Café for cats set to open in London

Opening this weekend, Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium is not only open to cat-lovers, but even has its own resident felines to entertain guests.

Animal lovers don’t like to go anywhere without their dogs and cats, but public venues aren’t so keen on filling their space with pets — aside from the occasional pet-friendly hotels we’ve seen in the past. Opening this weekend in London, Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium is not only open to cat-lovers, but even has its own resident felines to entertain guests.

Located in the borough of Tower Hamlets, the café offers a typical menu of tea, coffee and cakes — as well as its own merchandise range — but also has its own roster of 11 cats-in-residence sourced from rescue homes across London, which customers can play with in the designated cat room. Visitors pay a GBP 5 cover charge and will need to wash their hands before and after entering the room, but while they’re in there they can stroke the cats until their heart’s content. The design of the tearoom is friendly to cats, with plenty of features for climbing and scratching. There’s also a cats-only garden where the pets can go if they’ve had enough of human attention. When the cafe’s closed, passersby will still be able to check in on the animals through the window, or the site’s live webcam feed. The promo video below introduces the cats along with some funky music:

The cat café craze is already a hit in Japan, but it seems the idea could be a viable one in other locations around the world. Due to high demand, currently customers need to arrange a reservation in advance if they’re planning to visit, and the tearoom is already fully booked until 17 March, with priority given to those who backed the tearoom’s Indiegogo funding campaign last year. With London also set to get it’s own dog-themed café — House of Hounds — later in the year, are there other venues that could benefit from a pet-friendly attitude?