Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request steam laundry in Birkenhead

Hi,
does anyone know of a steam laundry that used to be in birkenhead, i believe it was in cleveland/vittoria st, it was caled ''falcon steam laundry''i believe they did a lot of work for the hospitals and closed down in the 60s.
the reason i am interested is that i have found my G.Uncle's wife on 1911 census aged 16 and working as a ''carrier out at laundry'', would that mean she helped to deliver the laundry? her sister also worked there as a ''colar ironer''.
they lived in Hind St Birkenhead,so it sounds like the laundry were they worked, i would like to find some pics of it,i've tried googling but have'nt found anything so far.
chris.

I see Wiki was recommended by www.rootschat.com

Yep, The Falcon Laundry it was. The boss lady used to be called Mrs Lovatt. My mum and nan both worked there and think my younger sister even did a stint. They used to employ Tony, a lad with special needs as they call it now, to run messages and help out. It enabled him to get a few bob. It had a big chimney with the "V" for Victory painted in white on it. It used to employ a lot of the local women and they were thrown out of work when it went down. I think it used to do a lot of the ships' laundry and the General Hospital too. It was probably the demise of the docks that caused it to pack up. Haven't seen any pics of it though, not many cameras about then.

thanks for the info, what a shame i can't find any pics of it!

The laundry was run by a brother and sister I think the guys name was Mr Hart a bit excentric but really nice people.I would of thought your aunt"s job would be in the place itself putting the laundry through the presses as the bags took two blokes to lift.
I used yo work there on a Saturday morning for spends.I remember
bandycoots sister Ithink she now lives in Canada

thought on, when the old man had been having a good few pay days we even had a bit of our laundry done at the Falcon. There used to be a little square waiting room where you queued up round the wall and out the door into the street if it was busy on a Saturday morning. The laundry was picked up in extremely neat bundles, tied up with string and a paper ticket (the bill and items list) tucked in on top. Nice and crisply laundered and ironed, luxury.

thanks for the info on the laundry, it's very interesting, i never knew there was one untill i found G.Uncle Jims wife working there aged 16 on the 1911 census,it just said her occupation was ''carrier out at laundry''.
if anyone ever finds any pics of it please let me know, i love to see were my ancestors worked and lived, it must of been really hot and hard work there!