Lifestyle Review: London Cat Village, Shoreditch

In my 25th birthday post I mentioned that I visited the London Cat Village in Shoreditch and so I thought it was about time I finally shared some photos. Please be warned, however, this post contains several images of unbelievably cute felines...

**UPDATE - May 2019** The London Cat Village is now permanently closed

You'll have to forgive the light on some of these photos but, as you can imagine, kitties don't like flash or bright lights going off in their faces. I had to make do with very little lighting - but anyway! For those of you who have never visited a cat cafe, it's exactly how it sounds. It's a cafe, with cats in it. 

Having been made popular in countries like Japan and France, the cat cafe has started making waves across London, in particular, quiet streets in Shoreditch. Billed simply as a 'cafe with cats', the London Cat Village is a quiet cafe, offering an assortment of cakes, hot and cold drinks and, of course, cats. Having been on my list of places to visit for a while, I figured my birthday day out would be as good-a-time as any to pop in and meet the cafe's feline residents. 

Each reservation includes a one hour slot priced at £5 per person. As you enter the cafe, you'll be asked to remove your shoes, sanitise your hands and acknowledge some basic house rules to maintain the well-being of the kitties. Of course, it's important not to upset the cats in anyway and so feeding them, picking them up for any reason or disturbing them while they're sleeping is a massive no-no. However, I heard that recently the rules have changed, meaning you cannot touch the cats at all. This seems strange, no?

As soon as we walked in, we did notice the smell - understandable given it has around 15 cats living there. It's not particularly a bad smell but it is noticeable and I did wonder if this was normal for a cat cafe? Having also visited Lady Dinah's cat cafe which was very clean and had no smell, I did wonder. Despite the musk, we were super excited to get inside and get downstairs to our table where we checked out a menu with a very small selection of cakes, muffins and macaroons. It was pretty hard to concentrate on food, however, when there were so many cats just waiting to be schmooshed. 

We did wait an awful long time for rather disappointing food and drink. Being sat downstairs also, we had a front row seat to the kitchen which consisted of one very stressed looking employee trying to rustle together whatever they could. In all-in-all, a very expensive hour spent with the cats who seemed pretty bored.

Although I wouldn't recommend visiting purely for the food or service, the London Cat Village was definitely unique birthday experience. I do worry slightly about the cats as they seemed to have very little to play with, although each cat really was very entertaining watching; seeing them strut around and get in little scraps with each other. 

One cat in particular seemed to find great amusement in winding up the other cats while they were sleeping. If you're a crazy cat lady, like me, I would say it's a good way to spend an hour or so in Shoreditch. There are also other cat cafes dotted around London but I'd recommend making a reservation way in advance and they get booked up for six months at a time. The London Cat Village also does movie nights every Wednesday which I thought was pretty cool.

Well, that's it for my cat cafe review. Have you ever visited a cat cafe? What do you think about the idea of them? As always, I love reading your thoughts so please do leave me lots of lovely comments below.

Until next time fellow crazy cat lovers,