Springing into action: People and Place Liverpool Field Trip
- Naomi Rubbra
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
From laundrettes to pies to warehouses - Liverpool shows us what happens when communities begin to transform their neighbourhoods.
Peers in the sun outside Kitty's Laundrette, image courtesy of Footwork.
On a sunny Thursday in early April, the People and Place peers gathered in Liverpool for a day of connection, reflection, and exploring different models of neighbourhood transformation.
Liverpool is a city alive with community-led energy - home to countless inspiring initiatives, from Our Yard and Make CIC to Granby 4 Streets and the Sun Palace. For this visit, the focus turned to two distinct corners of the city: Anfield in the north, and the Baltic Triangle in the south. Across both neighbourhoods, peers encountered stories of people reimagining place, reclaiming space, and building something rooted in care and local need.
Since opening its doors in May 2019, this vibrant social space in Liverpool has offered more than just quality, affordable laundry services. Kitty’s has become a welcoming hub for creative and social connection - where neighbours gather, ideas are exchanged, and a community flourishes.
While it may look simply like a laundrette, the team behind Kitty’s have found themselves firmly in the world of community asset development. As Grace Harrison, Organisational Development Lead, shared with us, access to a building wasn’t just helpful - it was essential.
An aspect that stood out for many was Kitty’s democratic governance structure. Operating as a worker-community co-operative, the model reflects both the worker-led nature of the organisation and a deep commitment to community accountability. A voluntary board brings in wider perspectives, while the worker team shares collective organisational responsibility in a non-hierarchical setup. Grace spoke about living the organisation’s values - how each role is respected equally, and how the co-op is an intentional response to working within a capitalist system.
Peers listening to Grace's story, image courtesy of Footwork
In Anfield, we were joined by Tom Murphy, Project Manager at Homebaked Community Land Trust. Anfield sits at a complex intersection: one of the most deprived wards in the UK, yet also a site of increasing speculative investment. Absentee landlords are buying up properties, drawn by proximity to the stadium, and reshaping the area to serve matchday visitors.
Homebaked CLT began by saving the neighbourhood’s beloved bakery from demolition. Since then, they’ve supported the bakery to thrive as a community business, and have begun work transforming the adjacent terrace into sustainable, high-quality homes and affordable commercial spaces. Their vision is powerful and practical: regenerate the high street brick by brick, loaf by loaf, using money spent locally to directly benefit the community.
In late 2024, their efforts faced a significant setback. The nine derelict houses they had been working to secure for community-led housing were instead listed by the council for sale on the open market.
Despite the blow, Homebaked’s members came together in early 2025 to chart a new course. The challenge hasn’t weakened their resolve - it’s strengthened it. They remain committed to a simple but radical belief: that everyone deserves to live well. That means creating homes and spaces that are not only high quality and affordable today, but remain so for generations to come.
Tom’s honest story brought real depth and local insight into what community asset development looks and feels like in this unique corner of Liverpool, while highlighting many of the shared challenges peers are grappling with in their own work.
Peers in the round listening to Tom, image courtesy of Footwork
Erika Rushton, Baltic Creative and Kindred LCR
Our final stop of the day took us south to the Baltic Triangle, a creative and industrial hub in the heart of Liverpool. A world apart from Anfield, this area is made up of old warehouses and is now home to a vibrant community of makers, artists, and digital pioneers.
We were welcomed by Lynne Hyne, CEO of Baltic Creative, who shared the story behind their regeneration model. It all began with a group of local people who were tired of seeing the same cycle repeat: creative businesses and artists move into underused spaces, bring new life and energy, only to be out priced by market forces.
Their response? To break the cycle by securing long-term community ownership of the very spaces they were helping to revitalise. Baltic Creative - a community interest company that now stewards over 120,000 sq. ft. of workspace in the area, supporting Liverpool’s creative and digital industries to grow and thrive.
We also heard from Erika Rushton, one of Baltic Creative’s original founders and former Chair, and now Programme Director at Kindred. Erika spoke about the power of investing in socially-trading organisations—businesses that are rooted in community and driven by social impact.
Kindred was co-designed by its first 150 members to build a kinder, fairer economy in the Liverpool City Region. It supports entrepreneurs from diverse communities not just with funding, but with long-term, collaborative support. To date, Kindred has invested £2.5 million in 66 organisations—creating over 100 jobs, unlocking £14 million in additional investment, and delivering more than £28 million in social impact.
A day of insight and connection
As the day drew to a close, Grace and Erika stayed on to answer questions from peers—digging deeper into the practicalities of community ownership and community asset development. From funding models for asset-holding companies, to strategies for unlocking capital through local authorities.
The day ended with each peer naming something that stuck with them. Words like inspiring, tactics, filled up, navigation, and money matters echoed around the room. But perhaps most powerful were the reflections on courage—courage for when it doesn’t work, and courage for when it does.
It was a fitting end to a day that held space for both the joy and the grit of community-led change. It was a reminder that, while the contexts differ—from Anfield to the Baltic Triangle—the challenges and ambitions are shared, and the work is driven by people committed to making change happen.
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