We were on a 3 week tour of Scotland so halfway thru we needed our clothes washed. New City Laundrette is within walking distance to our hotel just across the bridge. So it was super convenient for us.
This place is a small hole-in-the-wall laundromat with several front loading washers and dryers for do-it-yourself laundry, and in the back is a desk where you can drop off your bag of clothes for their wash service. This is the service we wanted to use since we didn't want to spend our vacation time doing laundry.
First off, the two people we interacted with there - an elderly female and a younger male - are not customer or people friendly. They didn't look us in the eye when talking to us, they barely responded when asked a question and they were just abrupt in manner. But, the place was packed with bags of laundry and all the washers and dryers were running so obviously business is good.
We asked for the wash service, which includes drying and folding. We were told we could get it by 8am the next day but since we would be out touring all day, we picked it up at around 4pm.
Btw, their website or FB page might say they're open til 8pm but don't rely on that. We were specifically told by the older woman they close at 6pm.
Anyway, the adventure really starts when you pick up your clothes. All the bags with clean clothes are just piled up in the middle of the floor under a table for folding clothes that the do-in-yourselfers use. You have to rummage around the floor yourself looking for your bag with your name on it and a small tag stapled to it with the price. We're talking dozens of bags of all sizes and types just piled on the floor. And you're not the only one looking. There were half a dozen other people rummaging around looking for their stuff. It was a bit chaotic.
After you find your bag, you go back to the desk and pay. Our tag with the price unsurprisingly got lost, probably still in the pile of bags, but they have a binder where they at least write down how much each bag of clothes is charged. Ours was around £13 for washing and drying 3 pairs of pants, about 8 shirts, a dozen undies and socks. We felt that was reasonable.
In a nutshell, our clothes were clean and dry. They folded everything in 4ths and stuffed it in the bag so everything was wrinkled. We were ok with that. We just wanted clean clothes.
This place appears incredibly disorganized. Like super disorganized. Walking in and seeing the piles of misc laundry bags everywhere made me want to walk out and find some place else. I don't know how they keep track. Maybe we were just lucky our clothes weren't lost or stolen.
I'd probably come here again because it's conveniently located near our hotel. read more
