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Welcome to Montague Street Cleaners in Worthing

There has been an independent dry-cleaners in Worthing at 185 Montague Street since 1982. Each of the 3 owners in that time has had the same aim – To provide a good quality, friendly service for a fair price.At Montague Street Cleaners, we have invested in the latest generation dry-cleaning machine, and use only  the best available solvents, soaps and stain removers. All our cleaning is re-textured, and hand finished by a presser with decades of experience.

The owner and staff have all been working in the dry-cleaning industry for many years, so the service you and your garments receive is second to none.

SERVICES

Same day service usually available – including Saturday

Curtains, chair covers and bedding

Press only service

Suedes and leathers

Bridal wear and Prom dresses including specialist cleaning.

Expert repairs and alterations

Duvets and fully finished laundry service

Shirt service

 A BRIEF HISTORY OF DRY-CLEANING

The first dry-cleaning shop was opened in Paris in the mid 1840s, and dry-cleaning was introduced to the UK in 1857. At the time highly flammable solvents were used (turpentine, petrol, parafin) and two machines were needed, one to wash and spin then another machine to dry. This was highly dangerous and there were many fires and explosions, so High Street dry-cleaners were simply a collection and drop-off point, with the work being carried out at an out of town industrial unit.

After experimenting with various solvents Perchloroethylene (Perklone) came to the fore, because of it’s excellent cleaning ability and safe handling. Spencer, a British manufacturer developed a self contained machine which was suitable for use in a shop, and the dry-cleaning unit shop was born.

At first, many shops were simply a place to dry-clean your clothes similar to a laundrette, but shop owners soon began to offer a “Dry-clean and press” or “Fully finished” service, which we now consider the norm.

Since the introduction of those first machines, there have been many and varied improvements to the cleaning process, and energy consumption. But despite trials of many different solvents, Perklone has remained the most popular cleaning fluid in a unit dry-cleaning shop.

The main drawback of Perklone is that it is such a good degreasing agent that it will remove the oils from suede and leather, and will strip plasticicers from pvc and rubber coatings used for decoration or waterproofing properties. It will also dissolve some plastic beads and sequins, or remove decorative coatings. So some items still need to be sent to an off-site specialist cleaners.

Attempts to introduce a solvent to the High Street which would allow all of these items to be cleaned in the shop met with the problem that their cleaning capabilities are much less than Perc.