A charlady, char or charwoman was an English house cleaner. The term has the same roots as "chore woman," one hired to do odd chores around the house. A char or chare was a turn (of work) in the sixteenth century, and which gave rise to prefix being used to denote people that worked in domestic situations. The term's usage was popular in the mid-19th century, often appearing as an occupation in the English census of 1841, but fell out of common use in the last decades of the 20th century. Unlike a maid

Maid

A maidservant or in current usage housemaid or maid is a female employed in domestic service.-Description:Once part of an elaborate hierarchy in great houses, today a single maid may be the only domestic worker that upper and even middle-income households can afford, as was historically the case...

 or housekeeper

Housekeeper (servant)

A housekeeper is an individual responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of the interior of a residence, including direction of subordinate maids...

, typically live-in positions, the charlady worked for weekly wages and usually came and went on a daily basis.

The position often features in fiction; one notable character is the charlady who appears in Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

's A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...

. The best known charlady is probably Ada Harris from Paul Gallico

Paul Gallico

Paul William Gallico was a successful American novelist, short story and sports writer. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictures...

's novel Mrs 'Arris goes to Paris

Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris

Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris is the title of a Paul Gallico novel originally published in 1958. In the United Kingdom, it was published as Flowers for Mrs Harris...

. In the British radio comedy series It's That Man Again

It's That Man Again

It's That Man Again was a BBC radio comedy programme which ran from 1939 to 1949. The title was a contemporary phrase referring to ever more frequent news-stories about Hitler in the lead-up to World War II, and specifically a headline in the Daily Express written by Bert Gunn...

, Dorothy Summers played the part of Mrs Mopp, the office char with the catch phrase "Can I do you now, Sir?" (i.e., "May I clean your office now, Sir?" but with an obvious double entendre

Double entendre

A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....

). A charlady also appears in "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka .