[Crystal-clear]

when have you worked as a window cleaner? Wonder what things were like back then was it still well a payed trade like today? i know my mum used to earn about £50 a week as a receptionist in the 70s , apparently it was enof to pay her rent and live quite ok , getting the odd taxi going out etc. wonder if anyone here was a windy back then im a 2000s guy

[Frankybadboy]

some are still working in the 60's

[Panorama]

First started in the early 80's working for two guys who used to clean Cameron's public houses in the north east and Yorkshire regions. All types of windows in and out, with a few free beers thrown in  , biggest eye opener for me was doing The Dock Green on the edge of chapletown in Leeds  

[Panorama]

No stan, but some of the pubs were in his Patch so to speak

[BORBRYCE]

I was a 16 yr old windy back in 78. Price was 25p a council house.

[cozy]

I started in April 89. Ronnie, we've got a jock custy here who used to charge 1.35 per house up in Scotland back in the 90's mate. He pays us €15 here!!  Says he increased his standard price by 30p once and lost a lot of custies!! 

[Paul Coleman]

My father used to charge two bob to half a crown for basic council houses - late 1960s.
I started shining in 1991 and tended to price at 50p per window and knock a little off if access was easy.  Leads/georgian were maYBE 70-80p

[AuRavelling79]

My father used to charge two bob to half a crown for basic council houses - late 1960s.
I started shining in 1991 and tended to price at 50p per window and knock a little off if access was easy.  Leads/georgian were maYBE 70-80p

My grandfather was a copper so retired with a pension in 1946 at the age of 50 - he did p/t window cleaning for about fifteen years until the early 1960's and charged thruppence a window or an average council house discounted to at 1s/6d.

I do the same houses he did for a tenner to twelve quid a time!

[richard jagger]

My father cleaned window after the war but chucked it in he said its crap job with     shammy leathers. He then went into the motor trade.

[mci services]

would have been mid eighty's for me, think it was £1.50 a house

[Rick Davis]

I was cleaning windows in 1968 in Biddenden in kent I also used to clean in Headcorn 4 miles away I used to put my ladder on a set of pram wheels & walk from 1 village to the next i think about 5 to 8 shillings a house thats25 to 40 pence, all leather & scrim. Iv'e also worked in london in the early 70s for Wettons & city of Westminster WCC about £44.00 per week + LV's done chair & craddle work & looking back some bloody stupid things. They used to call me spider, walked around a 6 inch ledge 20 odd floors up, makes me cringe to think about it. I moved back to Eastbourne & started my business in 1973 been going ever since. had a few ups & downs but still going strong. I went WFP 3 or so years ago, so flippin' easy now. Iv'e had days in the winter when my leather was freezing when I was using it. I'm starting to sound like "uncle Albert" now ( during the war ) so i better stop. So if you feel like a whinge when things don't seem to be going right have a read of this then get out there & do it!



Rickster

[weetot]

June 1983 for me, it was 80p a house in North East, then it went to a pound note. Back then at least half of my domestic round was upstairs only, now no-one just gets their upstairs done. Its the whole house or nothing.
Maybe people are lazier, or just working harder.

God at 47, I think Ive done my stint, I want a weekly income of the government for nowt, as I think I deserve it.

[Crystal-clear]

Some amazing stories 

So what the equivalent in 1978 25p a council house i guess its like £5-£10 today?

would you say cleaning 20 of them a day thats £5 a day ! or cleaning 20x current price say its £200 a day what im trying to get at is would £5 a day be worth kinda what £200 is today were you just as happy in those days or was it quite a low earning has window cleaning really evolved or did the figures always compare in each era.

The earliest memory i have of a window cleaner was back in 1995 my father had a coffe shop in Clapham junction so a window cleaner came in and canvassed us
my dad was all over him i remember his face lighting up yes yes! i got a window cleaner!

he wanted £2.00 it was a shop front pretty large window think he needed to use pointers ,never the less he did it in decent time i remember thinking my gosh that was quick minimum wage was £3.35 per hour i remember cos i was working for it so i remember thinking wow he must be earning mega bucks! so in my experience  the earnings do scale as today's however was it the same in the older decades