The launderette in Highbury Park

WHAT would Dot Cotton say?

The humble launderette was once considered such an important part of any neighbourhood that the EastEnders scriptwriters knew they could not create Albert Square without having somewhere for people to spin both the gossip and their washing.

And where, we must wonder, will the Zoomer generation go for their movie meet-cute moments?

If we can learn anything from rom-coms, it’s that love’s capricious ways often means you’ll find “the one” at a chance meeting in a… laundromat.

Dot Cotton worked in the laundrette – a hub of gossip – in EastEnders

Then there was the famous Levi’s advert where the late Nick Kamen drops down to his briefs while he waits for his wash and dry; you may have spent a hundred Sunday afternoons waiting for something like that to happen in your local laundrette without any luck.

But despite being such a cultural icon on the UK’s high streets, the slow and steady death of the coin-op launderette is continuing with more closures every year.

The Levi’s ad

Soon we may no longer be able to spend hours wondering whether it should be spelt launderette or laundrette. You can decide at home, which is right.

Friends

The latest one to vanish for good is in Highbury Park after planners were asked to allow it to be converted – surprise, surprise – into somewhere to sell takeaway food.

The increase in washing machine ownership has meant demand for launderettes has fallen, although they are still considered an important resource for many and there have been fights to save them in Belsize Park and Fitzrovia in recent years.

Baby Driver

But the applicants in Highbury put it bluntly in their written request for planning consent, telling officials the launderette was now a “post pandemic dying business”.