Lavoir

 ( Laundry Places ) 

A lavoir (, wash-house) is a public place set aside for the laundry. Communal washing places were common in Europe until industrial washing was introduced, and this process in turn was replaced by domestic washing machines and by self-service laundries (British English: laundrette; American English: laundromat). The English word is borrowed from the French language, which also uses the expression bassin public, "public basin".

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Description Lavoirs were built from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries. With Baron Haussmann's redesign of Paris in the 1850s, a free lavoir was established in every neighbourhood, and government grants encouraged municipalities across France to construct their own.

(2026). 9781568983929, Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 9781568983929

Lavoirs are more common in certain areas, such as around the Canal du Midi.

Lavoirs are commonly sited on a spring or set over or beside a river. Many lavoirs are provided with roofs for shelter. With the coming of piped water supply and modern sanitary sewer, lavoirs have been steadily falling into disuse although a number of communities have restored ancient lavoirs, some of which date back to the 10th century.

There are also bateaux-lavoirs ("laundry boats") in some towns on the banks of large rivers such as Paris and Lyon.

==Gallery==

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See also

• Baths and wash houses in Britain
• Bleachfield
• Dhobi Ghat, an outdoor laundry place in South Asia
• Laundry#Washhouses

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