Inside-Out – The Official Topshop Blog

You probably already know that here at Topshop HQ we adore those fluffy little purring balls known as cats. Unfortunately, not all of us have a kitty waiting for us when we walk through the door at home and oh, how we’ve dreamed about a place where you can have a nice mocha with a brownie and a cat on your lap.

Well, there’s no need for us to pout about it any longer because we hear that a cat café could be opening near us pretty soon! A cat café, you gotta be kittening us, we here you say?! Well what’s not to love? It’s essentially just like your usual café, serving sandwiches, cakes and coffees with the only difference being that it’s filled with cats you can pretend are your own for an hour or two.

The first cat-café opened in Taiwan in 1998, before China, Japan and South Korea made it a massive trend. At the moment, there are about 40 in Tokyo and that number’s growing fast! In Europe, Cafe Neko (which means cat in Japanese) opened last year in Austria as did Cat Republic in St Petersburg. And now *drum roll* … East London looks set to be the next cat-tastic destination! Yay!

Kitten lover and hopeful owner, Lauren Pears, is seeking contributions towards the £108,000 it will cost to open the feline friendly ‘Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium’ through Indiegogo.com – an international crowd funding site that uses social media to raise money for innovative ideas. The idea of a cat cafe came about after she noticed that people on her commute would always stop to pet other peoples’ pets once they got off the train.

Not only looking to give give Londoners their fix of animal affection, Pears is also looking to give lonely cats a comfortable home that they may otherwise miss out on. The café is planned to have about 20 cats, which would come from an Animal Home which we think is a lovely idea.

As we’re sure you can tell, if East London’s cat café goes ahead you’ll be sure to find us Topshop girls there on Sundays, drinking tea, eating cake and reading magazines with a cat curled up right next to us.