Remembering Worcester wash houses: when was wash day where you lived?

It seems strange to think today with such ready access to automatic washing machines and dryers, that getting your washing clean and dry was quite an ordeal! 

So much so, that a number of laundries around the city did a roaring trade.

“It used to be the done thing to send your sheets to the laundry. Grandma did every week. They collected and delivered.

The Metropole Laundry, Powick Mills in 1951

“There was St George’s in St George’s Lane North, and Metropole Laundry at Lower Wick. Grandma used to tie the dirty sheets up into a parcel with string and a label, then the clean ones came back in a paper parcel tied up with string. They were all starched and pressed and felt fabulous when you first got into bed between them!”

Local people will no doubt remember these laundries as well as Quality Cleaners in Bromwich Road, who had their own social club, and were later to become Sketchley’s.

St George’s Dry Cleaners in St Swithin’s Street, in the 1950s. Hardy & Co furniture shop was to the left and on the right, A E Lane Dispensing chemist

St George’s Laundry was based, on the site of what is now Homenash House, and had a number of offices around the city including Angel Place, St Swithin’s Street and St John’s.

Metropole Laundry was based in the old Powick Mills (now apartments), formerly the city power station and driven by hydroelectricity generators powered by river water from the Teme.

“I hated wash day on a Monday. It was an all morning job just to do the washing with a boiler,” mum said. “Grandma would wear Granddad’s socks in the winter, with a draught howling under the back door. It used to make me cry; not the cold, but the sight of Grandma in those awful socks!”

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Photographs from the Worcester City Historic Environment Record, show just how harsh conditions could be, particularly in the more built up Victorian housing areas, such as Blockhouse, St Clement’s and The Moors. Tiny wash houses shared cramped courtyards, with limited space to hang washing. 

In about 1960 my grandparents were lucky enough to buy a washing machine with a powered wringer from the lady next door, making life a lot easier.

It was a few years before a twin tub came on the scene, and a good few more before the automatic!

Nothing was wasted though, as mum elaborated: “Grandma kept the old electric boiler in the shed after she had a washing machine, and boiled several Christmas puddings in it every year!”

Worcester Life Stories

Worcester Life Stories is a collaborative project bringing local people together through shared stories of the City of Worcester. It is co-led by Dr Natasha Lord, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust and Sheena Payne-Lunn, Worcester City Council and funded thanks to National Lottery players.

For further information or to share your stories visit worcesterlifestories.org.uk, our Facebook page or Twitter @worlifestories. You can also email worcesterlifestories@gmail. com or call 01905 721133.

Or you can find the We grew up in Worcester page on Facebook and share your memories there.