Chinese Laundries in Liverpool: Public Research Register

Chin Yee is recorded at Newington in the 1894 Kelly’s directory. Walter Fung’s published research also identifies an 1888 listing, but the earlier original entry still needs checking. The references to 29 and 29a must be reconciled before fixing the precise premises or an opening date; the surviving evidence does not establish uninterrupted trading between those years.

The 1921 census evidence identifies Ming Bing as the employer, with Loo Sow and Chong On working as laundrymen. Archive-supplied directory transcriptions name Bing Ning in 1922–23 and Sow Loo from 1924–27; certificates describe Sow as a manager in 1922 and a proprietor in 1924. A later directory fragment labelled 1955 names Elea Fong. These records outline several stages of the address’s laundry history, but do not prove that Ming Bing and Bing Ning were the same person or explain the business succession between the Loo and Fong periods.

A contributed reading of a 1927 directory associates Lee Lin with 212 Rice Lane, while a 1951 London Gazette notice associates Woo Sing with the same address. They provide separate points in the premises’ history, rather than proof of one owner or continuous business throughout the intervening years. The original 1927 page and further address-by-address directory checks are still needed.

A reported 1927 directory reading places a laundry at 558 Prescot Road, with Loo Din and F. S. Wong appearing in the research as possible operator names. The original page has not been verified, so their spelling, roles and relationship remain open. The similarly named Din Loo / Din Low lead in L12 may concern this business and should not yet be treated as another set of premises.

Family recollection associates Low Lun Sir with a laundry at 244 West Derby Road. It supplies a named trader and a numbered address, but no independently established trading period. Original street and trade directories are needed to confirm the listing and trace when the business appeared, changed hands or ceased operating.

Local recollections associate this Scotland Road laundry with a trader whose name appears as Jaw Kai, Jaw Kay and Jaw Key. A 1946 newspaper-index lead offers a route into contemporary reporting, but the full original articles and relevant official records have not been examined for this public entry. The name variants remain unresolved, and this numbered address is kept separate from the Ah Thi / Ah The research in L07.

The Museum of Liverpool account connects Mr Lou with Ah Thi Laundry and records wartime damage to its Scotland Road premises and the business’s closure in 1984. A separately captioned photograph identifies an Ah Thi / Ah The laundry on Soho Street. The sequence between those locations, their street numbers and the photograph’s date still need establishing; the two published accounts should not be combined into a complete address history without further evidence.

Sue Lee’s published recollections place her father C. C. Lee’s laundry at 45 Great George Street around 1928–32. She describes numbered tickets for customers’ bundles, washing in large yard tubs and heavy irons heated around a coke stove. Her account gives a detailed picture of the work inside the premises, while the approximate dates and address still need comparison with contemporary directories.

The surviving G. Leong sign and frontage are recorded in photographs dated 2015 and 2022. Tony Smith’s photograph catalogue identifies the latter location as 117 Penny Lane. These are records of a historic shopfront, not evidence that a laundry was still trading when the photographs were taken. Opening and closing dates remain unknown, and no business or family connection has been proved with Leong W. & Son at L20.

A contributor remembers a Chinese laundry on Parkhill Road in Liverpool 8, without supplying a house number or date. This is a different street from the Park Road premises described in Susan Grainger’s oral history, recorded separately as L15. The proprietor, precise location and operating period have not yet been identified.

A community recollection places a possible laundry around Parliament Street and the Rialto area, with a tentative Kwok family association. No numbered premises or contemporary business listing has been established. The reported surname remains a research clue rather than an authenticated proprietor’s name, and the operating period is unknown.

Family-history leads preserve the business-name readings Din Loo and Din Low, but have not established a separate street address. They may overlap the reported Loo Din laundry at 558 Prescot Road. Until original directories resolve the names and premises, this entry records an unresolved identification rather than another confirmed operating laundry.

The Frank Soo Foundation’s family account identifies Quan and Beatrice Soo with the laundry at 10 Town Row during the future footballer Frank Soo’s childhood. It provides a family and premises connection, but not verified opening or closing dates. This is a different research case from the Frank Wing Yow Soo family’s Oxton Road laundries in Birkenhead.

A published descendant’s account identifies Dang Chang as a Chinese laundry proprietor, while another reported address attribution gives 113 Pitt Street. The precise premises and city still need checking against an original directory because Liverpool and Birkenhead have been confused in secondary accounts. The laundry’s establishment date remains unverified.

