Shipping Containers of London specialises in the sale and hire of new and used shipping containers in Kensington. Explore our comprehensive container services and find the perfect solution today.
Welcome to Shipping Containers of London, your local expert for container sales and hire across the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Space is famously tight in West London, which makes secure, on-site storage an absolute priority. Whether you are managing a basement excavation in a South Kensington mews street, need extra room for seasonal inventory for a boutique shop on Kensington Church Street, or require heavy duty tool storage near the A4 Cromwell Road, we make the process entirely straightforward. We understand the precise logistical hurdles of operating in Kensington, from navigating narrow residential turnings to meeting strict local criteria, and we handle the planning for you from order to final delivery.
Purchasing a shipping container gives your property or business a permanent, highly secure storage asset that belongs completely to you. It is a fantastic long-term investment that eliminates ongoing storage fees and keeps your tools, stock, or furniture right where you can access them. We stock a comprehensive selection of new and used containers ready for prompt delivery across all West London postcodes.
Our new containers are often called one-trip units in the shipping industry. They are built overseas, loaded with a single cargo assignment to the UK to keep transit costs down, and then brought straight to our depot. This means they arrive at your location in pristine condition with minimal handling marks. They come equipped with factory-fitted lockboxes as standard and are coated in high-quality marine paint, usually dark green or blue. If your container is going to sit in a highly visible spot where aesthetics are crucial, such as a school playground, a retail forecourt, or a residential driveway in Notting Hill, a one-trip unit is the ideal option to keep your site looking smart and professional.
If your budget is your primary concern and cosmetic appearance matters less than pure security, our used shipping containers provide an incredibly practical option. These boxes have spent roughly 10 to 15 years in international maritime logistics. Because of this history, they will show clear signs of wear, including dents, scratches, surface rust, and faded shipping line livery. However, we individually inspect every container to ensure it is completely wind- and watertight. This means the heavy-duty steel shell has no holes, the door seals are entirely sound, and the interior will keep your items perfectly dry. They are the go-to choice for construction sites, industrial yards, and landscaping projects where rugged utility is what matters most.
Guide prices for purchasing containers across our standard and specialised stock. Prices vary depending on size, availability, age, condition grade, specification, and delivery location.
£1,850 – £3,000
£1,150 – £2,100
£2,600 – £3,500
£2,900 – £3,600
£5,000 – £6,000
£3,000 – £6,500
£2,300 – £6,500
£6,000 – £20,000
£1,300 – £3,800
£1,300 – £3,400
£4,000 – £4,500
£9,500 – £12,500
£3,800 – £7,500
£3,200 – £8,000
£5,800 – £21,000
£2,200 – £4,100
We stock standard ISO dimensions to match different land footprints and storage volume requirements. Reviewing specific details helps make sure your chosen model fits comfortably on your property lines.
The 20ft standard container is our most popular option for both business and domestic use. It balances capacity with a highly manageable footprint, matching the length and width of a standard parking space (20ft long by 8ft wide). It provides roughly 1,170 cubic feet of interior space, making it easy to store a tradesman's complete tools or the furniture of a standard three-bedroom home. An empty 20ft box has a tare weight, meaning its empty structural weight, of approximately 2,200kg.
If you need massive storage scale, our 40ft container delivers exactly double the capacity of a standard 20ft box. These units are perfect for retail stock distribution hubs, large academic sites, or building operators holding massive payloads of heavy gear. They require a long, straight space for delivery and positioning, making them ideal for open yards or larger commercial premises.
Marine shipping containers are engineered to safeguard expensive commercial cargo during rough sea voyages. This incredible build quality makes them the most secure form of portable storage available on dry land.
We deliver our containers using specialised HIAB flatbed vehicles. These trucks feature an onboard hydraulic crane arm behind the cab, allowing our driver to lift the container off the truck chassis and place it carefully on the ground. Navigating West London requires real skill, and our transport operators are experts at handling Kensington's local routes, from the busy flow of the A4 Cromwell Road to the tight corners of Earl's Court and Notting Hill. All technical risk boundaries and transport safety metrics are fully outlined in our operational guide named Binder1_4.pdf.
