Filed under: Contemporary Launderettes, Historic Launderettes and Laundrys, Public washhouses and laundries, Storytelling, Uncategorized | Tags: launderettes, Laundry, walk
Some photos from this morning’s guided walk, thanks to Barney Hewlett for taking these.
If you’d like to do the walk you can pick up a printed guide at The Women’s Library,
or download the PDF version here you’ll also need the map PDF version here.
1. Setting off from The Women’s Library
2. Rothschild Arch
3. Bengal Cuisine, site of Cash Wash Launderette
4. Bangla City Cash and Carr, site of the Russian Vapour Baths
5. St Anne’s Church
6. Cheshire Street Baths, Abbey Street Laundry
7. Smarty pants Launderette and Dry Cleaners
8. Princess Launderette
9. The Old Laundry, Boundary Estate
10. The Boundary Estate Community Launderette
Filed under: Historic Launderettes and Laundrys, Public washhouses and laundries | Tags: Abbey Street Laundry, Cheshire Street Baths
Built by the vestry of the parish of St Matthew in 1898 (officially opened on the 11th July 1900) the Cheshire Street Baths, and Abbey Street Laundry (part of the same building, just with separate entrances) still stand. The Laundry closed in 1974, and the baths on the 30th September 1978. The Laundry, despite the removal of the machinery is pretty much intact, and has been occupied by the Repton Boys club since 1978. The baths were turned into flats in the 1990s following years of dereliction and failed proposals to turn the building into a leisure centre. The Museum of London has some of the machinery and fittings
Filed under: Historic Launderettes and Laundrys, Public washhouses and laundries | Tags: Public Laundries, TUC
At the TUC library I’ve been reading this report, by Janet C. Wilson, published as a National Building Study (no.9). It’s remit is huge, and the research behind it involved a survey of 6,000 people. As well as statistics ( “approximately 50% of all households wash on Monday”) it includes commentary, opinion and policy proposals such as:
“for all communal laundries and public washhouses, privacy and proper segregation of each user’s washing should be ensured by grouping the washing equipment in cubicles” p.28
and:
“experience during the the inquiry has shown that when the housewife does the washing herself, small establishments are prefereable to large, as the distance from home is less and it is possible to obtain a pleasanter atmosphere and better spirit among the users, and pilfering is practically eliminated”. p.31
Filed under: Historic Launderettes and Laundrys | Tags: Brick Lane, History, Launderette
Emily and I go for a walk around Brick Lane looking for the sites of laundries listed in the 1899 Post Office London Directory and the 1911 Kelly’s directory, there’s not a trace but we find some of the addresses:
43 Brick Lane – 1899 Hermann Auerbach, Laundry
by 1911 it’s still a Laundry but now owned by William Wells. It’s a gift shop now.
86 brick Lane is listed Benjamin Schewzik, Vapour Baths, in the 1911 directory – now it’s a gap in the street fronting buildings on Brick Lane, and a supermarket.
50 Hanbury Street is listed as Isaac Peskin, Laundry (1911), today it’s a wedding shop. Isaac Peskin is also listed as owning laundries at 24 Chicksand Street and 193 Brick Lane.
127 Hanbury Street (now a gap) is listed as a Laundry owned by Albert Smith, also proprietor of Laundries at 18 Mansell Street, 88 Old Bethnal Green Road, 100 Columbia Road, 37 Shepherd Street and 13 new Goulston Street.
Filed under: Historic Launderettes and Laundrys | Tags: Boundary Estate, History, Laundrette
An article entitled ‘The New Jago’ describes, with a humorous tone, the County Council improvements in the creation of the Boundary Estate, including a section on the laundry:
” on account of the impossibility of getting water water up to the top of the buildings the council has built a large central laundry, with forty-two toughs, all numbered, forty-two drying horse, 4 taps hot and cold to each trough. The trough is partitioned, and in the back part the clothes are boiled by steam coming through a perforated pipe. There is a separate mangling and ironing room; the mangles are driven by steam; the irons heated by gas. The convenience of a laundry can be enjoyed for 1 1/2 d per hour; but those who know the ways of tenants will not be surprised to hear that this sum is begrudged, and that mothers with young children are worried at leaving them. Above the laundry are a dozen baths, where a bath can be had for 2 d each, or 2 1/2 d including 2 towels and soap. There is also a club and reading room for the use of the tenants; 6 d a month is the subscription for a married man and his wife, 6 d for a single man, 4 d for a single woman. From these figures the astute can calculate the relative values of the married and single woman, and of the sexes. “
Filed under: Historic Launderettes and Laundrys
At Bancroft Road Local History Library I read this article – photocopied from the ‘Sunday at Home’ magazine. It’s a feature about The Women’s settlements of London, and the bit about St Hilda’s East Settlement includes a description of the newly built Boundary Estate:
“Baths and washhouses have been provided. No washing is allowed to be done in the tenements and it is difficult to understand how any housewife could desire to do so in view of the facilities provided at the splendidly equipped central laundry in the middle of the estate. There the occupation hated most by many women, and most dreaded in many hones, is exalted into a luxury and a fine art. The laundry is a spacious, lofty, well ventilated building. The various troughs are supplied with every possible convenience; screens separate the various sections; to the rear part of the trough cold water is furnished; for the back compartment there is an abundant supply of hot, while by the turn of a small wheel, steam is forced in so that the clothes will boil in a few minutes. Hydraulic revolving whizzes are available, and a heated drying rack is allotted to each woman; and in another room there are mangles, both box and roller, all of which are worked by steam power; facilities for ironing are also provided. Thus the whole process of washing and finishing clothes can be done in a pure and warm atmosphere, with the minimum of labour. A charge of 3 half pence per hour is made to the tenants on the estate and this includes the use of all the various appliances.”
The laundry building still stands, but has been converted into flats, it seems that the bath annexe has been demolished.
Filed under: Historic Launderettes and Laundrys | Tags: Boundary Estate, Launderette
This is also from the Local History Library at Bancroft Rd – a newspaper article from 27th Feb. 1976 about the proposed demolition of the bath house annexe of the laundry.
