I've written a few times about shops that used to be laundries/dry cleaners, evident by blue tiled exteriors, often featuring and promoting Lever Bros' Sunlight Soap. Having spotted quite a few of these across London and written about some of them here I think it's time to share them as a comprehensive collection.
There are two companies here, Westerns Laundry in North London and Loud & Western in South and West London. Both used and advertised Sunlight products.
More info about the history of these companies further down, but, first, here is an A-Z (by area/borough) of the old shops still retain some blue tiled exteriors:
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BRIXTON
100 Brixton Hill, SW2
Now split into two shops, the corner section still retains its blue tiles:
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CAMDEN
62 Chetwynd Road, NW5
This is still a laundry but, for some daft reason, the blue tiles have been overpainted with blue paint!
This is still a laundry but, for some daft reason, the blue tiles have been overpainted with blue paint!
124 Fortess Road, NW5
Much of the exterior was still intact until 2015. Pic here is from Google 2009:
The shop's exterior was then remodelled, keeping only the black and white floor tiles at the left side :
Today (2024), the laundry's blue tiles can be glimpsed under the grey paint at low level: 
Note also the loss of the little street sign that identified this as Fortess Mews.
Much of the exterior was still intact until 2015. Pic here is from Google 2009:
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CHISWICK
19 Devonshire Rd, W4
This corner shop still looking good in 2024
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CLAPHAM
14 Blandfield Road, SW12
A column of blue tiles at the left side is all that remains:
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CROUCH END
Middle Lane, N8
A superb example. It even has a hand-pained sign on the side:
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FULHAM
594 Fulham Road, SW6
I recall seeing blue tiles either side of the door in the early 2000s but when I returned with my camera few years later they'd gone. Here's how it looks in 2004. The image here is from Google Streeview's retrospective facility showing it in 2008:
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HAMMERSMITH
47A Goldhawk Road, W12
Hot Pot's column of blue tiles, shown here, was gone by 2016:
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ISLINGTON
334-336 Grays Inn Road, Kings Cross
41 Essex Road, N1
Lots of blue tiles still in place at the corner of Gaskin Street:
84 Holloway Road, N7
The first pic shows how it looked in early 2018 when the blue tiles were briefly revealed, having been covered in black and white paint for many years:
The first pic shows how it looked in early 2018 when the blue tiles were briefly revealed, having been covered in black and white paint for many years:
For a short while lettering in the bottom panel was also visible:
I'm guessing it said something like 'Expert cleaning service' – but by mid-2019 the whole shopfront was again over-painted:
Read more here
Only the black and white tiles remain, but it used to look like this Getty image:
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PIMLICO
This is how it looked in 2024:
. In the 1950s it looked like this:
This still taken from old movie footage on YouTube – at 13:56 (as shown here) with an alternative view at 16:28. (Thanks to 'anonymous' for letting me know about this via the comments section here)
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STREATHAM
111 Mitcham Lane, SW16
The tiled pilasters are gradually becoming visible, hidden for at least 15 years under layers of paint:
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WANDSWORTH
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GENERIC INFO about Westerns Laundry / Loud & Western
This is a work in progress – I will be updating and amending as and when I source more/better info.
It's proving hard to ascertain which came first, Westerns or Loud & Western – it's a chicken and egg conundrum.
But it's fair to assume that John Richard Western is connected to both companies. By 1910, there were laundry outlets in his name at 160A and 674 Holloway Road with sixteen other outlets across North London, as shown in this snippet from Kelly's 1910 directory:
It's interesting to note that this does not make clear which sites were laundries vs high street shops.
Question is, who was Mr Western? Did he start the laundry as his own idea, or was it set up by Sunlight/LeverBros in his name. If so, what was their relationship? See more about him in the The Laundries section below. As regards Mr Loud of Loud & Western, he might have been a director on the board of Lever Bros, or perhaps Loud is an acronym or similar.
It's worth noting that there is nothing listed in the name of Western within in Kelly's 1899 directory which also shows that there were no laundry outlets along the whole length of Holloway Rd at in that year. This is very strange seeing as ten years earlier there had been a choice of independent laundry services along the two mile street including The Caledonian Laundry, a local company (see black and white Getty Images pic in the Islington section above). Therefore, it's fair to assume that Westerns and Loud&Western began trading in 1900/1901 when they also swallowed up the Caledonian Laundry shops et al.
