(1788 – 1860)
It’s a habit of mine to just rock up at a venue and expect direct passage to the statue I need to see. I’m finding this often causes problems but I’m somehow unable to plan ahead for such eventualities. This is the case when I go to visit Kitty and the venue is closed to the public. Fortunately, the receptionist and volunteer takes pity on me and the volunteer allows my sons and I access to the hall where Kitty stands, giving me a fantastic insight to the venue and to Kitty. None of which I write down at the time.
Commissioned to be the first statue to be placed in the Hall for more than 100 years, and the first woman to be represented, Kitty certainly earns pride of place.
Kitty’s life – as we may expect for the time – was a hard one. Born in 1786 in Londonderry, her family set sail for Liverpool to start a new life in 1795. Tragically, her father and sister were swept away at sea on the journey. From around aged 11-18 she worked in a Lancashire mill before returning home to her mother in Liverpool and taking up domestic service work. She married a sailor in 1812 and had two children before her husband was lost at sea. You may be sensing a difficult trajectory by now.
By 1832 a cholera epidemic was sweeping through Liverpool. Kitty worked by taking in washing to earn money, owning the only boiler in the neighbourhood. To help combat the disease she turned her home into a washhouse, allowing neighbours to boil wash clothes and bedding as the only way to fight the spread. Her benevolence did not end there, and she was renowned for taking in orphans and widows off the street and making sure they were cared for at a time of abject poverty.
Convinced of the importance of cleanliness in combating cholera, Kitty pushed for the introduction of public baths so the poor could keep themselves clean and in 1842 she opened Britain’s first public washhouse, earning her title, ‘the Saint of the Slums’.
St George’s Hall opened its doors in Kitty’s lifetime in 1854. Imagine what Kitty would have made of it knowing she would have her own statue inside it. It was unveiled by Kitty’s great great great niece. I love her stance of rolling up her sleeves and the gaze of determination. The statue, as does the venue, has Grade 1 listed status, so no touching when you visit.
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