Washing machines are once again whirring and dryers tumbling at a community launderette in east London that the local council had abruptly closed just weeks before, in a victory for local residents.
People living in and around the Boundary estate, the UK’s first council estate, between Shoreditch and Bethnal Green, had launched a campaign to get the facility reopened after bailiffs changed the locks in February. Now Tower Hamlets council has made a U-turn and handed the keys of the launderette to residents.
The council closed the launderette in the hope of obtaining a higher rent for the premises in this increasingly gentrified part of London. Local people say officials wanted to raise the rent sixfold, a level more suited to some of the designer shops springing up in fashionable Shoreditch than to a community launderette offering affordable rates to wash and dry clothes and bedding.
The council has granted residents a temporary tenancy, which has allowed the laundry to reopen swiftly. Staff and customers say the launderette doubles as a space to get together, where lonely or older people can get a cup of tea while their clothes spin and buy cut-price donated books from the launderette’s informal library. They say romance has even bloomed over the tumble driers for one couple.
Tracey Yeuman, one of the launderette staff, who talks of the “launderette family”, said staff were overjoyed to have their jobs back. “It was so lovely when we lifted the shutters and opened the doors again. We washed all the machines out ready for the first customers. Everything was still working and even the plants survived. Everyone who walks into the launderette has a smile on their faces and we’re feeling positive about the future. Now our estate is complete again.”
The mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman has welcomed the reopening of the launderette even though it was a decision of his council to close it. He tweeted that the change of heart was “great news” and added: “We are working on a long-term solution to ensure this valuable community asset can stay open.”
The Boundary estate was completed in the late 1890s to replace London’s most notorious slum, Old Nichol. It was formally opened by Edward, Prince of Wales in 1900. The communal laundry, described in local archives as an “experiment”, was an attractive part of the new development, with homes allocated to the capital’s “working poor” rather than to all the slum dwellers who had previously lived in the area.
The original laundry building was sold in the 1960s, but when tenants had no choice but to dry clothes in their flats it created damp and mould. And so, in 1992, the Boundary estate community launderette was founded by a group of parents struggling to get their family’s washing done.
While local people say they are delighted to have the launderette operating again they are calling on the council to secure its long-term future by adding it to its portfolio of community premises and to agree that the launderette is eligible for community benefit rent reduction.
Tower Hamlets council said: “We are pleased to be able to issue a tenancy at will for the Boundary estate community launderette. This type of tenancy is a temporary arrangement and the fastest option to allow the launderette to reopen whilst a longer-term arrangement is agreed. We will be meeting with tenants in the next few weeks to discuss the steps that need to be taken for us to put longer-term arrangements in place.”