Laundry & ironing service in Naaldwijk

Naaldwijk has been on the map since 1275. Then it was still a small farming village with some fishermen and trade on the edge of the Westland. The church on the Wilhelminaplein, the oldest parts of which date from the late Middle Ages, was for centuries the only monumental building. Everyone knew everyone, everyone helped at harvest, everyone did their laundry at home — in tubs, with soap from their own kettle. The photo above shows the church from the west, as it still dominates the square.

The real change came in the mid-nineteenth century. Growers began laying loose glass plates over their vegetables, so they would ripen earlier. That simple idea blossomed into a new economy. Around 1891 growers from Poeldijk and Naaldwijk built the first 'kniemuurkassen' for grapes. And Hilgert Camfferman from Naaldwijk that year planted tomatoes as a second crop next to his wall greenhouse — a crop that would make the Westland world-famous.

In 1889 the Trial Station for the South Holland Glass District opened in Naaldwijk, where innovations in crops and growing techniques were systematically tested and shared. That cooperation between growers and researchers is the reason the Westland is today the most productive greenhouse-horticulture region in Europe. Naaldwijk has grown from the main core of that revolution into the regional centre of the Westland municipality, with shops, market and administrative offices under one roof.

Between glassgrower peaks and administrative bustle: families, employees and entrepreneurs with their hands full. Laundry is usually one of the things that has to fit in on Sunday. We run set pickup days through Naaldwijk — the centre, Hoogeland, Kruisbroek and Woerdblok. Your bag is ready in the morning, and comes back in the evening clean and ironed with the same driver. A modern craft, born where the other Westland work never stops.