs, offices, short-lets) | £5 per appliance, £108 minimum |
| Out of hours (before 8am, after 6pm, weekends) | £60 + VAT per half hour on top |
Labour and certification only, with consumer units, cable, accessories and fittings itemised separately so you can see what is materials and what is us. Same-day EICRs are usually possible when a licence, tenancy or completion deadline is close, and we quote the out-of-hours rate before we start rather than adding it afterwards — our out-of-hours cost guide explains how that is worked out.
What we actually find in N19 wiring
Five things come up again and again in Archway, and knowing which one you have usually tells you whether the answer is a £108 visit, a £550 board or a rewire.
No main protective bonding. In a converted terrace the incoming water and gas services are in the hall or a basement cupboard, the flats were split off decades later, and nobody ever ran a 10mm bonding conductor from the main earthing terminal. It is the single most common C2 we write in N19 and it is also one of the cheapest to put right — from £108 alongside other work.
Undersized meter tails and shared intakes. One original intake in the hallway feeding three or four flats, often with 16mm tails where 25mm is wanted, no main switch for the individual flat, and meters stacked in a cupboard that was never designed for them. This is the finding that most often needs the supplier or the freeholder involved rather than just us, and we will tell you which it is before quoting.
Borrowed neutrals between floors. When a house was split into flats by whoever was cheapest, lighting circuits frequently cross between flats — the upstairs landing light taking its neutral from the downstairs circuit. It trips RCDs in a way that looks like a fault in the wrong flat entirely, and it is the reason we test the whole house when we can rather than one flat in isolation.
Lighting circuits with no earth at the switch. Standard on anything wired before the 1960s and still live in plenty of Archway flats. It is not dangerous with plastic fittings, but it stops you putting up a metal pendant or a metal switch plate, and it is why so many “just change this light fitting” jobs turn into a bit more work.
Unnotified loft rooms and extensions. Archway terraces have been converting lofts for thirty years, and a good share of those rooms are fed from a spur off an upstairs ring with no RCD, no certificate and smoke alarms that are not interlinked. If you are buying, selling or letting, that is the thing a solicitor or a licensing officer asks about. Our C1/C2/C3 guide explains how it gets coded.
Two more worth a mention: damp in lower-ground flats on the hill, which drags insulation-resistance readings down and makes a perfectly serviceable circuit look worse than it is, and old TN-S earthing where the earth comes off a lead service cable. Neither automatically needs a rewire; both need testing properly rather than guessing.
Victorian conversions, estates and the converted towers
Archway is really three kinds of building and each one wants a different quote.
The Victorian and Edwardian terraces — Junction Road, Bickerton Road, Vorley Road, Pemberton Gardens, St John’s Way, and the Whitehall Park streets off Hornsey Lane — are the bulk of it. Solid walls, lath-and-plaster ceilings and nowhere easy to run a cable, so expect some surface trunking or a bit of making good. In the Whitehall Park conservation area, work that affects the outside of the building may be restricted, so if a job involves an external cable run or an outside light, ask us before you commit to a position.
The estates — Girdlestone, Elthorne, Hillrise — are managed stock. The useful thing to know is where your installation stops and the landlord’s begins: the riser, the intake and the communal lighting are theirs, and work on them needs the housing office’s permission and usually a permit, which takes a few days. Inside the flat, the common jobs are a board change, RCD protection and sorting out storage heating that has been patched rather than replaced.
The converted blocks and towers around the junction, including the former Archway Tower, are a third thing again: a three-phase landlord’s supply, sub-mains up to each flat, communal and emergency lighting, and an EICR on the landlord’s supply that is a separate document from the one for your flat. Managing agents here usually want the work out of hours and through a permit — see the out-of-hours and access guide for what that adds. Emergency lighting in the common parts has its own annual and three-yearly test regime, covered on our emergency lighting certificate page.
Archway landlords: Islington licensing and the paperwork
Islington’s additional HMO licensing covers the whole borough, so an Archway house let to three or more unrelated people needs a licence — and the licence application asks for a current, satisfactory EICR. Check the council’s current scheme for your address before you apply, because the detail does change.
