F & A Electrical covers the Canonbury patch in N1 — Canonbury Square, Canonbury Lane, Canonbury Road, Canonbury Place and Canonbury Grove, Alwyne Road, Alwyne Villas and Alwyne Place, Compton Avenue, Northampton Park, Grange Grove, Petherton Road and the streets around St Mary’s and the Tudor tower on Canonbury Place. We are NICEIC-approved, Part P registered, work to BS 7671 and are fully insured. It is about four miles from our base in Tottenham N15 — twenty minutes on a good run down the A1, nearer forty in the morning. Call 07407 627542 or 07500 721453.
This page covers the Canonbury streets and squares. For the whole N1 postcode — Angel, Barnsbury, Pentonville, De Beauvoir, Hoxton and the canal corridor, with the full price tables and the Islington/Hackney boundary explained — see electrician N1.
What we do in Canonbury N1
Canonbury is a conservation area almost end to end, and a good share of the housing is listed. That changes how the work is done more than what the work is. Day to day in this patch we are doing:
- EICRs for landlords, leaseholders selling, and solicitors chasing paperwork mid-conveyance.
- Consumer unit replacements, usually taking out a rewireable Wylex or an old MEM switch fuse in a basement understair cupboard.
- Full and partial rewires on Georgian and Victorian terraces, and on flats carved out of them.
- Fault finding — a tripping RCD, a dead ring, a borrowed neutral between two flats, water in an outside light.
- Lighting, including replacing downlights in lath-and-plaster ceilings where the last installer cut the joists about.
- Main earthing and bonding, which on this stock is the single most common thing missing.
- EV charge points where there is genuinely off-street parking, and an honest answer where there is not.
Canonbury prices — labour and certification only
Prices below are labour and certification. Materials — boards, accessories, cable, conduit, light fittings — are itemised separately so you can see what you are paying for. The minimum charge is one hour at the standard rate: £90 + VAT, which is £108 including VAT. Nothing is priced below that.
| Work | Price |
|---|---|
| Minimum charge / first hour | £90 + VAT (£108 inc VAT) |
| Standard labour, per hour after the first | £90 + VAT |
| Out of hours, on top of the above | £60 + VAT per half hour |
| EICR, flat or 1–2 bed | from £140 |
| EICR, 3-bed | from £170 |
| EICR, 4-bed | from £200 |
| EICR, 5-bed or larger Georgian house | from £250 |
| EICR, large or multi-board property | £300–£400 |
| HMO EICR | from £180, most licensed HMOs £250–£500 — see the HMO EICR guide |
| Consumer unit, 6-way | from £550 — see fuse board replacement |
| Consumer unit, 10-way | from £650 |
| Consumer unit, 12-way or larger | from £750 |
| Consumer unit and EICR, same visit | from £690 |
| Main earthing and bonding alongside a board | from £108 |
| Rewire, 1–2 bed flat | £2,200–£3,200 |
| Rewire, 3-bed flat or maisonette | £3,000–£4,500 |
| Rewire, large flat or duplex | £4,200–£6,000 |
| Rewire, 2–3 bed terrace | £2,800–£4,000 |
| Rewire, 3–4 bed terrace | £3,500–£5,500 |
| Rewire, 4–5 bed house | £4,500–£8,000 |
| Rewire, large or heavily subdivided house | £6,500–£10,000 |
| Rewire, listed house with surface conduit and consent conditions | £9,500–£14,000 |
| Partial rewire — one floor, or kitchen and bathroom circuits | £1,600–£3,000 |
| EV charge point | from £450 |
| PAT testing | around £5 per appliance, £108 minimum — see PAT testing |
| Permits, bay suspension, Congestion Charge, ULEZ | at cost, as a separate line |
Rewire ranges are wide because the spread on this stock is wide. A tidy three-storey terrace that has been lived in by one family sits at the bottom of its range; the same house split into three flats, with three boards, three sets of tails and a landing light nobody owns, sits at the top. We price after looking, not before. Our EICR cost guide explains what moves the number on an inspection.
What we find in Canonbury wiring
Six things come up again and again on this patch.
