London had the UK’s first cat café, and for a while it looked as if it might lose it. Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium closed its Bethnal Green Road home in June 2025, weighed down by pandemic debts and a backdated rent rise, and its cats were all rehomed. Its former manager raised the money to buy the business, and in April 2026 it reopened in Greenwich. If an older guide sends you to Shoreditch for cats, that is why you won’t find them there.
Today the city has five cat cafés, and they split neatly into two kinds. Lady Dinah’s and the two Java Whiskers branches are adoption cafés, where the cats are rescues waiting for homes. Whiskers & Cream in Archway and Cat-titude in Battersea keep resident cats who live there for good. We checked every café below in October 2026, and you can see them all on our London cat café map.
London Cat Cafés at a Glance
Café | Where | Price | Ages | Adoption |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Lady Dinah’s | Greenwich | £12 for 1 hour, £18 for 90 min | 12+ | Yes |
Java Whiskers Marylebone | Great Portland Street | From £16.99 for 55 min | 6+, kitten lounge 10+ | Yes |
Java Whiskers White City | Westfield London | From £16.99 for 55 min | 6+, kitten lounge 10+ | Yes |
Whiskers & Cream | Archway | £18 for 90 min with a drink | All ages, under-11s book by phone | No, resident cats |
Cat-titude | Clapham Junction | £18 weekdays, £21 weekends, 90 min | All ages, under-5s weekdays only | No, resident cats |
Prices are per person and were checked in October 2026. Java Whiskers charges more at weekends and for its kitten lounges, so confirm the current rate on each café’s booking page before you go.
Which One Should You Choose?
- For kittens, go to Java Whiskers. Both branches have a separate kitten lounge, which Java Whiskers says is the only kind in Europe, and both are open every day.
- With young children, go to Cat-titude or Whiskers & Cream. Both take all ages, though Whiskers & Cream needs you to book children under 11 by phone or email. Lady Dinah’s admits no one under 12, and Java Whiskers starts at six.
- For afternoon tea, go to Whiskers & Cream. Its three-tier tea with 90 minutes among the cats costs £35, against £54.50 at Java Whiskers, and it comes in vegan, gluten-free and children’s versions.
- For the cheapest visit, go to Lady Dinah’s. An hour is £12, and its “Whisker Wednesday” sessions are £5 for 30 minutes.
- For a quiet visit with a garden, go to Cat-titude. Groups are capped at four and the cats have a cat-proofed garden, which is very rare in London.
- If you are hoping to adopt, go to Lady Dinah’s or Java Whiskers. The cats at Whiskers & Cream and Cat-titude are not up for adoption.
What to Expect at a London Cat Café
Book ahead, especially at weekends. Every café below sells timed slots online. Some take walk-ins when there is room, but Saturday afternoons regularly sell out. The house rules will be familiar if you have been to a cat café before: wash your hands on arrival, don’t pick the cats up, don’t wake sleeping ones, and keep the camera flash off. The cats have private spaces they can retreat to, and they often do. Java Whiskers reminds visitors that cats sleep 15 to 18 hours a day, so a visit can mean watching a row of naps rather than playing.
Food and drink are usually extra. Whiskers & Cream includes a drink in the ticket; elsewhere you order from the menu on top of the entry fee. Java Whiskers is cashless.
Cat cafés also have critics. In March 2025 the RSPCA and Cats Protection called for them to be phased out, arguing that busy, noisy rooms full of strangers do not suit most cats. The cafés below answer that with timed sessions, caps on group size and children, and cat-only retreat areas. If you want the calmest experience, go on a weekday, when the rooms are quieter.
Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium
Courtesy of fromthemurkydepths.co.uk
Lady Dinah’s opened on Bethnal Green Road in 2014 as the UK’s first cat café and ran for 11 years before a backdated rent increase left it around £30,000 in debt overnight. It closed on 25 June 2025. The same day, a Crowdfunder led by café manager Freyja Hides-Westwood passed its target, and with an angel investor (a regular customer from Blackheath) she bought the business’s assets and became managing director. The café reopened on 11 April 2026 at 29–30 King William Walk, a few steps from the Cutty Sark and the gates of Greenwich Park.
