Nottingham Wash House 1977
July 11, 2024 3:50 PM Subscribe
Nottingham Wash House 1977 [SLYT] A short documentary piece about the last public wash-house in the East Midlands (UK).
I thought it was going to be people washing themselves... Sigh.
posted by Czjewel at 4:20 PM on July 11
posted by Czjewel at 4:20 PM on July 11
OMG, I love how candid everybody is. I'm just cackling.
PRESENTER: Well, this is certainly a Dickensian hellscape!
LADY TRYING TO SAVE THE WASH-HOUSE: Well yes, of course, but we think we could attract more young people if they just would change the hours.
posted by phooky at 5:03 PM on July 11 [3 favorites]
PRESENTER: Well, this is certainly a Dickensian hellscape!
LADY TRYING TO SAVE THE WASH-HOUSE: Well yes, of course, but we think we could attract more young people if they just would change the hours.
posted by phooky at 5:03 PM on July 11 [3 favorites]
"After all, you can open the door and steam can come out without the machine stopping." I can see why they'd rather use the sinks!
posted by mittens at 5:33 PM on July 11
posted by mittens at 5:33 PM on July 11
The Steamie is a play set in a Glasgow wash house (= steamie) in the 1950s. It's a wee gem of a play
posted by scruss at 5:58 PM on July 11 [2 favorites]
posted by scruss at 5:58 PM on July 11 [2 favorites]
With the "cossie livs", would a public laundry where you could wash your clothes by hand or whatever for a couple of quid be appealing?
posted by fiercekitten at 6:11 PM on July 11
posted by fiercekitten at 6:11 PM on July 11
I thought it was going to be people washing themselves... Sigh.
Me too! Paris still has free bains-douches, they are even building new ones. I believe these days they are exclusively public welfare projects but in times past they were quite elegant (if not always free).
posted by Nelson at 6:59 PM on July 11 [4 favorites]
Me too! Paris still has free bains-douches, they are even building new ones. I believe these days they are exclusively public welfare projects but in times past they were quite elegant (if not always free).
posted by Nelson at 6:59 PM on July 11 [4 favorites]
Very interesting - strange, though how hard it is these days to find a laundromat anywhere where I live while the English are still doing their washing communally using scrubbing boards and the like.
posted by dg at 7:45 PM on July 11
posted by dg at 7:45 PM on July 11
Thanks for posting this. It was just down the road from me and I never knew it existed.
Also, I don't know where they used to find the 70s local BBC presenters, but his accent couldn't be farther from an East Midlands accent if he tried. Or more condescending.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 10:32 PM on July 11 [5 favorites]
Also, I don't know where they used to find the 70s local BBC presenters, but his accent couldn't be farther from an East Midlands accent if he tried. Or more condescending.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 10:32 PM on July 11 [5 favorites]
No connection except it’s the UK in the 1970s: Raw egg drinking competition for Rag Week: shots of competition, followed by interview with N.I. champion, Frank Creeney.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 2:00 AM on July 12
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 2:00 AM on July 12
Also, I don't know where they used to find the 70s local BBC presenters
I was curious enough to go looking! That was Bev Smith, a news presenter for ATV. Here he is interviewing holidaymakers in Skegness in 1977; also available as Midlands Holiday Report on the BFI Player. Apologies if one or both is region-blocked.
Britishness intensifies: He was mid-performance as a pantomime dame when he died of a heart attack, aged 70.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 3:42 AM on July 12 [2 favorites]
I was curious enough to go looking! That was Bev Smith, a news presenter for ATV. Here he is interviewing holidaymakers in Skegness in 1977; also available as Midlands Holiday Report on the BFI Player. Apologies if one or both is region-blocked.
Britishness intensifies: He was mid-performance as a pantomime dame when he died of a heart attack, aged 70.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 3:42 AM on July 12 [2 favorites]
The BFI has a video of a wash house in Liverpool from the late 50s, which gives a bit more background on how they worked.
These days we've got Kitty's Laundrette, which is a combined laundrette and social centre; named after Kitty Wilkinson, who pioneered wash houses (in Liverpool at least) in response to the cholera epidemic in the 1800s. She's the only woman to have a statue in St. George's Hall (alongside lots of old white dudes of course).
posted by amcewen at 4:47 AM on July 12 [4 favorites]
These days we've got Kitty's Laundrette, which is a combined laundrette and social centre; named after Kitty Wilkinson, who pioneered wash houses (in Liverpool at least) in response to the cholera epidemic in the 1800s. She's the only woman to have a statue in St. George's Hall (alongside lots of old white dudes of course).
posted by amcewen at 4:47 AM on July 12 [4 favorites]
Thanks for posting that Skegness video, ManyLeggedCreature. When I was a kid growing up in Derby, Skeggy was the holiday destination of choice for most working-class people. The two big industries in the town - Rolls Royce and British Rail - would close for the same two weeks in the August and families would go en masse to Skegness, holidaying with the same people they worked with for the rest of the year, staying on caravan sites, in B&Bs or at Butlin's Holiday Camp.
The roller coaster shown in the video was called the Wild Mouse. I always thought it looked flimsy and dangerous and never went on it.