No main protective bonding, or bonding in 6mm where it should be 10mm. On the Georgian and early Victorian houses the gas and water services were often bonded once, decades ago, and never revisited after a new meter or a plastic incoming main. It is a C2 on an inspection and it is cheap to put right while we are at the board.
Rewireable boards still in service. Wylex and MEM boards with rewireable fuses in a basement cupboard, usually with no RCD protection on anything, feeding circuits that have had a kitchen and a shower added to them since. The board swap is the easy part; what takes the time is proving the circuits are sound enough to reconnect.
Rubber and lead-sheathed cable surviving in floor voids. On houses that were partially rewired in the sixties or seventies, the upstairs lighting is frequently the bit that never got done. Rubber insulation crumbles when it is disturbed, so it tends to be found the hard way, during an unrelated job.
Borrowed neutrals between flats. Where a terrace was converted room by room rather than in one go, a lighting circuit on one floor sometimes takes its neutral from the flat below. It works until one flat isolates its board and the neighbour loses half their lights, and it is a genuine shock risk for anyone working on either installation.
Downlights in lath-and-plaster ceilings. Canonbury has a lot of original ceilings and a lot of downlights cut into them, frequently with the joists notched and the fire integrity of the ceiling between flats destroyed. Where that is the case we will say so and price fire-rated fittings rather than swap lamp for lamp.
Outside lights and garden runs on no RCD. The long thin gardens behind Alwyne Road and Compton Avenue usually have something at the far end — a light, a shed socket, a pond pump — on a cable that was buried without protection and without a label.
Listed and conservation-area work around Canonbury Square
Canonbury Square was laid out in the first decades of the nineteenth century and much of what surrounds it is listed as well as sitting in a conservation area. The practical effect on an electrical job:
- A board change is normally not an issue. A consumer unit is not a feature of historic interest. We reuse the existing position and recess where possible and keep visible cable runs off decorative plasterwork.
- A rewire often is. Chasing walls, lifting original floorboards, taking cables through cornicing or panelling can need listed building consent. That is the owner’s application, and it sets the programme — the consent timeline, not the wiring, is what makes a listed rewire a long job.
- Surface conduit rather than chased cable is frequently the compromise on visible runs, and it needs designing rather than improvising.
- Check the council’s current rules for your street before you commit to a route or a position. Designations and conditions change, and they are street by street.
We have a fuller guide to rewiring a listed or conservation-area property in London, and prices for a whole-house job on the house rewire Islington page.
Flats, freeholders and shared meter cupboards
Most of the Canonbury stock that is now flats was never designed to be. A four-storey terrace split into three means three consumer units, three sets of tails, one cupboard in the hall with everyone’s meters in it, and a stair light that may be wired off somebody’s flat circuit.
That matters as soon as the work crosses out of your own front door. You cannot commission work on the landlord’s side of the installation, and a certificate naming you as the client for it is of limited use to anybody. The riser, the intake, the lateral mains and the communal lighting belong to the freeholder or the management company, and they or their agent instruct the work and receive the paperwork. We have set the whole thing out — who owns what, who issues a permit to work, who is allowed to isolate the landlord’s supply — in who signs off communal electrical work.
Inside the flat, the work is ordinary. A board swap in an Alwyne Villas mansion flat is a straightforward job once the block’s notice requirements are dealt with. We will usually ask for the managing agent’s details before the first visit, because getting into the meter cupboard on the day is the part that goes wrong.
Landlords and HMOs in Canonbury
A private rented home needs an EICR at least every five years, the report goes to the tenant within 28 days, to a new tenant before they move in, and to the council within seven days if they ask for it. Where the report calls for remedial work, that has to be done within 28 days — or sooner if the report says so — and you need written confirmation from the electrician that it has been.
Licensing is a separate question and it is local. Islington operates mandatory HMO licensing and has had additional licensing designations covering parts of the borough; whether your street is in scope, and what the licence conditions say about alarms, emergency lighting and inspection intervals, changes. Check the council’s current scheme for your address before you assume either way. Our landlord electrical compliance checklist covers what the paperwork has to show, and HMO electrical compliance covers the alarm and lighting side.