Our delivery trucks weigh over 15 tonnes, so they must remain on flat, hardstanding surfaces at all times. Drivers cannot drive onto soft turf, park on grass, or navigate soft garden soil, as the truck wheels will bog down quickly. Your delivery site must be concrete, tarmac, or heavily compacted stone. It is also vital that your ground is level. If a container sits on an uneven slant, the steel framework will twist, a problem called racking. Racking throws the door frames out of square, jamming the locking bars and making the double doors incredibly stiff or completely impossible to open.
For a standard 20ft container, the vehicle needs roughly 60ft of straight clearance to perform the lift safely. A 40ft container needs about 110ft of clear length. The driver lifts the container off the side of the truck bed, so you must ensure there is ample width on site. You must also check for overhead hazards: low tree branches, overhanging building gutters, and low telephone cables will block the crane arm from lifting. If you plan to position a container on a restricted road or near a red route, you must arrange a parking suspension with the borough council well in advance. Take a moment to read our complete Delivery Guidelines before finalising your placement layout.
While purchasing a container delivers a lasting asset, buying might not suit your short-term project constraints. If you only need a temporary space solution, our local rental agreements offer a flexible, cost-effective alternative. Our container hire services offer a minimum term of just 8 weeks, ideal for home extensions, seasonal inventory storage projects, or event management. We handle the delivery and collection scheduling for you, keeping your logistics completely hassle-free. To review rolling rental rates and check availability, explore our dedicated Storage Container Hire in Kensington page.
In many circumstances, shipping containers are classed as temporary structures, meaning they do not require formal planning permission. However, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea enforces strict rules, particularly within local conservation areas or near listed historic buildings. If your unit will be in a highly visible spot or on site long-term, we strongly suggest contacting the council planning office before booking. For more tips on selecting a site, read our piece on key factors to consider before buying a container.
Standard HIAB crane trucks lift containers directly to the ground immediately next to the vehicle. They are designed for close-range work and cannot hoist heavy steel units over entire rows of houses, tall walls, or across deep gardens. If your layout features an obstacle or requires a long-reach lift, talk to our team before booking so we can look into providing a larger vehicle with an extended hydraulic boom. You can review standard vehicle sizes on our main container dimensions page.
Because containers are constructed from solid steel, changes in outdoor temperatures can cause moisture to form on the interior ceiling, a phenomenon known as container rain. To keep your goods completely dry, leave the built-in ventilation points clear. For moisture-sensitive assets like furniture or documents, we can apply an anti-condensation treatment called Grafo-therm to the ceiling before dispatch, which traps moisture droplets safely. For more storage safety tips, read our post on how hiring a shipping container solves your self-storage woes.
Your container needs to sit on a firm, completely level foundation. If your concrete or hardcore ground is slightly out of level, we recommend placing treated timber railway sleepers or flat concrete paving slabs beneath the four corner castings of the structure. This lifts the container base slightly, ensuring the doors align perfectly without binding, while allowing air to flow beneath to keep the timber floor dry. You can check volumetric guidelines in our guide on how much a 20ft container can hold.
A CSC plate stands for the International Convention for Safe Containers. It is an official safety certificate affixed to the unit's door, certifying it for international cargo ships. You only need an active CSC plate if you intend to load the container with goods and export it overseas. If you are using the container solely for static storage on your land in Kensington, you do not need to keep the plate active. Read our guide on CSC plate information for more details.
Jeremy and the Team were very easy to work with. extremely quick to respond to our needs and the overall delivery was spot on. The container supplied was brand new and exceptionally clean, ready for our items to be stored safely and securely.
What a totally, refreshingly, brilliant company to deal with. They do what they say they will do at a time they say they will do it. Completely up front about everything: quality, cost, delivery etc. Nothing hidden. They accommodate the customer as far as humanly possible and their communications are spot on. I wish more companies were like this one.
The service from this company was excellent. We were working to tight deadlines and Jeremy was incredibly prompt in his communication, from the initial quote to the follow up email, to check everything had been received. He phoned the haulier and arranged a delivery around our schedule and Andy (the driver), kept us informed, so we knew exactly when he was arriving.
A professional company, that I would recommend highly.
Monday : 9:00–17:30
Tuesday : 9:00–17:30
Wednesday : 9:00–17:30
Thursday : 9:00–17:30
Friday : 9:00–17:30
Saturday : Closed
Sunday : Closed
Tel: 0330 0130 636
Email: info@shippingcontainersoflondon.co.uk
