Rachel alerted me to a mention of the arrival of launderettes in David Kynaston’s Austerity Britain 1945-1951.
Chapter 3, Jolly good as a whole, p.325 “Britain’s first self-service, coin-operated launderette opened, for a six-month trial, at 184 Queensway in Bayswater on 10 May. ‘All that housewives have to do is bring the washing, put it in the machine and come back 30 minutes later (charge 2s 6d for 9lbs)’, explained the local paper.’
An anecdote from Janet Street-Porter in the same chapter ‘as we didn’t have a television, I found the hour or so spent watching the sheets and towels being washed in a machine every week totally mesmeric’. (p.326) echoes Viv Newman’s experience in Kensington 10 years later https://spinningstories.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/laundry-memories-by-viv-newman/
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