One of the western Algarve’s most recognisable sights is about to disappear from our highways and byways. Geoff Hurst, window cleaner to the gentry, is retiring and handing over the blade to his son Joe. No longer will his silver 15-year-old Ford Fiesta, easily remembered with the ladders protruding over the bonnet, be waved at by all and sundry.
“Everyone knows my car,” says Geoff, adding, “Passing cars honk their horns, people wave all the time and most of the time, I don’t have a clue who they are!” This is quite an admission for a retired Metropolitan Police officer who spent a good many of his 27 years with London’s finest on their surveillance teams!
Geoff moved to Portugal 16 years ago with his wife Sharon, who worked in the Met’s admin department, and their children Courtney and Joe. To supplement Geoff’s pension, he would regularly return to London to work ten-day shifts as a cab driver. “Mainly to pay the kids’ school fees,” he freely admits.
Tired of travelling and also missing the family, he decided to buy a set of ladders, a bucket, some cloths and a wiper and set himself up as a window cleaner. “It was an easy transition, really,” he laughs.“Going from spying on people for the police to climbing ladders and looking into their homes!”
Geoff posted lots of business cards through lots of doors and quickly gained a reputation as a reliable service. “I travelled all over the place in the early days. I even did one job in Albufeira.”
As his reputation and his round grew, he was able to concentrate his efforts closer to his Burgau home and he still has customers to this day that he recruited all those years ago.
Now the time has come to pass on the baton and after 12 months of working with his father, Joe is inheriting the family business. Joe has been working in technology since returning home from university in Bristol, where his studies in geography were mired in Covid problems at the start of the global pandemic. He is excited to be taking over his father’s well-established business.
Geoff concludes, “Joe knows the standards and what is expected and is ready to grow the business. Who knows – he may even expand into Albufeira!”
Joe Hurst +351 925 374 454
