The blue tiled laundry shops of Sunlight, Westerns and Loud & Westerns

I've written a few times about shops that used to be laundries/dry cleaners, evident by 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. 

There are two companies here, Westerns Laundry in North London and Loud & Western in South and West London, both used and advertised Sunlight products – more info at the further down.

First, here are the London outlets that still retain blue tiled exteriors (please do let me know if you know of any others): 

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BRIXTON

100 Brixton Hill, SW2

Now split into tow shops, the corner section still retains its blue tiles:

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CAMDEN

62 Chetwynd Road, NW5
Still a laundry but, for some daft reason, the blue tiles have been overpainted with blue paint!

124 Fortess RD, NW5
Much of the exterior was still intact until 2015. Pic here is from Google 2009:

The shop's exterior was remodelled, keeping only the black and white floor tiles at the left side :

Today (2024), the laundry's blue tiles can be glimpsed under the grey paint at low level: 

Note also the loss of the little street sign that identified this as Fortess Mews:

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CHISWICK

19 Devonshire Rd, W4

This corner shop is still looking good in 2024

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CLAPHAM

14 Blandfield Road, SW12

A column of blue tiles is all that remains:

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CROUCH END

Middle Lane, N8

A superb example. It even has pained sign on the side:

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FULHAM

594 Fulham Road, SW6

I recalled seeing blue tiles either side of the door in the early 2000s but when I returned with my camera few years later they'd gone. Here's how it looked in 2008:

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HAMMERSMITH

47A Goldhawk Road, W12

Hot Pot's column of blue tiles, shown here, was gone by 2016:

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ISLINGTON

334-336 Grays Inn Road, Kings Cross

Click here for more

41 Essex Road, N1 

Corner of Gaskin Street: 

84 Holloway Road, N7
The first pic shows how it looked in early 2018 when the blue tiles were briefly revealed, having been covered in black and white paint for many years:

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
See more here

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STREATHAM

111 Mitcham Lane, SW16

The tied pilasters are gradually becoming visible, hidden for at least 15 years under layers of paint: 

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WANDSWORTH

138 Northcote Road, Battersea, SW11
See more here

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WESTMINSTER

22 Pimlico Road, SW1
See more here

44 Churton Street, SW1
This is how it looked in 2024:

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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)

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GENERIC INFO about Westerns Laundry / Loud & Western
This is a work in progress – I will be updating and amending as and when I source more/better info.

It's proving hard to ascertain which came first, Westerns or Loud & Western – it's a chicken and egg conundrum. 

But it's fair to assume that John Richard Western is connected to both companies. By 1910, there were laundry outlets in his name at 160A and 674 Holloway Road with sixteen other outlets across North London, as shown in this snippet from Kelly's 1910 directory: 

It's interesting to note that this does not make clear which sites were laundries vs high street shops. 

Question is, who was Mr Western? Did he start the laundry as his own idea, or was it set up by Sunlight/LeverBros in his name. If so, what was their relationship? See more about him in the The Laundries section below. As regards Mr Loud of Loud & Western, he might have been a director on the board of Lever Bros, or perhaps Loud is an acronym or similar. 

It's worth noting that there is nothing listed in the name of Western within in Kelly's 1899 directory which also shows that there were no laundry outlets along the whole length of Holloway Rd at in that year. This is very strange seeing as ten years earlier there had been a choice of independent laundry services along the two mile street, as well as The Caledonian Laundry, a local company. Therefore, it's fair to assume that Westerns and Loud&Western began trading in 1900/1901.

THE LAUNDRIES

North London – Westerns, Drayton Park, N7

In the 1900s, certainly by 1910, John Western is living at No.12 Drayton Park, here at the corner of Horsell Rd, with The New River Laundry at the rear of his house and No.14. I can find no info about this business – it doesn't appear to be an official branch of the New River Company. 
Incidentally, further along the street there was also another laundry company, The Clissold Laundry, situated at the corner of Arvon Road here which in previous years been called The Drayton Park Laundry.  There are many natural springs and water courses in this area so, historically, this would have been the ideal location for this kind of business. 

By the early 1930s, Western's Laundry has moved to a large purpose-built facility, further along the street, at 34 Drayton Park. 

Here's a short video of me in Drayton Park back in 2020.

South and West London – Loud & Western, various locations:

63 Broughton Rd, Fulham

Peterborough Rd, Fulham

125 Acre Lane, Brixton

Grace's Guide tells us the Broughton Road site was secured in 1901, as confirmed by that year's Kelly's directory which lists the premises as 'Sunlight Laundry'.  

