Washing taken in

One of the helpful services which arrived on Fleetville's scene in its early days was the laundry.  One was at a house at the junction of Hatfield Road and Ashley Road – Mrs Symons, under the name Handalone Laundry – and the other at a small house almost opposite the Rats' Castle public house.  Both opened their businesses of "taking in washing" within a year or so; Mrs Symons opening first c1909 in a house newly built.

Hatfield Road looking east from Sutton Road.  Mrs Walker's cottage
and the extension beyond for the County Laundry. c1922.
Courtesy ANDY LAWRENCE

However, Mrs Turner had moved into her new house right on the edge of the former Beaumonts Farm two years earlier, but she had not stayed to see out the decade.  William Moores and Arthur White kept a farrier's yard and coach repair shop behind the house – if you had looked along the drive to the left of the house at any time until the last week or so you would know nothing seemed to have changed in all that time.

In 1910 Mrs Rosa Walker moved into the little house with a bay window, and promptly opened her own washing business.  At that time there were few houses east of the Rats' Castle (which itself was not opened until 1927), and Fleetville, indeed St Albans, finished at Ashley Road; beyond was countryside.

The laundry has become The Emporium.

While Mrs Symons' laundry continued until around 1938, Mrs Walker's may have faltered soon after the start of the First World War.  Important caveat here though; given the large numbers of troops billeted in the city for most of the war, Mrs Walker may have had a successful period until the soldiers went.  What the directories are clear about is that the end of the war didn't mark a closure but a sale.  By 1922 the building had been taken over by a Hatfield firm, the County Laundry, whose owners lost no time in building a dedicated laundry building.  At the back was the boiler room, and washing and drying facilities.  The ironing department was at the front.

It wasn't an expensive building: basic walls and iron roof trusses, with large wooden window doors alongside the road.  Apart from the enlargement of the window spaces at the front and adaptation for retail use, that is how the building remained throughout its life.

In 1953 the fascia panel which ran the full length of the building, was decorated with coloured lights to celebrate the Queen's coronation and in the early sixties the company changed its name to Hatfield Laundry.  The traditional laundry style was modernised to become a dry cleaning operation.  As this required less space the eastern section was let to Charles Gentle.  His builders' merchant trade specialised, first in plumbing supplies and then in decorative tiles, being renamed Tile Depot.

Demolition behind the frontage.
Courtesy VIC FOSTER

Activity then returned to being rather Victorian in name and style – or you might think rather modern in having concessionary counters each run by a sole trader.  The Emporium, attracted shoppers from Hatfield Road, and it often took some time for them to appreciate there were further buildings at the rear, more recently named Ballito"s, picking up the name from a former, more famous, company nearby.  And not forgetting that, for a short time, a digital design business found a home in the old cottage.

The owners have attempted on several occasions to redevelop the site, and now demolition is finally taking place.  The laundry site is one which many might have considered ripe for development forty years ago.  Most of us will find ourselves surprised once the site is cleared; surprised to discover how extensive the premises were.