I've written a few times about shops that used to be laundries/dry cleaners, evident by their blue tiled exteriors, often featuring and promoting Lever Bros' Sunlight Soap. Having spotted quite a few of these across London and written about them here I think it's time to share them as a collection.
More info at the bottom – first, here are the London outlets that still retain blue tiled exteriors (please do let me know if you know of any others):
..........................................................HARINGEY SHOPSMiddle Lane, Crouch End:
..........................................................ISLINGTON SHOPS
41 Essex Road, N1, corner of Gaskin Street:
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84 Holloway Road, N7, shown early 2018 when the blue tiles were briefly revealed, having been covered in black and white paint:
The low level panel at the bottom was also visible for a short while – I'm guessing it said something like 'Expert cleaning service':
But by mid-2019 the whole shopfront was again over-painted: 
..........................................................
276 St Paul's Road, Highbury & Islington, N1.
(only one column of blue tiles remains):
..........................................................
WANDSWORTH SHOPS
138 Northcote Road, Battersea, SW11:
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WESTMINSTER SHOPS
22 Pimlico Road, SW1:
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44 Churton Street, SW1, 2024:
. In the 1950s it looked like this:
This still taken from old movie footage on YouTube – 13:56 (as shown here) and an alternative view at 16:28. (Thanks to 'anonymous' for letting me know about this via the comments section here)..........................................................
GENERIC INFO
This is a work in progress – I will updating and amending as and when I source more/better info.
Items would then be sent for cleaning at large laundry facilities:
- North London – Westerns, 34 Drayton Park, N7
- South and West London – Loud & Western, 63 Broughton Rd, Fulham, Peterborough Rd, Fulham, and 125 Acre Lane, Brixton
Loud & Western Ltd 1939:
There is no listing for Sunlight Laundries, or similar. It's fair to assume that Western in both instances, is the same person/company. My assumption is that Mr Western's company was doing well in North London and he had a deal with Lever Brothers to use and advertise their Sunlight Soap. When they (Western and Lever Bros)decided to expand into South and West London a new company was created in the name of Loud&Western. Mr Loud might have been a director on the board of Lever Bros, or perhaps Loud is an acronym or similar. According to Graces Guide, L&W acquired the Broughton Road site in 1901, and 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, lead to the restaurant that now occupies the laundry site in Drayton Park, telling us that the company was founded in May 2017 rather than well before that Art Deco era building was constructed! There are some lovely memories of Fulham's Loud & Western laundry sites here on Facebook
Until I find more and better information about these two companies, here's the 1958 price list from the outlet at 160 Holloway Road. This shop and the one at 84 Holloway Rd, shown above. Interesting to note that there is no mention of Sunlight Soap on this leaflet.
Sunlight Soap info here
Ghostsigns – Sunlight Soap
– Conewood Road, Highbury Grove, N5– Millfields Rd / Chippendale St, Lower Clapton, E5– 83 Upper Clapton Road– Park Lane / Denmark Street, Tottenham E17.– Chalford Rd / Clive Rd, SE21
Ghostsigns – Westerns– Crouch End, as shown above in the Haringey section
The following ideas need further investigation:
- Sunlight Square, Bethnal Green – I wonder if there was a factory/laundry here?
- Ditto Sunlight Close in South Wimbledon
