During my time documenting life in Lansdowne Court, I grew incredibly fond of the community in the laundry room. I spent a day hanging out there, filming and chatting to the residents.
I’d anticipated it’d be quite crowded and that the residents would find it irritating having to share the space with a filmmaker but that wasn’t the case at all. They were ever so forthcoming and welcoming to me and the majority of the people doing laundry were Somali women, who immediately recognised me and spoke to me only in Somali. I explained what I was doing and why and even though they were all religious women who didn’t want to be on camera, they offered to let me sit with them and film their laundry.
Sam, one of our main subjects, was there with his son who has just turned three. Sam’s son was perfectly happy opening his birthday cards sitting on the washing machine. He seemed to be enjoying himself, hiding inside the laundry baskets and playing in the playpen. Watching him have so much fun hanging with his dad in this tower block laundry room took me back to when I played in the laundry room in our tower block in Sweden. My mum would do the washing and I'd have a whale of a time chasing the other kids around and making up games. It reminded me of something Sam said about his kids not wanting to leave when the washing was done, especially during lockdown when they had less opportunity to socialise. It's interesting how this space has become so central, in both good and bad ways, during the pandemic. Whether it's through being unable to access the laundry safely, relying on it for an opportunity to have some distanced social time when the chance arises, or celebrating significant milestones. It's clear that this space is extremely important to the people who live here beyond just machines and detergents.
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