The Swastika Laundry operated from the Shelbourne Road in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 for 75 years.
It was founded by John W. Brittain (1872 – 1937) from Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim who was one of the “pioneers of the laundry business in Ireland” having founded the Metropolitian and White Heather Laundries in 1899. He was also the owner of a famous horse called Swastika Rose which was well known “to frequenters of the Royal Dublin’s Society’s Shows“. (The Irish Times, March 27, 1937)
(c) Life Magazine. 1943, David E. Scherman.
An Irish Times advertisement from Thursday, March 15, 1928
The fact that people still talk about the laundry today is, for the most part, based on the fact that a swastika was used for their logo. As you can see from the title and picture above, the laundry was founded in 1912, eight years before the German Nazi party decided to formally adopt the symbol. (This important detail was promoted by the company at the outbreak of WWII when they changed the company’s name to The Swastika Laundry (1912) to distance themselves from the NSDAP)
Swastika Laundry van. Date unknown.
"A street scene in Dublin during the war". Marshall Cavendish Corporation, History of World War II, 2005, p. 610
In his travel memoir Irisches Tagebuch (Irish Diary) (1957) the future Nobel Laureate, Heinrich Böll had an unpleasant run in with a Swasika Laundry van. He notes that he
was almost run over by a bright-red panel truck whose sole decoration was a big swastika. Had someone sold Völkischer Beobachter delivery trucks here, or did the Völkischer Beobachter still have a branch office here? This one looked exactly like those I remembered; but the driver crossed himself as he smilingly signalled to me to proceed, and on closer inspection I saw what had happened. It was simply the “Swastika Laundry”, which had painted the year of its founding, 1912, clearly beneath the swastika; but the mere possibility that it might have been one of those others was enough to take my breath away.
The vans used by the Swastika Laundry didn’t operate on diesel or petrol, they were electric, quite ahead of their time.
Photo taken in 1962 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerportfolio/193597110/
"Observed in Shelbourne Road, Dublin, 1960s" - http://www.photopol.com/signs/swastika.html
The Spring Grove Laundry bought the company out in 1987 and sold the land for redevelopment in the early 2000s. The only reminder of the Swastika Laundry at the site today, now known as The Oval, is the huge chimney, now a protected structure, which was emblazoned with a huge swastika until the late 1980s.
The Oval. Chimney on the right. (The Irish Times, Wednesday, March 28, 2007)
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Sam
The grandson, Peter Brittain, of the founder of the Swastika Laundry was interviewed on the Derek Mooney programme in 2007 or 2008 which I produced. He explained that they choose the name because a swastika is an eastern good luck symbol and they had an ornament , a cat, with a swastika around its neck and that is where they got the idea. ge gave us a photo of the cat which I have.
Never knew about the cat connection! Thanks for the info Peter.
I know this is an old article, but this is amazing, Peter Brittain Was my great grandfarther. I knew about this business but i had never seen the pics before…. btw someone posted a picture on reddit.com which is how i found this.
That interview is available on the RTE site at http://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/archive/index_jan2008.html
on the entry for Thursday, January 17th 2008 click the listen icon and the Swastika Laundry item and interview starts is around 49 minutes.
Its great stuff.
To Peter Mooney (St.John?)
Are the Swastika Brittains in any way related to the Dublin Brittains of Light Brigade fame?
Des Brittain (London Brittain Branch HQ.)
Just noticed that Joe Duffy’s brother worked in the Swastika Laundry.
“Success for me would have been a job. I was very conscious during summers of trying to get a job and it was difficult to get one, especially when you were only four years of age! My brother got a job with the Swastika Laundry, which was a great achievement. He wanted to stay on, not go back to school.”
pp60, A Class of your Own: Conversations about class in Ireland, Patrick O’Dea (ed.)
We are presently producing a documentary on the swastika symbol. We tried to contact Peter Brittain (Britton) but were informed by his wife that he had passed away some years ago, sadly. We would have loved to interview him and see the the items from the Swastika Laundry and especially the cat. We have discovered the symbol was as common as the four leaf clover and the lucky horse shoe. So during that period in post war Europe it was not un-common or unusual to see it on greeting cards and the like. I would love to hear from anyone who can add anything to our research of the Swastika Laundry and the various Swastikas located around Ireland. So far we have such buildings from the G.P.O to the Bank Of Ireland.
