The paper is a review of the literature relating to the use of water, surfactants and other additives for cleaning historical textiles. Ethical considerations are introduced and the common types of soil that occurs on historical textiles are characterized. The review covers publications on the advantages and disadvantages of wet cleaning and discusses the properties of water, detergents and surface active agents. The paper underline the importance of the HLB value, critical micelle concentration, solubility of surfactants, Krafft and cloud point in conservation. Washing process using surface active agents, the connection between the chemical structure of surfactants and detergency, the role of soil/dirt anti-redeposition agents, foam, pH, washing time and temperature in cleaning are discussed and the composition of solutions for washing historical textiles are given. The paper introduces the dependence of rinsing on the adsorption of surfactant to textiles and reviews the use of vacuum suction in wet cleaning. The efficiency of washing and the effect of washing on fibres, textiles and dyes is assessed and the review ends with references to biodegradation of surfactants and a list of selected case studies.