Liverpool community launderette honours the Saint of the Slums

City co-op pays homage to Kitty Wilkinson, who opened the UK's first public washhouse

She is the only woman whose achievements are deemed worthy of a statue in Liverpool's St George's Hall. Her sleeves are rolled up, she is ready to get her hands dirty - while the men around her are captured in their pomp, ready to preach a sermon or deliver a speech to parliament.

Now Kitty Wilkinson, the Irish inventor of the public washhouse, is to be honoured again in her adopted home. This time the woman known as the Saint of the Slums will be immortalised not in marble but in soap suds, when a non-profit launderette will open bearing her name.

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