However, it's strange that this Broughton Road is excluded from the 1910 directory (snippet below) which shows Loud & Western at 490A, 91 and 327 Kings Road as well as twelve other outlets across South and West London:

 

As the businesses boomed, more outlets opened...

Westerns Laundries Ltd 1939:

Note that the first inclusion here is for 18 Drayton Park, indicating that this was the HQ/Head Office – Mr Western has evidently moved house again, to a larger property a few doors along from his previous house at No.12, and I suggest it would have looked like this house at No.30.  

These 1939 listings shows all their sites, although they are not identified as outlets/shops vs laundries. Having checked out these addresses, I've noticed that a couple of them are residential properties, specifically Green Street and Balls Pond Road – these might have been area manager's offices. Some of the other locations are not shopping streets (for instance, Barnsbury Rd, Ivor Place, Ferdinand St, Old Hill, Provost St and Weedington Rd) and these I think were probably laundries in addition to the Drayton Park site.

Loud & Western Ltd 1939:

It's interesting to see the order that the address are listed here – I suspect it's chronological, reflecting the order that the sites were added, Broughton Rd being the first in 1901. Note also that the Acre Lane (laundry) site is shown near the end, reflecting its recent construction. Then the Peterborough Road facility is next in the list (another Art Deco era building) – it is here specified as 'Float iron dept' and I wonder if this might be the 1934 (patent?) application for a laundry wringing machine – as advertised in the window of the Churton Street shop shown in the film still above.  

There are some lovely memories and images of Fulham's Loud & Western laundry sites here on Facebook 

1960s onwards

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, take me to the restaurant that now occupies less than half of the building in Drayton Park, which was founded here in May 2017. I'll keep searching. 

In the meantime, 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

I can find no listings in the Kelly's directories for Sunlight Laundries, or similar, except in the very early days at Broughton Road (see above) suggesting the laundry side of Lever Bros' company was franchised from the beginning. 

Ghostsigns – Sunlight Soap
– Conewood Road, Highbury Grove, N5 – see also my short YouTube video

– 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

Finsbury Park – this sign 'SAME DAY CLEANERS' is at the rear of the bank building at the corner of St Thomas's Rd, opposite the station.  

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

This Wall Has Artistic Importance – Waithman Street, EC4

If you venture up the stairs at the side of 100 New Bridge Street, EC4 (heading for Carter Lane) turn immdiately right at the top into Waithman Street. Here you will find a wall featuring approx 12 panels (could be more than that, I forgot to count them). 

I took these pics back in August 2021 and completely forgot to do anything with them until now, purely because someone told me that this area is due for regeneration. Indeed, these panels might have been removed by now. I will go and check again soon, but for now here are some of the pics I took three years ago showing some of the pleasing repeat patterns that can be created by a limited range of shapes. 

Along the wall there are occasional small plaques that tell us...

Nice eh? It's the sort of thing I would have been mesmerised and inspired by as a child when one of my favourite hobbies was designing repeat patterns on graph paper. Here are a couple of my efforts from age 8/9.

Actually, having dug out that scrapbook, I now see that I have created more bubble pics than any other type. Hmmm... I'll have a think about how include those as part of a future post. 

Another tiled shop front has gone – Express Dairies, 300 Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill

There seems to be a tile removal epidemic... as if it's not bad enough painting over tiles as per here and here and here, at least the paint can one day be removed to reveal the fired ceramics beneath. 

But in many places I am seeing lovely old tiles on old butcher shops, bakeries and dairies completely removed and replaced, as here in Notting Hill where a lovely shop front for a branch of Express Dairies that used to look like this....

... now looks like this (1st August 2024):

I discovered this latest bit of blandification yesterday whilst leading my Notting Hill Ghostsigns guided walk, this shop being one of the places I talk about along the route. It has for the past year it so been standing empty, waiting for a new occupant. Its intact exterior was unusual as I have not seen the like elsewhere in London, so I was stunned to see that so much of the shop's century-old façade hade been revamped. 

I say 'revamped' because, if you look closely, you'll see that they (whoever they is/are) have removed all the original features, excluding the tiles on the wall to the right, and replaced them with modern versions of the same proportion. I cannot believe that these alterations have been achieved by anyone who lives locally or has a link to the area, especially as there are other restored shops and businesses in this are such as the green tiles at Mary’s Living and Giving and the Electric Cinema. 

