Art School
(4min video)

 

 

....Getting clean at the washhouse could be last form of dignity left to those who had fallen into destitution. Peter Powers grew up in the baths, his father was the last official manager, and he lived in a small flat in the building between 1969-87. One of Peter's most poignant memories was the penniless old men who visited Laurie Grove: "They came to the slipper baths in order to die with dignity. Destitute men who died washed and clean-shaven, and as my father always said 'that were taken away as naked as the next man' without embarrassment of being found wrapped in rags."

(Goldsmiths College’s website - Laurie Grove baths)