Birch Street Public Wash-house Chancery Lane Ardwick

MANCHESTER PUBLIC WASHHOUSES - THE FOURTEENTH OPENED - The Manchester Corporation has been giving attention for many years to the need in densely populated districts of the city of public washhouses. Baths are necessary and they abundantly justify their existence, but washhouses are not less in demand. Yesterday the Chairman (Alderman Bowie) and members of the Baths and Washhouses Committee attended the formal opening of Birch Street Public Wash-house, Chancery Lane, Ardwick, when the ceremony was performed by Councillor William Gilgryst, chairman of the Baths and washhouses Northern District Sub-committee. The Committee were fortunate in obtaining a suitable site on which the City Architect (Mr H Price) has been able, from a purely utilitarian point of view, to erect an almost ideal washhouse. It has 48 washing stalls, the same number of drying horses, six electrically driven hydro-extractors, three electrically driven mangles and the various other requisites. Some noteworthy features are that each wash stall is placed opposite to the drying horse, so that the user does not loose sight of the clothes, that the light is north light, that the steam is carried away by pipes to the outside, and that the office is so placed as to permit of complete supervision at once of the whole interior.

The present public washhouse forms the fourteenth opened in the city since 1902. At New Islington a fifteenth, in the form of an extension, is being built. Five other public washhouses are in contemplation - at Moss Side, Moston, Cheetham, Openshaw, and Clayton. Some ides of the value of the facility provided by the municipality in this direction may be gathered from the fact that in the year ended 31 march last the number of washers at these establishments was 412,577, and the receipts were £15,388. Alderman Bowie stated that the total of the stalls in the fourteen public washhouses was 415 and when the scheme was completed there would be a total of 834 stalls. While he agreed that Glasgow has about 1,100 stalls, he pointed out that in that case there were a greater number of stalls in one establishment.[Manchester Guardian 6 January 1925 page 11]

Reference           Manchester Guardian 6 January 1925 page 11