Where, in the GPO and the Bank of Ireland, have you located Swastika’s?
The early history of the Brittain family in Manorhamilton may be found in the article ‘On the Street where you Live’ by Margaret Connolly in the 2012 Leitrim Guardian.
Thank you very much Sir.
The Bank of Ireland on College green. The Trinity college side entrance, look up to see Etruscan Swastikas. The same is in the G.P.O. Go to the counters on the East of the building, where one would pay bills,etc. Around the small square skylight you will find the same. In the National Museum Of Ireland on Kildare street you can find Greek Swastikas on the Glass doors as you go in. You will find them around the border design on the glass. Also as you walk in the main hall you will find them dotted around the mosaic on the floor. There is one immediatly at your feet before you walk into the main exhibition hall. To the left there is the Stone age exhibition and just as you step in there look around the walls and floor. You will find them around the area of the cafe there also. In Francis st, in St Nicholas’ church you will find Swastikas on the ceiling. There are many more. Check my documentary page for more insight.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Swastika-Official-documentary/290744544795
http://www.myspace.com/myswastika
[...] [...]
In relation to the tall chimney still standing, I have the original architects specification for its construction entitled “Proposed new laundry for The Swastika laundry company ltd.” The architects were “Frederick Hayes of 24 Nassau st.. The eight page document is written in long hand caligraphy. The opening paragraph details as follows : “The chimney to be built by bona fide and competent Chimney builders and in strict accordance with the drawings.To be faced with first quality Portmarnock red facing bricks laid in black mortar and neatly weather pointed as the work proceeds. baked up with first qualtiy Dolphins Barn wire cut bricks and built in the following thicknesses.” Further on it details that ” The cornice and capping to be in Ballyknocken granite” and also “Enamelled copper letters …….to be the manufacture of Messrs J.H. McGloughlin limited, Great Brunswick st.” The entire works are priced at £340. Additionally there is a separate sheet detailing the pricing for various boiler options including “Adamson, Inglis, Cochran and Lancashire boilers”, ranging in size from 10,000 lbs to 15000slbs and in price from £5442 to £7332
Thanks for that Gerry
I have taken photos of the the document. If you like I can pass them on.
Thank you Gerry. Our email is myswastik@hotmail.com. That would be most appreciated. Much thanks.
Gisela Holfter has just written a very interesting book on Böll and Ireland.
Thanks Póló . We will read it hopefuly. Thank you for making us aware of this book.
francis street church has a cornise around its ceiling of an unbroken swastika i was aboy van helper in 1961 in the swastika laundry
Very interesting. Thanks for the comment Ray.
[...] I have pointed out too, Irish readers would be familiar with the Swastika laundry in Dublin. I remember seeing these vans and walked past the laundry on my way to [...]
I worked as a Vanboy at the Swastika Laundry in the 50′s. Pay was 27 shillings and 6 pence a week for a 6 day week. Driver paid (3p old money) to check and top up the batteries plus a weekly wash of the Van. I can’t remember any bad times there except the Vanman was a miserable git. The Brittains (owners) house was on our route and they had a very posh car parked outside, a Bristol 2 Liter. For a poor 14 year old from the North side of Dublin it was a different world. But things were simpler then.
Mick Brennan
Found a picture on Wikipedia as I remember them coming around Walkinstown to miss Ryan’s house in hughes rd
see pictures in http://comeheretome.com/2010/04/26/swastika-laundry-1912-1987/
I joined Swastika Laundry in 1971 from Thomond Laundry Limerick which was also a member of the group including Phoenix Laundry and M Laundries Cork.
The reason behind using electric vans was Swastika was quite unusual in that they only travelled up to 10 miles to deliver/collect domestic laundry.Despite that I can remember some vans limping in with little charge left in the batteries at night. During the 70′s Swastika processed more shirts weekly than any laundry in Europe.13 Prosperity shirt units once pressed over 70.000 a week.