This is a launderette with a difference - a social space at the heart of the community, offering a valuable service to local people.

Call in to Kitty’s Launderette in the Anfield area of Liverpool and you’ll find various groups putting their wash on. But they won’t just be doing their laundry. While they’re there, they may be chatting to their neighbours over a cup of tea, watching a film or getting involved with a history project.

This is a launderette with a difference - a social space at the heart of the community, offering a valuable service to local people.

Grace Harrison, the project coordinator at the launderette, explained that the original idea for the project came from the need to offer an affordable and environmentally friendly launderette, which could also be used as a social and community space; with the overriding aim to make it a welcoming and accessible place.

The launderette is named in honour of Kitty Wilkinson, an Irish immigrant to Liverpool. During a Cholera epidemic in 1832 she was the only woman on her street to have a boiler, she invited her neighbours in to wash their clothes and bedding. Over the next ten years she lobbied the council to open the first public washhouse in the UK, based in Liverpool on Upper Frederick Street.;

The challenge to open the doors of the Launderette took over three and a half years. The team behind the launderette had to raise the money, find suitable premises, locate a power supply and find the capacity for the water drainage; issues none of them had any idea about.

One of the most important needs, of course, was the equipment. The launderette needed high quality, reliable machines that would serve a large number of people and last for many years.

Goodman Sparks, a long-standing partner of Miele, was recommended to the team to help with the sourcing of machines and the installation. James Atkinson, Senior Sales Manager, explained that they had to make sure that the machines were suitable for a community entity and could cater for all the different services.

They selected four washers and three dryers from the Miele range in three different sizes: the PW6080s (8 kilos), the PW5105 (10 kilos), the PT8303, PT8337 and the PW413. The largest 14 kilo machine would handle duvets and blankets but also the kit for the launderette’s WetCare system, an eco-version of dry cleaning.

Keen to set up in the most environmentally friendly way possible, the launderette’s team wanted to use a renewable energy supplier, minimise the amount of power and water and find the most efficient machines for their wet-cleaning service. Miele’s green credentials made them a good fit.

View the full case study here.