Canonbury is mostly family houses and good-sized conversions rather than hard-worked HMO stock, so what we see here is more often a landlord with two or three flats in one building who wants them inspected on the same morning. That is cheaper for you and quicker for us, and we will say so.
EV charging in Canonbury
Some of Canonbury has genuine off-street parking — front bays and side accesses on parts of Compton Avenue, Northampton Park and Alwyne Road. Where there is a driveway or a hardstanding you own, a charge point starts at £450 for labour and certification, plus the unit.
Where there is not, we will tell you straight: there is no legitimate way to charge a street-parked car from a wall point, and we will not run a cable across a public footway or leave you a mat to put over it. Cross-pavement charging is a council scheme, not something a contractor can install off their own bat, so that is a conversation with the borough rather than with us.
Two further Canonbury-specific points. First, a conservation area or a listed front elevation affects where a charger can go — side and rear elevations are usually the answer, and Article 4 directions and EV chargers explains when planning permission comes into it. Second, a large house already running an electric shower, an induction hob and a heat source may not have the spare capacity at the existing main fuse; that is a question for the network operator and the lead time on it belongs to them. The EV charger installation guide has the detail.
Emergency and out-of-hours work in Canonbury
Out-of-hours work is charged at the standard rate plus £60 + VAT per half hour, and our out-of-hours cost guide explains exactly what the supplement pays for. We do not promise an arrival time we cannot control, because on this side of Islington the variable is traffic and parking, not willingness.
What we get called out to around here: a burning smell at an old switch fuse, which gets isolated and made safe that night and changed in daylight; total loss of supply in a converted flat, where the first job is working out whether the fault is yours, the block’s or the network’s; an RCD that will not stay in after rain, which is nearly always the garden or an outside light; and C1 items found during a sale that have to be dealt with before anyone will exchange.
Nearby areas we cover
Across Islington and the N1 edges: Angel, Highbury N5, Holloway N7, Archway N19, Tufnell Park, and the whole of N1. Islington services: EICR Islington, fuse board replacement Islington, emergency electrician Islington. Everywhere else we work is on the London service areas hub.
Canonbury FAQ
My flat is in a listed Canonbury Square house. Do I need consent for a fuse board change?
Usually not. A consumer unit is not a feature of historic interest, and if we can reuse the existing position and keep the cable runs out of sight there is normally nothing to apply for. Anything that means chasing visible walls or disturbing original plasterwork, panelling or cornicing is a different matter — we will tell you which route a job needs before we start, not after.
How long does an EICR take on a Georgian house?
Longer than on a comparable modern flat. More circuits, more boards on subdivided houses, original floor coverings we will not lift without asking, and accessories in awkward places. A four or five bedroom house is a good half day and sometimes more, which is why those sit at £250 and up rather than £140.
The stair light in our converted terrace is wired off my flat. Who should be paying for it?
Not you, in principle — the common parts are the freeholder’s responsibility even where the wiring says otherwise, and you are currently paying for the electricity. The fix is a proper landlord’s supply, and the freeholder or management company has to instruct it. Put it in writing to the agent and ask who holds the duty for the communal installation.
Can you work with our conservation officer and architect?
Yes, and on a listed rewire it saves money to involve us at drawing stage rather than after consent is granted. Cable routes, switch and socket positions and the extent of surface conduit are all things that are easier to agree on paper than to re-apply for later.
Do you give a price over the phone?
For a board change, an EICR or a straightforward addition, yes — a photo of the consumer unit and the meter position is usually enough. For a rewire or anything in a listed property we look first. A number given blind on a house like these would be wrong in one direction or the other.
Are you on Checkatrade?
Yes — F & A Electrical, rated 9.32 out of 10 from 242 reviews.
Book an electrician in Canonbury
Call 07407 627542 or 07500 721453, or email info@faelectrical.co.uk. A photo of the consumer unit, the meter cupboard or the affected area usually lets us price it the same day. NICEIC-approved, Part P registered, BS 7671, fully insured, based at Ten 87 Studios, Markfield Road, London N15 4QA.
More guides, with 2026 prices throughout, on our electrical guides hub.