The bizarre fakery installed here echoes the shape and size of the window frames and the door, and includes panels of blue tiles which I assume have been affixed directly on top of the old ones. Compare and contrast 2022 with 2024 here:

I mean, what's the point?! It's not even a decent pastiche! Perhaps this is all down to Health and Safety – I have been told in the past, when other shops of a similar style have been gutted or over-panelled, that cracked tiles are unhygienic. If so, this tells us that this will be a food outlet of some kind. But this is the exterior, not the interior.  

These next pics contrast the depth, colour and variation within the old artisan/hand-made deep blue tiles on the left, with the flat blue panels installed in 2024, right:

These pics better highlight how the shape and style of the original front door has been echoed in its modern replacement. It's a wonder that they didn't also include a little plastic 'beware of the dog' badge as per the old one. I am hoping that the terrazzo threshold still remains under that sheet of cardboard. 

But, if like-for-like was the brief or intention here, why not use modern products that better resemble the 1920's originals? There are many companies today making very good brushed aluminium frames, and joiners who can produce good quality bespoke wooden doors. Why use such bland products that will not last ten years, let alone a century? Because it's cheaper, but only in the short term.

This next group of pics shows how good the shop looked a few years ago. Note the mechanism for the retractable sun blind/awning which ran across the whole front of the shop (also removed as part of the revamp), the ED logo in white and gold within glass panels and the Jazz Age geometrics of the ventilation grille at low level.

This, to me, is such a great loss as I am unaware of any other Express Dairy shops that still retain their original logos and tiles – please do let me know if you have any further information.

Overpainted Unigate tiles at The Old Dairy, Crouch Hill

Last year I wrote about some shops near Highbury & Islington station and the loss of a lovely tiled interior that was evidence of its previous life as a Unigate Dairy. 

More recently, whilst checking a route for walking tour I was going lead for the Stroud Green Women's Institute, I was standing opposite The Old Dairy at the junction of Crouch Hill and Stroud Green Road and I took some photos, including the one below. 

The Friern Manor Dairy Company, of East Dulwich, installed this marvellous red brick entranceway in 1891, complete with the impressive scraffito panels, and managed the site until 1919 when it became a franchise of Premier Dairies.  I recalled that by the mid-1920s it was under the Unigate Dairies umbrella.  

Hmmm, I thought... is there any evidence of this? So I went to look closer.

Shown here is a screengrab from Google Streetview of the corner section at 1-3 Crouch Hill, before the pub reopened in Spring 2024. This would have been the shop where customers could have bought their milk, butter and other dairy products. Under a few layers of dark paint, hints of 4" tiles and chevroned border panels can be seen peeping through either side of the door. You'll have to take my word for it, or go and see for yourself, because it's very hard to photograph.

The interior of the shop would have also have had tiled walls in the same design, as per the Highbury shop, and I am convinced (or possibly deluded) that I recall remnants of those tiles in there when it first opened as a pub in 1997. But today the walls are all panelled and painted dark green. Considering that it’s called The Old Dairy, making a big deal of the building’s heritage, you'd think they would have retained as much visual history as possible. 

Please do let me know if you have further info or pics of this Stroud Green shop – jane@janeslondon.com or add a comment below.

This has now got me thinking about other tiled dairy outlets across London that have been converted for other use and how I really ought to pull a collection together. I'm surprised that I haven't already done this – watch this space, though don't hold your breath!

Loss of old tiled interior at 274 St Pauls Rd, Islington

Last year I wrote about some remnants of tiles and signage along a stretch of the eastern end of St Paul's Rd, Islington

One shop I talked about was No.274 where a business had just moved out and the interior was bare within lovely old white and green tiled walls showing its past history as a United Dairies shop. As seen on Google Streetview from August 2022. 

Well, walking past it this morning, I was disappointed to see it now looks like this:

The exterior looks welcoming, but to me, and anyone who knows what's been lost here, it is a big loss. The tiled walls are nowhere to be seen. I was in a hurry and didn't properly check to see if they have been simply covered or painted. But why do people do this? Especially when this is clearly a cafe/food outlet and they probably even have milky drinks on the menu. Tiles are easy to clean. 

Boo hoo.

I have been told when similar things have happened elsewhere that old tiles had to be covered for health and safety reasons. Really? I find that doubtful, seeing as there are still many places that have retained them such as pie and eel restaurants, old pubs, and shops which have listed interiors due to the tiles and fittings. 

