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.
