Back Bay apartments were not built with laundry rooms. The brownstones went up long before anyone expected a washer in every unit, and the neighborhood is a protected historic district now, so that is not going to change. Dry cleaning in Back Bay ends up being a walking errand, squeezed in between the office and your own front steps.
Our Boston store is at 110 Newbury Street. Dependable Cleaners has been a family business here since 1944, and we are on the fourth generation of it.
Where can you get dry cleaning in Back Bay?
At 110 Newbury Street, Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm and Saturday from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. The phone number is 617-267-1235.
Newbury Street is one of the neighborhood’s three main streets, along with Boylston Street and Commonwealth Avenue. The Green Line gets you close. Copley station is at Boylston and Dartmouth, and Hynes Convention Center is at 100 Massachusetts Avenue.
The store does shirt laundry, wash-dry-and-fold, tailoring, linens and bedding, and dry cleaning for suits, dresses, coats and sweaters.
What does a Back Bay apartment do to your clothes?
Dry radiator heat and small closets, mostly. These buildings were designed around a different way of living, and the closets show it: one rod, no ventilation.
Wool takes the worst of it. A sweater that goes into a packed closet in April with body oil still in the fibers is exactly what clothes moths are looking for. They do not eat clean wool. They eat what is left on it. Cleaning a garment before it goes away for the season is the whole defense.
If you have already found the holes, our guide to moth damage covers what can be rewoven and what cannot.
What about tailoring and alterations?
Newbury Street is a shopping street, so a good share of what crosses our counter is brand new and does not quite fit yet. Hems, sleeves, a waistband, a jacket that pulls across the shoulders. Tailoring and alterations run out of the same store as the cleaning, so a jacket bought two doors down can be handed over on the way home instead of making a second trip somewhere else.
Formal wear works the same way. A dress that has been folded in a garment bag since the last wedding usually needs pressing and a small repair more than it needs anything else, and both happen in the same visit.
Is pickup and delivery worth it if you live four blocks away?
Usually yes, and distance has nothing to do with it. The store closes at 6:00 pm and most people are not home by then.
We run free home and office pickup and delivery with no minimum order, across Boston and the South Shore. You leave the bag, we collect it, it comes back clean. In a building with a doorman or a secure vestibule, that is the whole errand gone.
There is a parking argument too. Boston runs daytime street cleaning from April 1 through November 30, and a resident permit does not exempt you from the posted restrictions. If you are already moving the car for the sweeper, you would rather not spend the afternoon circling Newbury with a garment bag over your arm. Free pickup and delivery takes the whole question off the table.
What happens to a garment once you hand it over?
It goes through GreenEarth® technology, which has been our method for more than twenty years. The solution is pure and gentle on clothes and skin, 100% odor-free, non-allergenic and non-irritating. It breaks down naturally into sand, water and carbon dioxide.
Not everything belongs in dry cleaning. We wet clean and hand clean as well, using biodegradable detergents along with soap, heat and steam to naturally disinfect and sanitize each garment. Which route a piece takes depends on its fiber, trim and finish.
Some pieces need more than that. Couture, rare fabrics and unusual trims go to Style by Dependable, where garments are cleaned one at a time and hand-finished by artisans using equipment matched to the individual piece. It is slower, and for a coat you have owned for fifteen years it is the difference between cleaned and cared for.
The rest of it runs under the name EarthCare Cleaning Systems®: hanger and garment bag recycling, machines that recycle cleaning solutions, energy-efficient equipment, LED lighting, high-efficiency steam traps. The City of Boston gave us the Mayor’s Greenovate Award for that work. There is more detail on our green dry cleaning page.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the nearest dry cleaner to Newbury Street?
Dependable Cleaners, 110 Newbury Street, Boston 02116. Open Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm and Saturday from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. The phone number is 617-267-1235.
Do you pick up and deliver in Back Bay?
Yes. Free home and office pickup and delivery, no minimum order. Book it online or in our app and leave the bag wherever your building allows.
Can you clean a suit and press shirts in one order?
Yes. Dry cleaning, shirt laundry and tailoring all run out of the Newbury Street store, so one drop-off covers it.
Is GreenEarth® cleaning safe for delicate fabrics?
It is gentle on colors and fibers and leaves no odor behind. For couture, beading or unusual trims we use Style by Dependable, our hand-finished garment care service.
Do you clean bedding?
Yes. Duvets, comforters, blankets and sheets all go through the laundry and dry cleaning service.
Stop guessing at store hours. Schedule a free pickup and we will collect from your building this week.
