mrs mop

I've just finished a vast amount of mopping. I actually quite like cleaning with a mop and a bucket whereas I really, really dislike hoovers which get stuck in doorways, make me sneeze, and hurt my ankles when the cable and plug go flying back in. But mopping is quite satisfying as you build up a good sweeping rhythm and the water turns mucky so you know you've actually displaced dirt.

I also like the old-fashionedness of mopping. It's not in the slightest bit sophisticated, there's only so much you can do design-wise with a mop head and bucket with a handle and wringer, and it's hardly the stuff of Dyson advertising campaigns. Still, I like to think I'm one in a long line of moppers who have wielded a mop with pride, although I'm not so keen to be seen as the typical charlady character who has been the subject of caricatures, cartoons, sit-coms and drag acts.

Instead, my mopping heroine is a saintly figure who appears in a remarkable scheme of stained glass windows which can be found in Christ Church in Southwark which is now almost lost among traffic, tall buildings and constant development. This is the third church on the site since 1670; the second was flattened by bombs and rebuilt in 1959 with glass by FW Cole which features contemporary people involved in local trades such as baking, brewing, engineering and printing against a backdrop of the Thames, St Paul's, new LCC housing, and Bankside power station. It's crammed with detail, much of which is already dated (a Thames waterman, a secretary taking dictation) and is a fascinating piece of late 1950s visual culture.

It's also the only place to put cleaners on a pedestal and depict them with dignity and respect. It took me a while to realise that the two women, one scrubbing the floor, the other leaning on her mop, are modern variations on the Biblical housekeepers, Martha and Mary, because the period clothes, overall, spotty headscarf, fabulous warm zipped ankle boots, curlers and jewellery are so spot-on, as is the office setting with Bakelite phone, covered typewriter and pendant light. But the positions, stance, and gestures can be found in Martha and Mary windows everywhere. 

I like to think that the window glorifies moppers and cleaners everywhere, just as the windows raise the standing of manual, skilled and labouring trades. Plus, these women wear the most wonderful outdoor clothes while waiting at the bus stop for the bus which still goes past the church. (I also love the loaves and fishes in the shopping basket.)

Not only did they make it into huge, colourful, expertly designed and painted windows, they also made it into cinemas when when they appeared in 'A Tribute to Mrs Mop' made by Pathé Films in 1961. Exactly my kind of film star. 

Comments

[Penny]

I think my favourite char lady is Mr Harris, who goes to Pris, in the book by Paul Gallico x

[Penny]

*Paris

[meppybn]

Love these! The colours too are fabulous. Who would have thought to see this in a church?

[roo]

what fabulous windows and like Penny loved Mrs Harris goes to Paris and also the film The Ladies who do.