Headington Launderette, Oxford

Summary: expensive machines and driers, lots out of order, no staff on the premise, no one comes after phoning the "emergency phone numbers". Quite a short wash cycle: clothes could be much cleaner elsewhere. Clothes undamaged but still went after lots of drying. Avoid unless no other choice.

When I went 3 of 9 washing machines were broken, 3 of 8 driers. Not a good start. The most expensive machine was £7.00 for one wash and the cheapest £4.00 (there were some £5 and £6 ones too). The more expensive models have proper electronic displays so you can see that they're responding to the buttons you're pressing, i.e. they flash up with the cycle option that you've selected, and that is what you are paying extra for. With the cheapest models (which I went for) they're decades old, so you are just trusting blind that it will work and not swallow your money as nothing lights up to show it has responded to the switches you select. It was hard enough for me to read the hand-written sign on each machine (water damage meant the messages were blurry), but some tourists, both native and non-native English speaking, were having trouble understanding: some machines take old pound coins only, some new pound coins only, some both old and new. No staff present at this place to help explain the system to newbies (perhaps printed, laminated signs would help?).

Then one of the machines flooded the whole place for a customer who tried to ring the two the emergency numbers on a sign on a door to say (to an answerphone) FYI this water is covering the whole floor, anyone could slip and get hurt so can I have a mop or can someone come and help clean it up, plus mend the leak? When they'd got through to someone and said I'm calling from the laundry the person at the other end apparently hung up! No one came. And a sign on the front door says it automatically locks and unlocks: I wonder if anyone ever comes in a real emergency (those ancient machine are probably due a fire safety compliance check!) Other reviews have commented on the grimy general state of the place too.

As for the actual wash, fortunately the machines didn't swallow my money, it worked. Whole wash cycle was 30 minutes but less than five were for wash with soap, mostly rinse and spin cycles so not the cleanest of washes I've had at a laundrette: pretty much washes out all your soap straight away.

There is one small basket for all customers to unload and reload with. Driers are £0.20 a minutes, £1.00 for ten minutes. Sign says thirty minutes should do it. So you could end up spending ten pounds on a single load at this place (£7 for a wash 3x10 min dry for £3). One of the working driers had a nail lodged inside it so I didn' use that. Another had broken hard plastic inside so that ruled that out (in both cases to avoid damage to clothes). It says it is safe to open the drier in the middle of the cycle to check on it: most machines stop instantly when you do this, when I did it carried on spinning fast for several seconds and socks when flying on the floor. After twenty minutes my clothes were still fairly damp. So £6 in in total for a single wash I gave up and will hang dry for several days.

There is another laundrette a bit further down the road, so I'll try that next time!

It has facilities to clean clothes but, given the condition this launderette is in, you do have to wonder what else you're depositing onto your clothes and you...I've been a few times and it's always the same. Clearly, the place has never been cleaned (though the owner claims to clean daily...)

Follow up: Interestingly, the images I uploaded seem to have been removed - I can only assume by the owner. Unfortunately, the place really is that bad that those images (very honest images, taken on different dates but showing the same dirt, because no clean up effort had been made in between) do look pretty horrendous, because that is the state the place is in. This was quite shameful on the management's part - if someone leaves an honest review showing the appalling state your business is in, please improve - don't just destroy the evidence.

Was staying in a local B&B so needed somewhere to clean my clothes. Washing machine did the job. However could do with a clean out. The rubber seals of all the washers had green algae/soap scum and aren’t maintained that well. The place needs some TLC but otherwise OK for emergencies.

Only 3 washing machines working and the most expensive ones £8 for one wash! The dryers are good though. Such a shame as the are vital for some people

The machine works fine, a bit expensive for students. Lots of issues with cleaning. You can see spider webs everywhere, dust on the washing machine and some machine leaks. Just two washing machines take credit card, and no dryers take credit card. I think it is time to give the place a little reshaping.

From out of town and decided to do laundry, looked ok on the web, but upon entering everything changed!!!!! Out of 9 machines- 2 out off order, 1 error code on screen, 2 broken & out of 7 dryers - 1 out of order, 1 card reader not working. Quite a dirty place, not sure I’d recommend this place !!!!

April 2021: This is a convenient launderette that is open from 7am until 7pm every day. It is self service with no-one on site, but there are mobile phone numbers on the door, should you have any issues and need to contact someone. It is rarely very busy, especially early in the morning.

The front door can be a bit stiff so needs a firm push. The various machines are priced at £5, £6, £7 and £8 and appear to go up in size. I use the £5 one as it is a decent size for a single person’s laundry. The machines need specific coinage so bear that in mind when planning a visit. The coinage for each machine is:

£5 = £1 coins only.
£6 = £2, £1, 50p, 20p.
£7 = £2, £1, 50p, 20p.
£8 = £2, £1, 50p, 20p.

I use a hot wash on the £5 machine (press the desired cycle button before putting money in, pop coins in and it will start automatically) and it takes just over 24 mins to do the full cycle. Dryers (there are 6) are priced at 10p per minute (pop clothes in, put in cash, then press the temperature you want and it will start). My laundry take around 30 mins to dry.

There is a bench to sit on while you wait or there are local supermarkets or the coffee shop to pop to. The decor is a little tired, but, the machines and tumble dryers work well and it does the job - as of April 2021 the soap powder machine is not working, so bring your own powder/liquid.

Take a book and relax!

Easy self explanatory machines, price wasn't bad, washed and dried my duvet for 9 quid