Myddleton & Alexandra Park Laundry, Campsbourne, Hornsey

The MAP Laundry in The Campsbourne c 1955 (Image: Thanks to Mike Nichols for sourcingt his image)

The Laundry in The Campbourne was established as the Taylor & Nichols Laundry in one of a pair four-storey semi-detached houses at what later became 7 The Campsbourne.

Snippet from 1906 Kelly's Directory

The company had grown from a small laundry set up at 90, Myddleton Road, Bowes Park at around the turn of the century by Messrs W. D. Taylor and G. H. Nicholls. Although always listed in local directories as the Taylor & Nicholls Laundry, it traded under the name of thr Myddleton Laundry. 

Image: via Albert Pinching           

By 1913, the company were expanding, Receiving offices had been established on Tottenham Lane at the corner of Harvey Road and in Muswell Hill. The following snippet from Building Magazine (Vol 104, 4th April, 1913)  shows that they were also beginning the expansion of the Campsbourne premises.

W. D. Taylor G. H. Nicholls , additions at rear of Myddleton Laundry, The Campsbourne , Hornsey

In 1922, apparently after a merger with the Alexandra Park Laundry, the business started trading at the Myddleton and Alexandra Park Laundry. By the 1930s, it had expanded to also occupy premises at number 9 and possibly at number 5.

At it height, the laundry apparently employed hundreds of locals. The advert below is from 1929.

An aerial view from 1926. The Campsbourne is the stubby dead-end road in the centre of the picture, leading to Hornsey High Street. 5/7 is the second building down from the main road on the right (west) of the road, with the area of white to its side. (Image: Britain from Above)

The photo below shows the last days of the MAP receiving office in Taylor and Nicholls original Bowes Park premises. 

Myddleton Road, 1968. The MAP premises is four shops along from the right hand margin. (Image: myddletonroad.com)

The MAP Laundry closed down in the early 1970s. Its Hornsey properties were demolished and redeveloped for commercial use in the 1980s. The land on which number 7 Campsbourne once stood is now a car park for the new premises.

The other half of the pair of houses that included number 7 The Campsbourne, (5 The Campsbourne) still stands today. The arches of number 5 or number 7’s windows, like those of the surviving number 5, can just be made out in the photo above (Enhanced section below). As can be seen from this section, the stairs are to the left of the windows, which makes me think we're looking at number 5

Extract from main picture showing window arches and staircase

Extract from 1952 Ordnance Survery map showing laundry at 5-9 Campsbourne

An extremely full account of the laundry which eventually merged with the Campsbourne Road one was published in the Seven Sisters and Finsbury Park Journal on 22 July, 1880. Based on Myddleton Road, Wood Green, it was, perhaps confusingly called the Hornsey Laundry and had been in business since about 1870.

Extract form the Seven Sisters and Finsbury Park Journal on 22 July, 1880.