Flats above the shops
Living above a shop on Walcot Street or the London Road usually means a shared side entrance, a narrow internal stair and nowhere easy to stop the van. We work around all three, loading in the quieter part of the day where we can and keeping the carry from the van as short as possible.
Timing around the main-road traffic
The London Road is a busy route, so timing matters. We plan the load to miss the worst of the traffic and find the nearest legal spot to bring the van, so it is not sitting in the flow while we carry. Towards Larkhall the streets settle and get easier.
Short tenancies above the shops
Walcot turns over quickly. Many of the flats here sit above the shops on Walcot Street and the London Road, they are let rather than owned, and the tenancies are frequently a year or less. That produces a particular kind of move: not much furniture, a good deal of it belonging to the landlord rather than the tenant, and a lot of boxes and belongings to bring down a staircase that was built for a Georgian household rather than a modern removal.
The entrance is the thing worth telling us about. A number of these flats are reached through a door beside a shopfront, up a narrow flight with a turn partway, and occasionally through a shared hallway that has to stay usable while we work. None of that is a problem when we know about it in advance. It is only a problem when we find it on the morning, which is why we ask.