The Hyde Park Laundry Co, Whitechapel

Unfortunately searching the net didn't return anything relevant about The Hyde Park Laundry Company from London (*). Since the sign below in Whitechapel states this was "Depôt B", one can easily imagine the company operated at least another branch. Anything more would be pure speculation.

*: a company by a similar name - Hyde Park Laundry Ltd - existed in Britain but that was in Plymouth between 1960 and 1965 (prior to 1960 it was known as the Plymouth Sanitary Steam Laundry, and in 1965 its name was changed to the Millbay and Hyde Park Laundry Co Ltd). Since this ghost sign is much older, any link with a Plymouth cleaner can be discarded. Otherwise one has to cross the Atlantic Ocean to find the Hyde Park Laundry Co., in Chicago. It seems this sizeable business was founded in the late 19th or early 20th century and operated until the end of the Second World War. It is highly unlikely it had branches this side of the pond.

The Hyde Park Laundry C^o.

Depôt B Art Dyers & Chemical Cleaners ... & ... ...ral

Shop Hours Monday Tuesday 8 to 8 Wednesday Thursday 8 to 2 Friday 8 to 9 Saturday 8 to 10 ...ressers ...erers...

Note the hybrid spelling of "Depôt" with a circumflex accent on the 'O' but no accute accent on the 'E', as if someone couldn't decide between French and English.

The sign writer made good use of the rounded window and used different fonts to draw customers' attention to the different pieces of information relevant to them. A pretty good ghost sign slowly fading away.
Click on the images below to get a better view of the different parts.


Location: New Road / Pictures taken on: 15/05/2011