In Susan Grainger’s oral-history account, her parents ran a laundry on Park Road and her father is described as a former Blue Funnel ship’s carpenter. She estimates that the premises were acquired around 1946 and recalls that the laundry existed when she was born there in 1948. The house number, formal trading name and final operating year remain unresolved; Parkhill Road is a separate location.

The Old Swan street transcription headed “Residents 1946” lists Wong Tin’s laundry at 493 Prescot Road. This is a published transcription of a directory, rather than an original volume inspected for this entry. Its edition, printed page and operator identification need confirmation before the address can be given a fuller trading history; it is distinct from the reported laundry at 558 Prescot Road.

The same published Old Swan transcription places Chang’s Laundry at number 2 in its Woodhall Road sequence. The wording identifies a reported laundry name, but “Chang” alone does not establish the proprietor’s identity or Chinese ownership. The original street and classified trade entries are needed before this can be treated as a confirmed Chinese-owned business.

The street list labelled 1946 explicitly describes the business at 90 Derby Lane as Mak’s Chinese Laundry. That wording is preserved as a secondary transcription, not an independently examined original directory entry. The original edition and page, proprietor’s full name and earlier or later trading records remain to be found.

A family-authored account associates Sow Loo and Catherine Loo with 2 Lower Breck Road around 1930 and separately describes a small laundry there. The reported residential or registration address does not itself establish commercial use. No original laundry listing has been examined for these premises, so ownership, operation and any succession from 230 County Road remain unproved.

An undated directory crop reads “286 Leong W. & Son laundry”, but does not show the street heading, edition or page. Family recollection supplies West Derby Road, the name Leong Wo and trading during the late 1950s and 1960s. A separate cropped 1939 Register extract contains laundry occupations at number 286, but has not been independently linked to this street or business. The lead remains provisional, with no established connection to G. Leong at Penny Lane.

A supplied 1921 census fragment describes Fong Lum doing laundry work on his own account, as an employer working at home. The address 2a Brompton Road comes from a contributor’s caption, not the original address page. A 1919 passenger-list extract separately records “Lum, Fong” as a laundryman, without naming a workplace. A 1916 church-register extract associates him with 141 Laird Street as a Chinese shopkeeper; a distinct Brompton Road shop and identity with the Laird Street directory operators remain unproved.

A neighbour’s eyewitness account recalls a Chinese laundry at 294 Smithdown Road around 1966 and remembers the trading name “T. Gongs”. A photographed electoral-roll excerpt records an elector at the numbered address, but gives no occupation or business details. Its supplied 1967 date still needs confirmation from the full volume. Together these sources support an address lead, while the legal business name, proprietor and trading boundaries remain unresolved.

A historical price sheet names Tam Tung Shing Laundry at 43 Walton Lane and prints Tat Yee as proprietor. It advertises equipment installed from December 1963 and carries a handwritten price-list amendment dated 26 July 1965. Family recollection places the laundry roughly between 1959 and 1965/66 and identifies a historical group photograph as taken outside the shop. The photograph’s date, legal ownership and precise opening and closing years remain unverified.

A family account reports a Chinese laundry at 93 Oakfield Road, Anfield, and suggests an approximate trading period of 1954–1964. The trading name is unknown. No contemporary directory entry has yet independently confirmed the business, and the proposed years do not establish its opening, closure or continuous operation. Original street, classified and alphabetical directory entries are needed to test the premises and trading period.

The 1914 Kelly’s Directory of Cheshire records Lee Fong On at 141 Laird Street. Census evidence examined in the earlier research also associates Fong Kee and a laundryman named Elea Fong with the address in 1921. These records support a laundry-related history at the premises, but do not establish that the different names identify one operator or that this Elea Fong was the later County Road trader. A 1916 church-register extract separately records Fong Lum here as a Chinese shopkeeper; see L21. It does not identify him with these operators or establish laundry trade here in 1916.

Family accounts and reported 1946 certificate details associate Fong Chung Lee / Fong Chang Lee with 342 Borough Road. A separate local recollection describes a laundry there into the early 1960s. Those references do not identify all the intervening operators or prove uninterrupted trading. The original certificate, business listings and succession between the named people still need to be established.

Lee Fong appears at 360 Borough Road in the 1914 directory, providing a dated record for this numbered address. The similarity to Fong Chung Lee at 342 Borough Road and the Fong Lee photographic lead does not establish a shared owner or business. The three records remain separate until contemporary identifying evidence explains any relationship.