This is how the shop looked in August 2022 c/o Google Streetview: 

There are more overpainted Premier/Unigate tiles at The Old Dairy, Stroud Green. I have written this up separately here. 

BBC TV Centre – tiletastic!

Last week I went with my friend to be part of the audience for a panel show recordingw. 

We arrived to find many hundreds of people… the queues were way too long. The organisers of these things always over subscribe due to the percentge of no-shows but I think in this instance they'd sent out the invites in triplicate. Whoops.

Never mind. There'll be other dates. Instead, we went for a walk around the marvellous building and the surrounding area. 

I really like the dirt green tiled walls with the contrasting scarlet red lines. Ooh. And the sculptures by Huxley Jones, especially Helios on a tall pole at the centre – check out his strange knobbly knees!

More info about the building and the artworks here

On the tiles at George's Fish & Chips shop, 45 Tottenham Lane, N8

At the northern end of Tottenham Lane, on the right and just before the fork where the road meets Church Lane and leads down to the right and Hornsey railway station, there is a fish and chips shop, opposite the old police station buildng. 

The shop doesn't look like much at first glance, being as the exterior is modern plate glass, having lost almost all of its Victorian metalwork and embellishment over the past few decades. You need only to look around at some of the nearby shops to be able to get an idea of how attractive this junction would have been 120 years ago. 

If you venture into George's you'll find some fabulous examples of fin-de-siecle tiles along the lower sections of the walls on both sides, specifically in the small seating area at the left and behind the counter too, albeit mostly obscured by cabinets. But hey, they are there and that's great.

These tiles really show off the colourful patterns of the Art Nouveau 1890s area. The grassy greens, deep golden yellows and peacock blues are absolutely gorgeous. There is also a stained glass panel at the rear which I assume is of the same era, but I doubt it would have been situated exactly in that position when the shop interior was first created. As regards the 'since 1890' claim, I am not sure what is intimated here. The 1901 directory shows this shop as No.9 Rathcoole Parade and the premises of James Brunton, fishmonger. Perhaps George is a descendant of James? Or they simply mean a chippy has been on this site since 1890.

I popped in to check up on the place earlier this month but, though the door was wide open and the place clearly open for business, there was no one about to talk to – I called out 'hello' but got no response and, in a rush to be elsewhere, I simply snapped these pics and sped off. Last time I popped in, ooh about 3 years ago, I'd had a nice chat a man who worked there. He was really proud of the tiles and loved that the history of the place is appreciated by many people who come into admire the original features (and eat the lovely chips!). I didn't ask if his name was George.

Nearby, there are other places that still hang on to their mad patchworks of Victorian glazed tiles. I mean 'mad' in a good way. Personally, I'd never consider putting some of these patterns together except in a catalogue. But the effect is dazzlingly good, such as a few doors along, at 59 Tottenham Lane, on the corner of Harvey Road where there are some lovely vertical panels of mixed tiles that are strangely at odds, yet enhanced and contrasted by, the faded ultramarine paint of Garden Transformations. The 1901 directory tells me this was Lucas & Co, house furnishers. You can also find lovely mixed tile collections surrounding the front doors of many residential properties in the area, as well as some excellent examples of old shop fronts in Hornsey High Street, but I will save those for a separate bulletin.

UPDATE 2023:

Although the premises is still trading in fish and chips, the lovely colourful Art Nouveau tiles by the seating area along the left side wall have been obliterated or removed. The guy I spoke to in there this time (not the same fella as before) said this had been done for Health and Safety reasons. Hmm. Really?!  I dispute that reason being as the tiles behind the counter in the food preparation area are still visible. Sigh.  

The things that divide us. Pilastercide.

The pilasters that divide shops help delineate where one shop ends and the next one starts. 100 years a lot of marvellous effort went into designing and creating them.
But shop owners these days don't seem to be able to leave well alone – they've just gotta claim their half of the dividers that bind them.
Aaargh!
Just up from the Phoenix cinema on East Finchley High Street there is a 1913 terrace with very nice fully-tiled pilasters complete with fancy corbels, capitals and plints. As far as I recall, not one of these remains intact.

As you can see by these four examples (of the ones that are actually still there or visible) they have been ruined – some have been painted (!) or chipped away at, and others have been partially covered. Such a shame.
Why can't these silly shop owners see that a uniform dividers along a terrace help to frame each shop rather than what we have here which turns the whole into a bad patchwork quilt.
Sigh.
See here for some colourful painted-over examples