The machines first made it here in 1973, the launderette opening three years before the estate’s last building, Shakespeare Tower, was finished. Though owned, managed and rented out by the Corporation of the City of London, the Barbican Estate was never “council housing” — it was marketed at high-flyers, captains of industry, men of the universe. Big names duly moved in: George Best, Sir Peter Hall, Clive James. It housed both minor aristocrats — the Earl of Elgin — and leftie, establishment scourges, like Arthur Scargill, who without moral qualm let his union pay his rent for him. It was its own little city of success stories, 2,100 executive homes. Washing in one didn’t always suit the tone. Rather than being a last resort, the launderette opened as another of the estate’s luxuries; no need for wet towels clogging up the sitting room.
Hidden London: the Barbican Launderette
