Old B&W Photos of Dublin - Part 2

[dinny]

Kelso was around a lot longer. They were on the main drag in Rathmines. When I got married first and was waiting for the house to be finished, we rented a little flat in Clareville. I used to leave my laundry into Kelso

The Kelso shop was on Rathmines alright Vico.....the workers and vans entered via Military Road....

[Vico2]

When I was growing up our local laundries were the Maple and the White Heather. They were located behind the church and the post office.

[Vico2]

Kelso 1952. Swaz HQ 1960.

I am trying to remember where the Swastika Laundry was located. I think it was somewhere around Donore Avenue. Would I be right on that?

[dinny]

I am trying to remember where the Swastika Laundry was located. I think it was somewhere around Donore Avenue. Would I be right on that?

Wasn't it in Ballsbridge ?

sl.jpg

[dinny]

I am trying to remember where the Swastika Laundry was located. I think it was somewhere around Donore Avenue. Would I be right on that?

Maybe your thinking of the White Heather Laundry on the South Circular Road

[DAMNTHEWEATHER]

Ballsbridge V2.

I am trying to remember where the Swastika Laundry was located. I think it was somewhere around Donore Avenue. Would I be right on that?

The Swastika Laundry was founded in 1912 and was one of many Laundry businesses in Dublin. Founded by John W. Brittain (1872 – 1937) from Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim who was one of the “pioneers of the laundry business in Ireland” having founded the Metropolitan and White Heather Laundries in 1899. He was also the owner of a famous horse called Swastika Rose which was well known "to frequenters of the Royal Dublin's Society's Shows"

The company operated from Shelbourne Road Ballsbridge in Dublin 4. They used electric vans, that were painted in red with a black swastika on a white background, to collect and deliver laundry to customers. It was quite a sight to see the laundry labels and vans emblazoned with that most remarkable of symbols, the “Swastika”!.

The Laundry ceased to exist as a separate company in the late 1960s when it was bought out by the Spring Grove Laundry company which occupied the same site in Ballsbridge. Spring Grove continued to use the Swastika logo and name into the 1980s.

[Vico2]

Maybe your thinking of the White Heather Laundry on the South Circular Road

That was beside the Maple, that was our local laundry. Just can't remember where Swastika was. I am probably mixing it up with some other place

[dinny]

That was beside the Maple, that was our local laundry. Just can't remember where Swastika was. I am probably mixing it up with some other place

Look up above Vico

[Vico2]

Look up above Vico

We must both have been posting at the same time - missed that detail until now

[DAMNTHEWEATHER]

We must both have been posting at the same time - missed that detail until now

It was a racing green livery for the Kelso of Rathmines, middle blue for the Dublin Laundry Co of Dartry/ Milltown and (perturbingly) bright red with a big swastika for the Swastika Laundry in Ballsbridge (branded in 1912, long before the German Nazi party).[/QUOTE]

Before every home got a washing machine, Dublin's commercial laundry firms fought it out for their share of our dirty undies and sheets, and they often got dirtier still in a bid to beat the competition.

Thomas got into the business when his brother Hewetson, the boss of Dundrum's huge Manor Mills Laundry, died unexpectedly and Thomas took over on behalf of his widow. The Mills was located where the Dundrum Shopping Centre is today and partly comprised some of the stone cottages on site.

https://www.independent.ie/life/home-garden/homes/a-whiter-than-white-laundry-terrace-home-in-d14-for-645000-38671201.html

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[john doran]

Some Swastika branches

[john doran]

Another large Dublin laundry

[Vico2]

Some Swastika branches

It was a very widespread group. They must have done very well

[rasher]

Maybe your thinking of the White Heather Laundry on the South Circular Road

I worked on the vans in the White Heather when I was thirteen and I haven’t a clue what colour they were

[dinny]

I worked on the vans in the White Heather when I was thirteen and I haven’t a clue what colour they were

I worked on a van for Gaelic Cleaners when I was 13 and on school holidays