EVENTS!
Community Events and Activities at Kitty’s Launderette.
One of our core principles is to create an accessible, welcoming social space for everyone in our diverse local community. Whether you are a regular washing/drying customer or not been to us before, please join us!
Kitty’s Launderette encourages you to socialise in the space as long as you like, stay a while on the comfy benches, have a cup of tea and a natter or use the Wi-Fi and listen to the relaxing hum of the machines.
We have a regular program of activities that happen every week when the launderette is open such as Knitting Club, Tea and Toast and writers group. As well as special programs of events and activities organised by our team and trusted local partners.
Our creative program seeks to have the lowest barriers to entry and the highest aspirations for our community. We organise and host creative and social activities which are appealing and relevant to our local community, while also stretching perceptions, introducing new ways of thinking, areas of interest and skills.
Previously we have hosted writing workshops, live music, kids storytimes, Street theater, art workshops, board game nights, recycled textile crafts, social history talks and Film Nights.
DIY Pin-Badge Workshop
Come and make your own badges!
Artist Joanna Wilson will be joining us for a little evening session of badge-making!
This summer, we've been gathering to think, make and talk about growing and building community. Whatever you wanna say, whatever you wanna show, pop it on a badge!
Collage and drawing materials will be provided. If you already have materials that you want to make into a badge, feel free to bring it on down!
Ages 16+.
Free to attend but booking required at LINK HERE
Building Paper Towns Kids Craft Workshop
Sculpt your own mini houses and community spaces to create a collective neighbourhood !
Join us for a crafty afternoon with artist Laura Spark where we will be designing and sculpting a mini neighbourhood!
Together we will:
Learn to make 3D models with card.
Decorate our mini buildings using drawing, collage and sculpting.
Design our collective dream community.
All materials provided.
Free to attend, for kids of all ages ! (Children must be supervised by a parent/guardian)
Booking required at the LINK HERE
Seed Bomb Workshop
Make your own wildflower seed bombs to scatter around the community!
Seed bombs are made from soil, clay and wildflower seeds which are rolled into a ball and thrown into gardens and greenspaces. Originally used by guerilla gardeners to sow seeds in hard to access areas such as roadsides and roundabouts, it is a great way to increase biodiversity in urban spaces and helping to attract pollinators.
Come along from 1pm to make some seed bombs and bring nature to your neighbourhood!
For all ages. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Free to attend but booking required at the LINK HERE
Plant Pals and Bug Buddies Kids Drawing Workshop
Drawing workshop for kids aged 6+.
We’ve invited illustrator Sarah Pritchard to learn about all things plants and bugs that we find in our gardens and green spaces!
Together we will design our own characters inspired by our local natural life.
Get stuck in with Character-building , World-building and Drawing.
Ages 6+
Participants must be accompanied by an adult. Please book one ticket per child participant, accompanying adults do not require a ticket.
Free to attend but booking required at the LINK HERE
Free Bike Repair
Join Cycling UK and Peloton Liverpool Cooperative at Kitty’s for a free bike repair session.
What happens at a Fix session?
When you arrive at a free bike repair session, you’ll be greeted by one of the organisers – usually a local community group supported by Cycling UK.
You’ll be asked to sign in and give a few quick details about your bike: what’s not working, when it was last used, or any concerns you have. Don’t worry if you’re not sure – our partners will take it from there.
At your session, an experienced mechanic will:
Check your bike for common issues
Carry out basic repairs and adjustments
Offer tips on looking after your bike
Let you know if anything else needs attention
It’s all free – just pop by with your bike, and we’ll do what we can in your 30-minute slot.
No need to book just pop along. For any further question please email community@kittyslaunderette.org.uk
Screen Print A Patch Workshop
Print your own patches to upcycle your old clothes!
Artist and printmaker Joanna Wilson will be hosting a patch printing workshop! Join us for this crafty afternoon, where we will be printing our own patches which can be added to our old clothes to upcycle your wardrobe! We love a good recycling project!
As our programme this summer is constructed around the themes of growing, building community and reclaiming space, the imagery of our patches will be too. If you have any imagery that you would like to print, maybe even your own drawings or text, please send to creative@kittyslaunderette.org.uk by the 10th August so we can get it popped on the screens in time for the workshop! (please bare in mind these will need to be bold linework and nothing that needs to be inverted to work best)
Free but booking required at the link here
Community Flag Making Workshop
Come and craft with us! We're celebrating building community, growing and reclaiming space, what better way to do it than making joyful flags! Textile artists Ellsquared will be leading the session to create a collection of colourful flags to be on display as a playful community art installation in the launderette.
Open to all ages.
No experience necessary, beginner friendly!
Materials provided.
Booking required. LINK HERE
Local History @ Kitty's : 'Don't Mourn, Organise!' Kirkby Unemployed Centre
Join us for a Local History event at Kitty's Launderette as part of our 'Coming Together at Kitty's' programme!
