Pensioner Joan Snudden officially opened the refurbished Golden Square in Rottingdean by cutting a ribbon.
Mrs Snudden remembers using the old wash house, which was renovated as part of the scheme to revamp the square between West Street and Park Road.
The £11,000 joint project by the Rottingdean Preservation Society and the parish council involved landscaping the square and restoring the old wash house, complete with a life-size model of a Victorian washerwoman looking out the window.
Mrs Snudden, 81, who lived in one of the former cottages as a child and still lives close to the village centre, recalled the days when the wash room was a hive of activity for families who lived in the square and relied on a coal and wood fired boiler to heat the water.
The cottages were demolished in 1931 and, until restoration, the square stood derelict.
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