The 1914 Kelly’s Directory of Cheshire records Lee Loo Wah’s laundry at 464 Borough Road. This gives the register a named trader, numbered premises and one documented year. Earlier and later directory entries are still needed to establish the business’s duration, any successors and the circumstances of its closure.

Lee Fong You is recorded at 6 Church Road, Higher Tranmere, in the 1914 directory. The entry documents the laundry at this specific address for that edition. Its opening date, later operators and final year of trade have not been established, and similar names elsewhere should not be treated as an automatic identity match.

The 1914 directory identifies Lee King Hung’s laundry at 43 Union Street, Tranmere. It is a dated premises record rather than a complete history of the enterprise. Further street and trade-directory checks are needed to find earlier or later appearances, resolve name variants and establish whether the business continued under another operator.

Lee Kwong’s laundry is recorded at 5 Brownlow Road, New Ferry, in the 1914 directory. The numbered listing provides firmer location evidence than the separate undated recollection of a laundry near Toll Bar. Any connection between those two New Ferry leads remains unproved, as do the Brownlow Road business’s opening and closing dates.

The Wirral photograph index describes Fong Lee Laundry at the Borough Road junction with Willmer Road, under reference WPS 174. The catalogue establishes an image lead; the original photograph has not been inspected for this entry. Its street number, exposure date and signs still need checking, and proximity alone does not identify it with the business at 342 Borough Road.

An eyewitness recollection describes taking collars to a laundry on Conway Street and places it between the former Conway Street School and the Crown public house. The memory suggests operation into the early 1970s, but does not identify a numbered shop or proprietor. Historical maps and directories are needed to locate it and test any possible overlap with the 1914 occupational address in W15.

An undated community memory identifies a Chinese laundry near Toll Bar in New Ferry. It does not supply a street number, named trader or operating period, so the site cannot yet be mapped confidently. It may overlap the documented Brownlow Road laundry in W07, but that relationship remains a question for original address records.

In the memoir Wartime Life in a Chinese Laundry, Frank Wing Yow Soo places his family’s wartime laundry at 90 Oxton Road and describes its loss through bombing. This is an attributed personal account, not a directory-based chronology. The exact trading years and bombing date remain unverified, and this narrator should not be confused with the footballer Frank Soo.

The same family memoir describes reopening the laundry at 66 Oxton Road after the earlier premises at number 90 were bombed. The two register entries therefore record reported stages in a relocation, not proof of two laundries trading simultaneously. Contemporary directories are still needed to establish the move’s date, business name and period at number 66.

The London Archives collection catalogue describes an oral-history transcript called Our Laundrette in Birkenhead, concerning the Ling family’s laundry. Its background note says the laundry closed in 1954 and the family opened a restaurant. The transcript itself has not been examined and the street address remains unidentified, so this catalogue lead may overlap another Birkenhead entry.

The 1914 directory explicitly lists Lee Sam and a laundry at 241 New Chester Road, New Ferry. The wording supports commercial use at numbered premises in that edition. It does not establish an opening date, continuous trade afterwards or a relationship with other people named Lee Sam; those questions require further identifying records.

The 1914 directory describes Lee Low Sing as a laundryman at 270 Conway Street. That is evidence of an occupation and an associated address, but it does not by itself show that number 270 was an operating laundry. A classified trade entry or other business record is needed before treating the premises as a confirmed shop or linking it to the later Conway Street recollection.

A supplied advertisement attributed to November 1951 identifies Jim Lee’s High Class Laundry / Jim Lee & Son at 10 High Street. It also names 60 Nantwich Road as a receiving office, which is not counted as another operating laundry. Family testimony dates the Crewe business’s closure to 1969, but has not established that High Street was its final trading address.

The Jim Lee family is associated with 47 Earle Street around 1969 through family recollection. This is recorded as a residential address, not a verified laundry site. The reported closure of the family business that year cannot be assigned to Earle Street without an original business listing or another source establishing where the laundry was then operating.

A contributed recollection associates Wah Sing with a Chinese laundry at 106 Nantwich Road. No dated directory entry or original business document has yet confirmed the account. The trading period and any relationship with Jim Lee’s Crewe laundry remain unresolved; similarity of trade and locality does not establish business succession.

Sue Lee’s recollections place the C. C. Lee family at 35 Sussex Street around 1932–42. She describes a laundry with an industrial electric washing machine for coloured items and a motor-driven calender for pressing household linen, alongside the familiar washing and finishing work. It provides a useful comparison with her Great George Street account, although the precise Rhyl trading dates still need checking in Welsh directories.