The cats are rescues the café takes in directly, often ones that shelters have turned away. They live there as long-term fosters until they are adopted, and the café has rehomed more than 80 cats since 2014. Five were in residence in October 2026, so this is a small, gentle room rather than a crowd of kittens. An hour costs £12 and 90 minutes £18, with food on top. Head baker Temini Kasumu makes everything in-house, and every bake is free of meat, dairy and eggs. Reviewers single out the scones, many of them cat-shaped, and the cream tea. A cream tea ticket was announced but not yet on sale in October 2026.
The rules are strict and come with no exceptions. Nobody under 12 is admitted, including babies, 12- to 17-year-olds need an adult, and the cats may not be picked up. Book on the website up to 30 minutes before your slot, or walk in if there is space. Cancellations need 24 hours’ notice. It opens Thursday and Friday from 12:00 to 19:00 and at weekends from 10:00 to 17:00, and is closed on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesdays, “Whisker Wednesday” offers £5 half-hour play sessions from 11:00 to 18:00 with takeaway drinks only. Google still lists Wednesday as closed, so check the website before making a special trip. Cutty Sark DLR is a two-minute walk and Greenwich station about ten. The entrance has a ramp, and the café asks wheelchair users to get in touch in advance, as the older building has some tight corners.
Java Whiskers Marylebone
Courtesy of @javawhiskers on Facebook
Java Whiskers Marylebone on Great Portland Street opened in October 2020 as the first UK branch of Java Whiskers and is the most central cat café in London. It spreads over two floors under a glass roof: an adult cat lounge on the ground floor and a kitten lounge downstairs. In October 2026 the site listed 15 adult cats and 11 kittens, all from The Scratching Post rescue in Waltham Abbey and all available for adoption. Across both branches, Java Whiskers says more than 1,000 cats have now gone to new homes.
A 55-minute cat lounge session costs £16.99 on weekdays and £19.99 at weekends. The kitten lounge costs £21.99 and £25.99, with longer sessions available for both. Afternoon tea with cat lounge entry is £54.50 and runs on Thursdays and Sundays. Children aged 6 to 15 pay the adult price and need one adult for every two children. The cat lounge is open to ages six and up, the kitten lounge to ten and up. Book on the website and arrive 15 minutes early. Refunds are available up to 48 hours before, and after that you can only reschedule.
Google reviewers mention the kitten lounge more than anything else, and many praise how well the cats are looked after and that the rooms never feel crowded. The flip side is that the adult cats are often asleep. The café is open from 10:00 to 20:00, and until 21:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. The ground-floor lounge is step-free, but the kitten lounge is down a flight of stairs. Great Portland Street station is a seven-minute walk, and Oxford Circus and Regent’s Park are about ten minutes away.
Java Whiskers White City
Courtesy of @javawhiskers on Facebook
Java Whiskers White City opened next to Westfield London in December 2022 and is the bigger of the two branches, with around 19 adult cats and 11 kittens from Furry Ears Rescue in October 2026. Both lounges are step-free, there is outdoor seating, and the café is licensed. Prices match Marylebone, apart from slightly cheaper weekend kitten sessions (£24.99 for 55 minutes). This is also the only branch with weekday concessions: about 10% off for over-60s, students and Blue Light Card holders, and half price for carers.
White City is where the events happen. In October 2026 the calendar included Kitten Yoga (£44.99, ages 16 and up, an hour’s class followed by 30 minutes with the kittens), Paws & Paint (£39.99, 10+) and a Halloween quiz night. Crochet clubs, sound healing and LGBTQ+ speed dating are among the other events it runs. Birthday parties are popular here too, and private hire takes up to 20 people. It opens Monday to Friday from 11:00 to 18:00, Saturdays from 10:00 to 19:00 and Sundays from 10:00 to 18:00. Book on the White City page. Wood Lane, White City and both Shepherd’s Bush stations are all within about ten minutes on foot, and drivers can use Westfield’s car parks.
Whiskers & Cream
Courtesy of @whiskersandcream on Facebook
Whiskers & Cream opened in November 2018 in a Holloway Road shop that had stood empty for almost 20 years. It was founded by Kay Allen, a former NHS psychiatric nurse, and feels more like a tearoom than an attraction. The ten cats, including two Maine Coons called Jack and Jasper, are permanent residents rather than cats waiting for adoption.
Every booking is 90 minutes and includes a premium drink, for £18 (£15 for under-11s). On some weekdays, off-peak slots cost £15 for adults and £12 for children. The three-tier afternoon tea of sandwiches, scones, cakes and sorbet costs £35 including entry. It is what most reviewers come for, and it comes in vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free and children’s versions. Beer, wine and bubbly are served from noon. An extra half hour costs £4.50.
