Doing the laundry was difficult before washing machines came along!

There are many public baths where Chinese people go for washing themselves. Are there some in Britain, or do British people only have private baths in their own home?   Apollo, China

For many years British people did not have washing machines in their own homes, neither did they have bathrooms.

For thousands of people living in the big cities getting their clothes and themselves clean meant a weekly trip to a public wash house. These were pioneered in Liverpool in the north west of England, and soon spread across the country.

The final wash house closed in 1971, but as John and Sun Chen find out they were both necessary and popular amongst the local communities who used them.

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