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| London's launderettes are closing but their value and beauty remains | London's launderettes are closing but their value and beauty remains |
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| Back in the mid-1980s, launderettes - or laundrettes? - became fashionable in a very mid-1980s way. A TV commercial set in one famously rescued the ailing sales of Levis and the film My Beautiful Laundrette captured a London mood of the time: a blend of cultural tensions, economic change and sexual possibilities. Shot on a shoestring in south London, it contains a scene in which a crowd of customers gathers outside, impatient to be let in. It’s hard to imagine any screenwriter dreaming up quite such intense demand for a London launderette today. | Back in the mid-1980s, launderettes - or laundrettes? - became fashionable in a very mid-1980s way. A TV commercial set in one famously rescued the ailing sales of Levis and the film My Beautiful Laundrette captured a London mood of the time: a blend of cultural tensions, economic change and sexual possibilities. Shot on a shoestring in south London, it contains a scene in which a crowd of customers gathers outside, impatient to be let in. It’s hard to imagine any screenwriter dreaming up quite such intense demand for a London launderette today. |
| The first self-service, coin-operated launderette in Britain opened in Queensway in 1949. The industry grew. By the end of the 1970s here were around 12,500 in the country. But the national number has slumped to 3,000 and Bruce Herring of the National Association of the Launderette Industry reckons the capital is down to its last 450. | The first self-service, coin-operated launderette in Britain opened in Queensway in 1949. The industry grew. By the end of the 1970s here were around 12,500 in the country. But the national number has slumped to 3,000 and Bruce Herring of the National Association of the Launderette Industry reckons the capital is down to its last 450. |
| There’s not the call for them there was and High Street competition has changed. Herring tells a story of a launderette in Wimbledon that closed down because the landlord hiked the rent. The owner couldn’t stretch to £14,000 a year but a bookmaker was prepared to pay £40,000. Locals protested, the bookmaker withdrew but the launderette closed anyway. The premises are now occupied by a charity shop. | There’s not the call for them there was and High Street competition has changed. Herring tells a story of a launderette in Wimbledon that closed down because the landlord hiked the rent. The owner couldn’t stretch to £14,000 a year but a bookmaker was prepared to pay £40,000. Locals protested, the bookmaker withdrew but the launderette closed anyway. The premises are now occupied by a charity shop. |
| In October, the government announced that launderettes would be covered by new “permitted development rights,” enabling them to be converted to housing without their owners needing to seek planning permission. Introduction of those rights will be subject to approval by individual boroughs, but Herring fears they can only speed the reduction of launderette numbers in the capital. A welcoming, well run one can still be a steady business he says, but you need around £80,000 to equip one from scratch and there’s an art to finding the right location. | In October, the government announced that launderettes would be covered by new “permitted development rights,” enabling them to be converted to housing without their owners needing to seek planning permission. Introduction of those rights will be subject to approval by individual boroughs, but Herring fears they can only speed the reduction of launderette numbers in the capital. A welcoming, well run one can still be a steady business he says, but you need around £80,000 to equip one from scratch and there’s an art to finding the right location. |
| Who uses launderettes in London these days? Most people have their own washing machines and tumble dryers now, modern student accommodation usually has them on site and bedsit concentrations are more diluted. Door-to-door laundry services have their own app. But there are still regular users of London launderettes, some of them captured last year by Walthamstow photographer Katherine Green. Though widely associated with poor areas and the poorly housed, there’s also a Central London launderette market for visitors and short-stay business people whose hotels don’t meet their needs. | Who uses launderettes in London these days? Most people have their own washing machines and tumble dryers now, modern student accommodation usually has them on site and bedsit concentrations are more diluted. Door-to-door laundry services have their own app. But there are still regular users of London launderettes, some of them captured last year by Walthamstow photographer Katherine Green. Though widely associated with poor areas and the poorly housed, there’s also a Central London launderette market for visitors and short-stay business people whose hotels don’t meet their needs. |
| My local one in Clapton predates my moving in to the neighbourhood in 1992, I’d guess by many years. It’s come in useful from time to time, for duvets and on returning from family holidays when it would take days to do everything at home one wash at a time. It’s basic and spare but clean, efficient and quite photogenic, as the snapshot above I hope conveys. You used to be able to get a service wash done but not any more. Dropping by the other day, the sole customer said he often finds he is alone there. | My local one in Clapton predates my moving in to the neighbourhood in 1992, I’d guess by many years. It’s come in useful from time to time, for duvets and on returning from family holidays when it would take days to do everything at home one wash at a time. It’s basic and spare but clean, efficient and quite photogenic, as the snapshot above I hope conveys. You used to be able to get a service wash done but not any more. Dropping by the other day, the sole customer said he often finds he is alone there. |
| Are it days numbered? Are those of most of the rest of the capital’s launderettes? The sentimental attachment of occasional users won’t count for very much, but for others they still remain invaluable. And launderettes can be appealing, therapeutic, even romantic places, as well as practical ones. Here’s Yo Zushi writing in New Statesman in 2013 about one in Blackstock Road: | Are it days numbered? Are those of most of the rest of the capital’s launderettes? The sentimental attachment of occasional users won’t count for very much, but for others they still remain invaluable. And launderettes can be appealing, therapeutic, even romantic places, as well as practical ones. Here’s Yo Zushi writing in New Statesman in 2013 about one in Blackstock Road: |
| I come here once a week, sometimes alone, sometimes with my partner, Zoë, carrying cumbersome sacks of wet socks, shirts, trousers, pants, bras (hers, not mine) and all the other bits and pieces to spin-dry that would otherwise have to be draped on the radiator in our bedroom or hung from the shower rail, damp for days. | I come here once a week, sometimes alone, sometimes with my partner, Zoë, carrying cumbersome sacks of wet socks, shirts, trousers, pants, bras (hers, not mine) and all the other bits and pieces to spin-dry that would otherwise have to be draped on the radiator in our bedroom or hung from the shower rail, damp for days. |
| The trip should be a chore but I look forward to it. The basic functionality of washing or drying clothes, the reality that there’s little option but to wait till it’s done, frees this hour from any other obligation; just sitting here is making good use of my time, even if I am half in a doze, lulled by the methodical rhythms of the machines. | The trip should be a chore but I look forward to it. The basic functionality of washing or drying clothes, the reality that there’s little option but to wait till it’s done, frees this hour from any other obligation; just sitting here is making good use of my time, even if I am half in a doze, lulled by the methodical rhythms of the machines. |
| Zushi even used the launderette as a set for one of his music videos. | Zushi even used the launderette as a set for one of his music videos. |
| Read Yo Zushi’s New Statesman article here. Read more about my Beautiful Laundrette here. | Read Yo Zushi’s New Statesman article here. Read more about my Beautiful Laundrette here. |
| Update 15:10 A couple of readers have Tweeted about London launderettes they know and like. Thanks to Tim Dunn who mentions the Barbican Launderette (more photos here) and to Philip Green has drawn my attention to the Boundary Estate Community Launderette which he helped set up and remains director of. |