Hints for using Domestos - your daily help : publicity booklet : Domestos Limited : Newcastle Upon Tyne : nd [c.1955] : back pages

A charming wee booklet issued to give advice on the many uses of Domestos, the bleach based cleaning bottle that was then sold in the trademark glass bottle for 1/- including a deposit. Many of the tips and hints are obvious; I'm less certain about the Domestos bath that cleans you and the bath - and wastepipe - at the same time but I have known of people with certain skin conditions being advised to take a bleach bath as, I supoose, it is the same as a public swimming pool!

 

Domestos was founded in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1929 by one William Handley who had an interesting and apparently complex career past. He decided to locally market, door to door, a form of bleach based cleaning product, using diluted sodium hypochlorite, in stoneware jars. There are various explanations as to the name but "domestic use" comes close. Handley's enterprise, the Hygiene Disinfectant Company, thrived and outgrew his shed and by 1936 was in a small factory where the business expanded into other products. The company name changed to Domestos Ltd. and from a larger factory, College Works, obtained in 1938 the company grew into a national brand. In post-war years they introduced Stergene, a woollen detergent, and branched out into a motor vehicle bodywork company, Modern Coachcraft Ltd., to supply their fleet of delivery lorries.

 

Handley sold out to Lever Brothers in 1961 and retired becoming a noted local philanthopist. Lever's/Unilever moved production away from Newcastle with Domestos going to Warrington in the 1970s. Since then it has become a worldwide brand.

 

This booklet, intended as a give-a-way at fairs and fetes, has no date but the motif of the housewife with the scarf was much used in Domestos advertising in the early 1950s.

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