Booking works differently depending on who is coming. Parties of up to four, all aged 11 or over, can book online with a deposit. If you are bringing children under 11, or five or more adults, you must book by email at managers@whiskersandcream.com or by phone on 020 7263 2888. Anyone who books online with young children will be turned away. At weekends the last sitting for under-11s starts at 12:30, and tables of six must order afternoon tea. It opens from 10:00 to 17:00 (17:30 at weekends) and is closed on Wednesdays. Upper Holloway Overground station is a minute away, and Archway on the Northern line is about seven minutes on foot.
Cat-titude
Courtesy of @cattitudecaf on Instagram
Cat-titude is the newest café in London. Founder Yoanna Stoyneva opened it on St John’s Hill in summer 2025, a few months after being made redundant. The street-level café is free to walk into. The cat lounge is downstairs and opens onto a fully cat-proofed garden, where the eight resident cats can wander in and out on warm days. They came from owners who could no longer keep them, and they live here permanently. Unusually, guests can buy treats to feed them.
Sessions last 90 minutes and start at fixed times through the day. Adults pay £18 on weekdays and £21 at weekends, children aged 6 to 17 pay the same and get a juice, under-5s are £7 (weekdays only), and over-65s pay £9.50 on weekdays. An adults-only session runs every evening from 17:30 to 19:00 for £20, and a membership gives six visits for the price of four. Book on Bookwhen. Groups of five or more are not allowed, which keeps the lounge calm. You can cancel for a full refund up to 24 hours before or reschedule up to 12 hours before.
At 4.8 stars, it is the best-rated cat café in London on Google, and reviewers keep mentioning the friendly owner, the bean bags and the cats’ hammock. It is open every day from 10:00 to 19:00, with the last walk-ins at 17:30, and has a step-free side entrance and an accessible toilet. Clapham Junction station is about a ten-minute walk. Despite the café calling itself a Clapham café, Clapham Common Tube station is more than half an hour away on foot.
Cat Cafés Near London
Two more cat cafés are within an hour of central London by train, and both are worth the trip if the city’s slots are full.
- Meow Lounge, Hitchin. It bills itself as Hertfordshire’s first cat café, and its cats are adoptable rescues from The Scratching Post, the same rescue that supplies Java Whiskers Marylebone. A 55-minute session costs £14.50 on weekdays and £16.50 at weekends, the main lounge is for ages 10 and up, and there are separate children’s sessions for ages five and up. It is closed on Tuesdays. Trains from King’s Cross take about half an hour, then it is a 20-minute walk from Hitchin station.
- Paws Cat Cafe, Tonbridge. A rescue cat café in Angel Walk, a six-minute walk from Tonbridge station, charging £12 an hour. It opens from 10:00 to 16:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday to Sunday, and bookings that include children have to be made by phone. Fast trains from London Bridge take around 40 minutes.
Closed London Cat Cafés
Older guides and map searches still list places that you can no longer visit:
- Lady Dinah’s, Bethnal Green Road: closed in June 2025. The café now operates in Greenwich (see above).
- London Cat Village, Rivington Street, Shoreditch: opened around 2015 and has since closed. Its company was dissolved in 2020.
- La Maison du Chat, Pimlico: opened during the pandemic and closed in December 2022 after licensing and welfare problems.
- Ginger & Tom’s, West Hampstead: announced in 2015 but never opened.
- Catlantis, Marylebone, and Bob’s World, Covent Garden: both were announced (Bob’s World after a crowdfunding campaign in 2015), and we have found no sign that either ever opened.
Adopting a Cat in London
Three of the five cafés are adoption cafés, and each handles it differently. At Java Whiskers, adoptions go through its partner rescues, The Scratching Post for Marylebone and Furry Ears Rescue for White City. The rescue sets the fee, which covers microchipping, neutering, vaccinations, a vet check and flea treatment. Lady Dinah’s rehomes its cats itself through an application process, and says only one cat it has placed has ever been returned. At Whiskers & Cream and Cat-titude the cats are residents, so you can visit them but not take them home.
If you are ready to adopt and none of the café cats is right, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home and the London branches of Cats Protection both rehome cats. Before you bring one home, our checklist of everything you need before adopting a cat covers the essentials. For cat cafés in the rest of the country, see our guide to cat cafés in the UK.