'Don't Mourn, Organise!' provides a history from below of the Kirkby Unemployed Centre (KUC), a left-wing activist hub and welfare advice centre that operated between 1981 and 2014. Local historian G. Campbell deploys previously unseen archive material and oral testimonies to explore how the KUC played a key role in Merseyside's wider right to work movement, supporting local workers in struggle whilst spearheading several anti-closure campaigns. The talk will also outline the impact of the Centre's famed 'welly rights' team, which brought millions of pounds in unclaimed benefits into Kirkby over a period of 3 decades.The talk will include a short film on the KUC from the North West Film Archive.
G. Campbell is a Liverpool based oral historian. His primary research focus is deindustrialisation; producing intimate accounts of anti-closure campaigns conducted by rank and file unionised workers. As a public historian, his practice centres on working alongside community groups in order to document the experiences of marginalised communities.
Local History @ Kitty's : Mary Bamber, Bessie Braddock's radical mother
Join us for a Local History event at Kitty's Launderette as part of our 'Coming Together at Kitty's' programme!
Mary Bamber (1874-1938) was a prominent social and political activist in Liverpool. Known for her work as a trade unionist and suffragist, Bamber championed the rights of workers, women, and the poor. She played a key role in the 1911 Liverpool general transport strike, advocating for better working conditions. A founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, she tirelessly campaigned for social justice and was a powerful orator. Her legacy continued through her daughter, Bessie Braddock, who became a notable Labour MP. Bamber's dedication to improving the lives of the marginalized left an enduring impact on British social reform.
James Rees is a prominent member of the North West Labour History Society and sits on the editorial board of the Society's journal.
Shared Lives Carer Information Drop-In
Shared Lives is a little bit like fostering, but with the big difference that it’s for people over the age of 18 who want to live as independently as possible. For more information please check out their website
This drop-in session is for those who are interested in finding out more about what it means to become a Shared Lives Carer. For any further information ahead of the event please email lisa.whitelaw@pss.org.uk
Local History @ Kitty's : Liverpool Free Press
Join us for a Local History event at Kitty's Launderette as part of our 'Coming Together at Kitty's' programme!
You’ve read the Liverpool Echo, You read the Daily Post. But have you heard of the Liverpool Free Press? LFP was a radical "alternative" newspaper published in Liverpool during the 1970s under the slogan "News you're not supposed to know". Started by a group of young journalists discontented with the way life in the city was reported by the mainstream local media – Brian Whitaker was one of them. Join us for a special talk as he chronicles a history of radical journalism in our city.
Brian Whitaker is a journalist and writer. Whitaker earned a degree in Arabic studies at the University of Westminster and Latin (BA Hons) at the University of Birmingham. He started work as a graduate journalist with the Liverpool Echo in 1968 and subsequently set up Liverpool Free Press during his tenure. He worked for the British newspaper The Guardian from 1987 and was its Middle East editor from 2000 to 2007. He now runs Al-Bab.com, about politics in the Arab world.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/local-history-kittys-liverpool-free-press-tickets-1976462156515
Local History @ Kitty's : The Fight against Fascism in Liverpool 1923-1940
Join us for a Local History event at Kitty's Launderette as part of our 'Coming Together at Kitty's' programme!
This talk will will explore the growth and the decline of fascism in our city between 1923-1940. It will outline the roots of the movement and of the opposition to it, even before the formation of the British Union of Fascists. Using contemporary sources Chris Jones will give a blow by blow account of fascism as it was on the streets. Now more than ever it is important to recall this history and learn lessons from those before us to apply in fighting against the growing far-right across our communties.
Chris Jones is a retired academic nurse. He is widely published in the field of local history and particularly the public health history of Liverpool. His main focus has been on the problems facing the health of the city in the nineteenth century. He is the author of a published short history of fascism in Liverpool 1923-1940.
Local History @ Kitty's : Scouse on the page and the screen
Join us for a Local History event at Kitty's Launderette as part of our 'Coming Together at Kitty's' programme!
Scouse: it’s the name we give to the language of Liverpool, but, how and when did it become the way we describe the identity of its citizens? Representations of Liverpool and its language can be traced from the eighteenth century; however, it wasn’t until the 1950s when Frank Shaw and Fritz Spiegl published the Lern yerself Scouse series, that Scouse became a commodified linguistic and social identity. This was followed by the onslaught of representations of Scouse on page and on screen think Bread, The Liver Birds and the novels of Kevin Sampson- all of which were shaped by their contemporary political climate. This talk will trace the emergence and construction of Scouseness across literature and media and consider to what extent these stereotypes distort the reality of being from Liverpool. It will also touch upon how modern artists from Liverpool are responding to inheriting the Scouse identity.
Jenni Lynam is from Liverpool. She completed her BA in English at the University of Oxford in 2023 and is now a Postgraduate Researcher at the University of Leeds. Her current research project explores the representation and construction of Liverpool English and the Scouse identity, the emergence of social stereotypes and the role of gender performance.