The affordability of home washing machines, the Covid pandemic and rising energy costs have sent Britain’s launderettes into a backward spin.
Although they were permitted to open during Covid lockdowns, lack of business grants and soaring energy bills have all contributed to their downward spiral.
In their heyday of the 1950s there were around 14,000 launderettes in Britain, but now there are only around 2,000 left.
We look back at how they were once a favourite of movie, TV and ad-makers both here in the UK and across the pond in the US.
EASTENDERS
1985 TO PRESENT
One of the most iconic launderette sets that got us all in a spin has to be Dot Cotton’s second home in Albert Square – the site of many a good gossip, slanging match or heart to heart.
Bridge Street Launderette in EastEnders was where chain smoking Dot washed everyone’s dirty laundry and “smalls” for the best part of six decades.
Dot (played by June Brown) worked at Mr Papadopoulos’ shop for 55 years where she even gave Dirty Den a telling off during one memorable moment.
Then in sad scenes on Christmas Eve 2016, the soap legend closed the door to the launderette for the final time after learning she had lost her job.
The launderette has since been reopened and is now run by Karen Taylor (Lorraine Stanley) who says although she will never “fill Dot Cotton’s shoes”, she hopes she can do June’s character justice.
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDERETTE
1985
This film was groundbreaking for its time, focusing on the relationship between two men, one working class white British and the other the son of Pakistani emigrants.
The British romcom stole many people’s hearts when it was first released in the mid eighties and is a story centred around a run-down laundrette which is transformed into a profitable business by the two ambitious young men.
Omar is played by Gordon Warnecke, a young Pakistani man living in London, who rekindles a teenage romance with old friend Johnny, played by Daniel Day-Lewis.
Set in London’s Vauxhall in the Margaret Thatcher era, the film explores sexuality, racism and division between different communities and was ranked the 50th greatest British film of the 20th century by the British Film Institute.
It was acclaimed for its groundbreaking representation of gay and Asian characters and was nominated for an Oscar for its screenplay.
FIGHT CLUB
1999
Fight Club tells the story of a depressed man (Edward Norton) who is suffering from insomnia meeting a strange soap salesman named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and soon finds himself living in his squalid house after his perfect apartment is destroyed.
The two bored men form an underground club with strict rules and fight other men who are fed up with their mundane lives but their perfect partnership is tested when Marla (Helena Bonham Carter) attracts Tyler’s attention.
In one scene, the mysterious Marla steals someone’s laundry from a dryer and sells it to a thrift shop, proving you really should keep an eye on your machine.
BABY DRIVER
2017
In Baby Driver, the laundrette is at the heart of a romantic and flirty movie scene between Baby (Ansel Elgort) and his love interest Debora.
In the film he is a talented, young getaway driver who relies on the beat of his personal soundtrack to be the best in the game.
After being coerced into working for a crime boss, he must face the music when a doomed heist threatens his life, love and freedom.
In the iconic launderette scene Baby is getting to know Deborah (Lily James), a girl he likes and they chat about songs against the backdrop of colourful clothes swirling around in washing machines.
LEVI’S AD
1985
Who doesn’t remember the 1985 Levi’s ad campaign which was set in a 1950s launderette and set hearts spinning.
In the iconic commercial Nick Kamen strips to his boxers to the sound of Marvin Gaye’s hit I Heard It Through The Grapevine.
The ad was a real breakthrough for Levi’s which saw sales spiral by 800% and transformed their jeans from a brand worn by people’s dads into sexy jeans appealing to a much younger audience.
In fact it was so successful, it had to eventually be taken off air because Levi’s couldn’t produce enough jeans to meet demand.
Nick’s abs even inspired Madonna to write a song for him called “Each Time You Break My Heart” which made it into the Top Ten.
Nick’s singing career ended abruptly but the advert ran until 1999 before he was eventually replaced by a fluffy yellow puppet called Flat Eric.
ANCHORMAN 2
2013
With the 1970s behind him, San Diego’s former top-rated newsreader, Ron Burgundy, returns to take New York City’s first 24-hour news channel by storm.
Seven years after capturing the heart of co-anchor Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), newsman Ron (Will Ferrell) is offered the chance of a lifetime: a spot on the world’s first 24-hour global cable news network.
It’s not the first time a movie has shown that laundry can lead to love when Brick Tamland brings Chani to the laundrette on their first date
FRIENDS
1994
Perhaps one of the most memorable laundry scenes in TV history, Friends’ fans around the world will remember a launderette is the location of yet another cycle in the Ross and Rachel Friends’ on/off romance saga.
In the fifth episode of Friends ‘The One With The East German Laundry Detergent’, lovesick Ross pretends his building’s launderette is out of action in order to spend more time with Rachel played by Jennifer Aniston, who has a laundromat downstairs in her Manhattan residence.
It’s even the scene of Ross and Rachel’s first (platonic) kiss after Ross helps Rachel learn how to do her laundry.
There are also lathers of laughs when Rachel accidentally puts a red sock in her white washing and argues with a horrible woman who tries to steal her machine and her laundry basket.
WAYNE’S WORLD 2
1993
Wayne (Mike Myers) and his sidekick Garth (Dana Carvey) are still hosting their late-night cable TV show, and though they have moved into a new babe lair, Wayne is becoming restless.
After Garth moves out of his parent’s basement, he visits a laundromat to do his own washing for the first time in his life.
There he unfortunately manages to shrink his laundry but he also meets love interest Honey Hornée (played by Kim Basinger).
Honey runs her tongue over Garth’s licorice at the laundromat, which leads to his eventual seduction.
“I am no longer a stranger to the ways of women,” says Garth, who is later humiliated when he finds out Honey is married and wants him to shoot her husband.
