It’s surprising how often they become grubby

Just in case you need to know, as autumn approaches (if it’s not yet here already) I’m going to share dear Ruth Drew’s instructions for cleaning your umbrella. I always refer to her as ‘dear’ Ruth, although I never knew her as she died when I was a child growing up in Cambridge and she lived in London (as far as I know!)

Cleaning Umbrellas

You would think that, in this country, umbrellas would have all the natural cleaning that they require, but it is surprising how often they become grubby in the folds. Cleaning, however, presents one or two difficulties.
Silk umbrellas have to be treated warily. For example, you can easily affect both the proofing of the silk and the colour if you clean with spirits or shampoo, whether it is based on soap or soapless detergent. I have always found that quite a lot of grubbiness yields to sponging with plain tepid water, and this is much as I would do. If the umbrella is made of nylon, it is perfectly safe to sponge it with mild soapless detergent, and then with clear water to rinse. In either case, you obviously then leave the umbrella to dry, and, equally obviously, you are careful to dry the metal spokes with a clean soft cloth, so that there is no danger of rusting.

We might wonder why an umbrella might need cleaning, but of course this was at a time when air pollution was foul, everyone had coal fires at home and industrial processes would blast all sorts of filthy rubbish into the air which would then come down with the rain!