Customers love beautiful laundrette

And they were soon a familiar sight in every town offering not just a place to wash clothes but also the chance to catch up with friends and hear the latest gossip.

Sixty years ago today the first UK laundrette opened its doors in Queensway, London. In the early years, the coin-operated washeterias were self-service and open 24 hours a day. But over the decades many have moved with the times offering full-service washes, ironing and dry-cleaning.

Now numbers have plummeted from 40,000 in the fifties to about 3,000 in the face of cheap washing machines and soaring rents for property.

But one laundrette that has proven it can stand the test of time is Gornal Wood Laundrette and Dry Cleaners, owned for the last 38 years by Barry and Jean Taylor. Located in the heart of the village for more than 40 years, it is a bustling hub of activity.

The couple, who are in their 60s and have a son, Jonathan, aged 38 and daughter, Rebecca, aged 35, also run a laundry and dry cleaning business in High Street, Quarry Bank.

Over the years, they have had their fair share of strange requests including a firm which asked them to sew up the pockets in all of their staff uniforms to stop them stealing small items from work.

There have also been some customers who have imitated the famous Levi's TV advert, which saw Nick Kamen strip down to his boxers in a laundrette to Marvin Gaye's I Heard It Through the Grapevine.

One of the couple's favourite memories at their Gornal shop was a visit from an unusual customer in the 1970s.

Mr Taylor explained: "There used to be a scrap merchant called Harry who travelled around in a horse cart. One evening I was in a pub across the road and someone ran in shouting 'there's a horse in the laundrette.'

"It turns out Harry had bought his horse in as a joke saying he wanted it to be cleaned and dried and this horse was standing right in the middle of the laundrette."

The laundromat has plenty of loyal customers who have been bringing their washing the premises for many years.

Joan Ferguson, aged 82, from The Straits, Lower Gornal, goes to the laundrette to enjoy a "good natter and gossip" once a week.

Paul Blunt, a 44-year-old manager, from The Priory Estate in Dudley, said he used the laundrette because his washing took less time than if he did it at home.