Stomach-churning footage has emerged, showing gross brown gunk being syphoned off as seats get a scrub-down on the London Underground.
The mucky video, snapped by cleaner Steven James and his squad, exposes the shocking state of four Northern Line seats and has become an online sensation.
In the clip, set aboard a moving carriage, the seats are sprayed before being sucked clean by a high-powered vac.
The aftermath? A stomach-turning concoction sloshes into a yellow bucket – a grim reminder of just how grubby the commuter hotspots are.
Clean freak and Hertfordshire local Steven, 55, has been uploading such filthy finds for yonks, shining a spotlight on all the manky places with heaps of footfall, admitting that the tube tops the list. With a laugh, he uses these viral hits to boost his rug rejuvenation business, Mr Carpet Clean, which he’s manned for a nifty seven years.
The father-of-five shared: “I have got quite a good following on Instagram, and they like seeing the dirty buckets and results of what we clean. The dirtier the better.”
(Image: Steven James / SWNS)
He added: “We thought of lots of very high-traffic areas such as buses, cinemas, theatres, doctors surgeries etc. and decided tubes were the best. We do this every day but that dirt was excessive. It is definitely up there with one of the worst we have seen.”
He was gobsmacked by the love for his viral video, saying: “My kids begged me to join Instagram and against all my kicking and screaming I joined in 2020. People enjoyed watching me work and it developed from there,” he revealed.
(Image: Steven James / SWNS)
“It takes time, but before you know it you put one post out and everybody loves it and shares it. My followers just kept going up. It really caught me off guard.
“Before you knew it everybody jumped on it. Across all platforms we got in excess of ten million, which is just phenomenal. A good reaction to any video is nice to see. It was great to know that people enjoyed what we did.”
(Image: Steven James / SWNS)
However, after a chinwag with Transport for London, Mr James decided to pull the video, believing it was the right thing for everyone.
He explained: “It is not for me to judge another organisation or company on their cleaning regime.”
Meanwhile, a TfL spokesperson has warned about the risks shown in the clip, stating: “Our cleaning schedule for Tube trains consists of two different levels of cleaning: pre-service cleans (daily), and a deep clean of the interior and exterior of the train around every 28 days.”
(Image: Steven James / SWNS)
They added: “All floors and surfaces are cleaned daily on every train as part of the pre-service clean. Seats are inspected and cleaned as required during this pre-service clean, with further cleaning as part of the deep clean.”