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The Founders: The Newland Family

In l880, Charles William Newland (CW), a dairy owner, and his wife set up a domestic laundry service from their home. They provided such a good laundry service that within two years they abandoned the dairy.

By l895, demand had grown sufficiently to purchase a large house in Coldharbour Lane called Walton Lodge.  Walton Lodge Sanitary and Steam Laundry was born.

By 1904, a new house with adjoining laundry had been built on the large plot of land.

Over the ensuing years, the company bought many shops. The numbers ebbed and flowed but Walton Lodge Laundry survived through the 1920’s recession and two world wars.

In 1930, CW’s two sons, George and Albert, took over after the death of their father and, by 1937, were joined by George’s daughter, Maud, and Albert’s son, Douglas.

New Blood: The Finch–Hopwood Family

In 1959, following Albert’s death, Roy Finch joined the board of Walton Lodge Laundry, having spent 11 years in the laundry industry already.  With the full co-operation of the Newlands, the business was rapidly expanded by the introduction of a dry cleaning service as an addition to the domestic laundry and bagwash service. already offered by the existing 11 shops. These shops, all within the South London area, were refurbished to incorporate the now familiar Walton Lodge logo. 

In the early 1970’s, Roy’s wife, Georgina, joined the firm, bringing with her an extensive knowledge of the laundry industry, particularly in relation to the management of shops and customer service.  During the 1960’s, we increased the total number of shops to 36.

By the l970’s, more and more people had their own washing machines.This, together with the numerous laundrettes that had mushroomed, meant that domestic trade was in steep decline. Competition from unit dry cleaners and high rates and rents lead to our decision to phase out the shops and  supply a contract service to London hotels.

In 1991, Roy and Georgina, together with their daughter and son-in-law, Lyn and Ian Hopwood, took over Walton Lodge Laundry from the Newland family.

It was a huge loss for both the family and Walton Lodge when in l993, Georgina passed away. Not only had she, with great flair, helped us through the decline in the domestic market by using the shops for ancillary sales, but she was largely responsible for our early growth in the linen hire market and was greatly liked by both customers and staff. Roy and Georgina’s daughter, Lyn became more active in the day-to-day business from this point. 

In l998, Ian and Lyn’s elder daughter, Lisa, joined Walton Lodge.  Four years later, their younger daughter, Tracey, also joined the business.

Developing Our linen hire Service

Since the l970’s, linen hire had become extremely popular with the small- medium sized hotels.  So, during the mid to late l970’s we started our own linen hire service. However, during the l980’s the majority of our work was Contract - our customers owned their own linen. Over the years our Contract customers included The Churchill Hotel, Park Lane Hotel, The Orient Express, The Montcalm, The Howard, The Grosvenor House and other prestigious London Hotels.

During the l990’s, Walton Lodge chose to re-focus from dry cleaning and contract to linen hire and we have since established a reputation for a fair, dependable and friendly linen hire service.

The twentieth century saw huge technological development and Walton Lodge kept pace with these changes throughout. With each significant change in technology came new opportunities in the laundry and dry cleaning industry.

As with all successful businesses, over the years, the company has diversified, and modified to keep up with an ever changing marketplace. Nevertheless, our passion to provide an excellent service has remained constant.

Roy Finch is pictured on the right of this photo with a supplier

Our Customers, Staff and Suppliers

Walton Lodge Linen Services, as it now trades, is what it is thanks to our loyal and appreciative customers, our dedicated team of managers, the hard work of our staff, and our responsive suppliers.

At Walton Lodge Linen Services, we work hard to establish friendly, long-term relationships with our customers, our staff and our suppliers so that we can be the best that we can be – it has been that way since 1880!

Our laundry staff - from the Nineteenth to the Twenty First Century

At the turn of the Twentieth Century, most of the staff at Walton Lodge Laundry were women

The laundry process has benefited from increased automation, however, there is no substitute for a team of trained and loyal staff

29 October, 2009

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