My dad was a snob and, as an office worker, thought himself above the Skeggy people, so we always went further along the Lincolnshire coast to Mablethorpe or Sutton-on-Sea. That whole stretch of the English coast is beautiful - wide golden beaches that were perfect when the weather was good, but the North Sea was usually freezing cold and if it rained, there was very little to do other than take shelter.
Skegness is still a popular holiday destination for East Midlanders, and has tried to re-invent itself as more upmarket. People call it Skegvegas, but honestly, it was always a bit of a dump and probably still is.
posted by essexjan at 7:27 AM on July 12 [3 favorites]
The roller coaster shown in the video was called the Wild Mouse. I always thought it looked flimsy and dangerous and never went on it.
My dad was a snob and, as an office worker, thought himself above the Skeggy people, so we always went further along the Lincolnshire coast to Mablethorpe or Sutton-on-Sea. That whole stretch of the English coast is beautiful - wide golden beaches that were perfect when the weather was good, but the North Sea was usually freezing cold and if it rained, there was very little to do other than take shelter.
Skegness is still a popular holiday destination for East Midlanders, and has tried to re-invent itself as more upmarket. People call it Skegvegas, but honestly, it was always a bit of a dump and probably still is.
posted by essexjan at 7:27 AM on July 12 [3 favorites]
My family moved to a steel town in the North East of the UK in search of work when I was a toddler. The offer of a council house rental was a huge incentive. I loved growing up there and thought it was a treasure trove of wonders and mysteries. It was the classic 2 storey semi, 3 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, kitchen, living room and 'front parlour' downstairs. The parlour was never used, other than at Christmas but was kept locked down, polished and perfect in case the Queen popped in for a cuppa which I don't think she ever did.
Running down one side of the house was a long covered passage - 'the passage' as we said, wide enough for my sisters to play 2, 3 and 4 handball and close enough that I could straddle the gap and climb, one foot against each wall and suspended, could chat to my pal from next door who clambered up facing me. One door from the passage led into a dark and forbidding coal shed, big as a room, full of coal at a bargain basement price from the steel works as a perk to steel workers like my Dad. It was also home to the Bogeyman we believed. On the other side was 'Dad's shed' again room sized where Dad had his tools.
Further along and best of all, was the wash house. Here Mum washed Dad's shirts in the cold water sink (in which I got my Saturday night bath), boiled filthy terylene nappies/diapers, ( there was often a baby about in our big family) - stirred and prodded and plunged them in the boiling water with huge wooden tongs before passing them on to the mangle man - me, I cranked as hard as I could hoping to manage without Mum's help, forcing them thru the rollers spitting and squishing and squirting out the other side and into the hanging basket, ready to go out on the line in the garden. In summer, oh happy days, all us kids would be fed lunch on an old wooden table in the wash house between washes. It was always cold meat left over from the Sunday roast, baked beans and chips (French fries). I was never happier than in that washroom, dinner on my plate, Mum at the controls and all was right in the world.
posted by dutchrick at 8:22 AM on July 12 [14 favorites]
Running down one side of the house was a long covered passage - 'the passage' as we said, wide enough for my sisters to play 2, 3 and 4 handball and close enough that I could straddle the gap and climb, one foot against each wall and suspended, could chat to my pal from next door who clambered up facing me. One door from the passage led into a dark and forbidding coal shed, big as a room, full of coal at a bargain basement price from the steel works as a perk to steel workers like my Dad. It was also home to the Bogeyman we believed. On the other side was 'Dad's shed' again room sized where Dad had his tools.
Further along and best of all, was the wash house. Here Mum washed Dad's shirts in the cold water sink (in which I got my Saturday night bath), boiled filthy terylene nappies/diapers, ( there was often a baby about in our big family) - stirred and prodded and plunged them in the boiling water with huge wooden tongs before passing them on to the mangle man - me, I cranked as hard as I could hoping to manage without Mum's help, forcing them thru the rollers spitting and squishing and squirting out the other side and into the hanging basket, ready to go out on the line in the garden. In summer, oh happy days, all us kids would be fed lunch on an old wooden table in the wash house between washes. It was always cold meat left over from the Sunday roast, baked beans and chips (French fries). I was never happier than in that washroom, dinner on my plate, Mum at the controls and all was right in the world.
posted by dutchrick at 8:22 AM on July 12 [14 favorites]
What a lovely reminiscence, dutchrick.
posted by essexjan at 11:43 AM on July 12 [2 favorites]
posted by essexjan at 11:43 AM on July 12 [2 favorites]
Well I'm glad that in 1977 Nottingham they had "a man on duty at all times". I had occasion to use a Revolution 24/365 washing machine complex this May. These self-serve facilities are springing up across the country in gas-stations and supermarket car-parks. It did the job for a price but seemed sketchy on cleanliness - the add-detergent orifice was a multi-coloured microbiological ecosystem for starters. The same site had added a "Barks &Bubbles your number 1 dog wash" which I thought was a rather nifty utility when I noticed it last year. While the duvet was drying I went across the forecourt to scope out Barks & Bubbles. It was filthy: the trough was dog-ankle deep in grey suds and clots of hair. 21stC Capital won't employ "a man on duty at all times".
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:43 PM on July 12 [1 favorite]
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:43 PM on July 12 [1 favorite]
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