Description: | Ethel Vango (b 1895) grew up in Spitalfields, in the East End. Here, in conversation with the historian Raphael Samuel, she describes her mother's practice of going to other people's houses to wash their clothes, at a rate of Half a Crown (2s6d, 12��p) a day. This was a common way for women, especially married women whom few would employ, to earn money at this time. It was common because, in the days before labour-saving devices such as washing machines were invented, washing clothes had to be done by hand. This was hard, time-consuming work. |