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THE LAUNDRIES
North London – Westerns, Drayton Park, N7
In the 1900s, certainly by 1910, John Western is living at No.12 Drayton Park, here at the corner of Horsell Rd, with The New River Laundry at the rear of his house and No.14. I can find no info about this business – it doesn't appear to be an official branch of the New River Company.
Incidentally, further along the street there was also another laundry company, The Clissold Laundry, situated at the corner of Arvon Road here which in previous years been called The Drayton Park Laundry. There are many natural springs and water courses in this area so, historically, this would have been the ideal location for this kind of business.
Incidentally, further along the street there was also another laundry company, The Clissold Laundry, situated at the corner of Arvon Road here which in previous years been called The Drayton Park Laundry. There are many natural springs and water courses in this area so, historically, this would have been the ideal location for this kind of business.
By the early 1930s, Western's Laundry has moved to a large purpose-built facility, further along the street, at 34 Drayton Park.
South and West London – Loud & Western, various locations:
Grace's Guide tells us the Broughton Road site was secured in 1901, as confirmed by that year's Kelly's directory which lists the premises as 'Sunlight Laundry'.
However, it's strange that this Broughton Road is excluded from the 1910 directory (snippet below) which shows Loud & Western at 490A, 91 and 327 Kings Road as well as twelve other outlets across South and West London:
As the businesses boomed, more outlets opened...
Westerns Laundries Ltd. London 1939:
Note that the first inclusion here is for 18 Drayton Park, indicating that this was the HQ/Head Office – Mr Western has evidently moved house again, to a larger property a few doors along from his previous house at No.12, and I suggest it would have looked like this house at No.30.
The 1939 listings shows all their sites at that time, although they are not identified as outlets/shops vs laundries. Having checked out these addresses, I've noticed that a couple of them are residential properties, specifically Green Street and Balls Pond Road – these might have been area manager's offices. Some of the other locations are not shopping streets (for instance, Barnsbury Rd, Ivor Place, Ferdinand St, Old Hill, Provost St and Weedington Rd) and these I think were probably laundries in addition to the Drayton Park site.
The image below shows a Westerns Laundry in Turnpike Lane. It is not listed in the 1939 London directory shown above, because this area was still classed as The Suburbs at that time. The image is from a marvellous book called A Nation of Shopkeepers by Bill Evans and Andrew Lawson, published 1981.
Loud & Western Ltd. London 1939:
It's interesting to see the order that the address are listed here – I suspect it's chronological, reflecting the order that the sites were added, Broughton Rd being the first in 1901. Note also that the Acre Lane (laundry) site is shown near the end, reflecting its recent construction. Then the Peterborough Road facility is next in the list (another Art Deco era building) – it is here specified as 'Float iron dept' and I wonder if this might be the 1934 (patent?) application for a laundry wringing machine – as advertised in the window of the Churton Street shop shown in the film still above.
There are some lovely memories and images of Fulham's Loud & Western laundry sites here on Facebook
1960s onwards
Sunlight Laundries (Loud & Western) Ltd was incorporated in 1963. By 1995, it was part of Sunlight Service Group Properties Ltd.
Further information is proving hard to source, hindered because online searches for Westerns Laundries, or similar, take me to the restaurant that now occupies less than half of the building in Drayton Park, which was founded here in May 2017. I'll keep searching.
In the meantime, here's the front of a postcard showing one of the Holloway Road shops – it which looks to be from the 1930s:
And, from the same address, a 1958 price list.
Interesting to note that there is no mention of Sunlight on these leaflets, even though the colours used on the one below are on-brand with the soap.
I can find no listings in the Kelly's directories for outlets called 'Sunlight Laundry' or similar, except in the very early days at Broughton Road (see above) suggesting the laundry side of Lever Bros' company was franchised from the beginning.
Ghostsigns – there are some faded hand-painted signs to be found...
Westerns
– Crouch End, as shown above in the Haringey section
– Finsbury Park – this sign 'SAME DAY CLEANERS' is at the rear of the bank building at the corner of St Thomas's Rd, opposite the station.
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The following ideas need further investigation – any help welcome:
– Sunlight Square, Bethnal Green – I wonder if there was a factory/laundry here?
– ditto Sunlight Close in South Wimbledon
