Gavin Hadfield reports on the cat-ering at London’s first cat café
I have a confession to make.
I am not ashamed to admit that I enjoy the company of cats; although I can find no evidence for the claim, widely repeated on the internet, that Sigmund Freud said that “Time spent with cats is never wasted”, I cannot bring myself to disagree with the sentiment expressed.
That being the case, committing to the idea of booking an hour and a half “Entry, Cats and a Cuppa” slot at Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium in Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch, to fulfil one of my wife’s longstanding wishes, was no great hardship. What was quite surprising was the discovery of how high the demand is for entry to this unusual establishment.
Apart from the fact that light refreshment is served, the generally accepted idea of how a business catering to paying customers should work is turned on its head. Here, it is made quite clear that the interests of the cats come first. Part of the online booking process requires the acknowledgement of strictly enforced house rules governing customer interactions with the cats; on arrival, after placing drinks orders at the entrance, customers are admitted to a reception room which doubles as a decontamination chamber where they will be asked to wash their hands and hear the house rules before entering the main café area.
A brief internet search for ‘Cat Cafés in the UK’ shows around ten establishments which have opened since 2014, from Bournemouth to Edinburgh, but Lady Dinah’s was the first. The concept of providing feline company with refreshments on the side is believed to have originated in Taiwan; since then, copycat (sorry, I had to get that in there) establishments have opened around the globe.
Although catering for what is clearly a niche market, because if you didn’t like cats, or just didn’t like the idea of domestic animals in a business preparing food and beverages for human consumption, you would avoid going there. I hasten to add, having quizzed the charmingly eccentric-looking ‘cat carer’ doubling as a waitress, that Lady Dinah’s is fully compliant with the relevant Food Safety legislation. Apparently that was not as difficult as finding the right premises, and a landlord willing to let it for this use. Perhaps this is why James Bowen, of ‘Bob the Cat’ fame, has failed to get plans for a ‘Bob’s World’ cat café off the ground in spite of raising over £160,000 through a crowdfunding website.
The interior of Lady Dinah’s is – in accordance with the ethos of cats first, people second – full of snug places for cats to hide, shelves to lie on, toys for cats to play with, things for cats to scratch, clever feeding trays which require the cat to work to get treats out of them.
One welcome difference from conventional cafés is that the amount of seating for customers is deliberately restricted, so that cats are not subjected to stress from overcrowding. All the cats are ‘rescue’ cats, and carefully assessed for a temperament suitable for the environment; the café management constantly monitor the cat population for evidence of behavioural problems and find new homes for any cat unable to cope. Nevertheless, the existence of cat cafés is not without controversy; because the idea is relatively new, there are no specific regulations covering their operation, meaning that animal welfare standards may vary between establishments.
As for the cats – well, if you know anything about cats, you will be familiar with the disdain which they are capable of projecting. I often think that most cats, having run through their nine lives, could easily reincarnate as Dominants in S&M. The cats at Lady Dinah’s are no different: customers, if acknowledged at all, are mostly just tolerated; which is more or less what you could expect from your cat at home, if you are fortunate enough to have one. The major point of difference here, is that although their website makes no claims or promises, what seems implicit in this offer is the interaction between cat and customer; the affirmation that, as Albert Schweitzer is reputed to have said: “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”.
Oh, the food? Glad you asked; no complaints there. My wife and I both enjoyed our toasted paninis, and I received an extra shot in my cappuccino without extra charge or quibble; the menu is not what you could call extensive, but what there is, is fresh and well prepared. The £10 per person entry fee, which some establishments call a ‘welfare charge’, includes the first beverage, and if you want to go the posh route, a High Tea option will soon be available 6 days a week at £25 per person.
The staff we met were all pleasant and appeared to have the cat’s interests at heart, while trying to encourage engagement between cats and customers; unfortunately, no-one appears to have secured the agreement of the cats in implementing this arrangement. If you are a lonely flat-dweller seeking the comfort of some warm, furry companionship, then you may be better off working here, than visiting. In short, if there is exploitation happening, it may not be happening in quite the manner animal welfare charities imagine.