On top of that, every private tenancy in England needs a satisfactory EICR at least every five years under the 2020 Electrical Safety Regulations, a copy to the tenant within 28 days, and any C1, C2 or further-investigation item put right within 28 days of the report. Civil penalties for electrical safety breaches rose on 1 May 2026 to up to £40,000 — our Renters’ Rights Act guide sets out the detail and the dates.
The practical list is shorter than it sounds. A satisfactory EICR with a date you can point to. Interlinked smoke alarms on each storey and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance — note that a gas cooker is not one of those, which catches people out. The EICR issued to the tenant and, on a licensed HMO, to the council. And the remedials actually done rather than listed. Start with our landlord compliance checklist; if the report has C1s or C2s, the remedial cost guide shows what fixing them costs, and we do the remedials ourselves rather than handing you a schedule and leaving.
EV charging in Archway — the honest version
Most of N19 is street parking, and that changes the answer. If you have a garage, a driveway, a yard or an allocated bay you can charge from, a charger is a straightforward job from £450 labour. If your car is parked on the street, we cannot fit you a wall point and run a cable across a public footway — that is not a rule we have invented, and no reputable installer will do it. Cross-pavement channels are a council scheme, so check Islington’s current scheme for your street.
In a converted house or a block, the question before the cable is whose supply it comes off and who has to agree: the freeholder or managing agent, and sometimes a load assessment on the landlord’s sub-main. Planning can also come into it in a conservation area or where an Article 4 direction applies — our guide to Article 4 directions and EV chargers covers when permitted development does and does not help, and EV chargers in Islington has the local version.
Why N19 calls us
Tottenham N15 base, straight down Seven Sisters Road and up Holloway Road, so Archway is one of the closest patches we cover and there is no travel premium on it. NICEIC registered and Part P registered, so certificates are real and notifiable work is signed off and notified properly. Fixed labour-and-certification quotes before we start, materials itemised at the end, and the same electrician coming back for the remedials rather than a different subcontractor every visit. Evening and weekend slots are available for tenants who work days, charged at the out-of-hours rate above and quoted up front.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an electrician cost in Archway?
Minimum charge £108 (£90 + VAT) for small jobs and £90 + VAT per hour after that; EICRs from £140; HMO EICRs from £180; fuse board replacements from £550; PAT testing £5 per appliance. All labour and certification only, quoted fixed before we start, with materials itemised separately.
Do you do the EICR for an Islington HMO licence?
Yes — the HMO version from £180 covers every circuit including any shared kitchen and the landlord’s lighting supplies, and we set the report out the way a licensing team expects to read it. Check the council’s current scheme for your address for what else the application wants.
Can you do all the flats in one house on one visit?
Yes, and it is cheaper for everyone: we test the shared intake once and issue a separate EICR per flat. It also catches borrowed neutrals between floors, which is the one fault you cannot find by testing a single flat. Ask for a block price when you book.
My flat is in a converted block with a landlord’s supply. Whose EICR is whose?
Yours covers the installation from your consumer unit onwards. The riser, the sub-mains, the intake and the communal lighting are the freeholder’s or managing agent’s, and they need their own EICR on the landlord’s supply. If you are not sure which document you have been asked for, send it over and we will tell you.
Do I need permission before you work on the communal wiring?
Yes. On the estates that means the housing office, and in a managed block it means the managing agent, usually with a permit to work and a few days’ notice. Give us their details when you book and we will start that off rather than turning up and being sent away.
How fast can you get to Archway?
Usually within the same week, and often sooner. Urgent faults — no power, a burning smell, a board that will not stay in — get priority, and we will tell you honestly on the phone whether we can be there today or whether tomorrow morning is more realistic.
Related: electrician in Islington, electrician N1, electrician in Holloway, electrician in Finsbury Park, electrician in Highbury, London EICR cost guide, C1/C2/C3 codes explained, all service areas.
Next door: electrician Highgate N6 covers the Archway Road side, Holly Lodge and the Village.
Nearby areas we cover
We work the streets either side of Archway N19 on the same pricing and the same response times: Electrician Holloway N7 · Electrician Highgate N6 · Electrician Kentish Town NW1 · Electrician Crouch End N8 · Electrician Tufnell Park N19. Everywhere we cover is listed on our London service areas page.