Kaspar

of the Savoy Hotel
London

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The story goes that in 1898 a South African diamond magnate by the name of Woolf Joel was visiting London and held a banquet at the famous Savoy before returning home. At the last minute one of his guests had to cancel, leaving thirteen to sit at table, which one guest said was unlucky. After a successful dinner, Joel said his goodbyes and rose to leave; the same guest then said that the first person to leave would also be unlucky and would be the first to die. Joel was not superstitious and thought this remark very amusing — but a few weeks later he was shot dead in his Johannesburg office.

For some years after those events, anxious not to have a similar incident that could damage their reputation, the Savoy provided a member of the hotel staff to sit at tables of thirteen, to avoid the unlucky number, but that idea proved unpopular with guests wanting to talk about personal or private matters; so in 1926 a new solution was found. A British architect and sculptor called Basil Ionides was commissioned to design and carve a three-foot-high model of a black cat, which he produced from a single piece of London plane.

Named Kaspar, the cat resides in his own display case opposite the gift shop at the hotel, but whenever a party of thirteen requires an extra guest, he is brought out to sit at table. He has a napkin tied around his neck, and he is served every course, just like any other guest. Winston Churchill became very fond of Kaspar, to the extent that he insisted the cat should be present at every meeting of The Other Club, a political dining club he had founded in 1911, and so Kaspar has been at all the fortnightly meetings — always held at the Savoy — since 1927.

During World War 2 Kaspar was catnapped by some mischievous Royal Air Force personnel and flown to Singapore, only to have Churchill himself demand its immediate return!

There are two theories as to the origin of the number thirteen being unlucky. One derives from Norse mythology, in which twelve Gods sat down to a banquet in Valhalla. The evil spirit Loki gatecrashed the party as thirteenth member of the party and killed the Gods' favourite, Balder. Thirteen also has significance to Christians, as there were thirteen people at the Last Supper, and the traitor Judas Iscariot was the thirteenth and last to arrive. As to why a cat — the animals have held an important role in mythology and superstition over the centuries, and black cats in particular are considered by many cultures to be lucky.

Notes:
The Savoy Hotel was closed for extensive renovations in December 2007. It's due to reopen in the autumn of 2010. We understand that Kaspar will still be there!
The Savoy Hotel's cat was the inspiration for Michael Morpurgo's children's story Kaspar, Prince of Cats. MM was resident writer at the Savoy for a period during 2007.

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In brief

• In February 2009 a guest at the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion Hotel in the Georgetown district of Penang, Malaysia, said in his review that the hotel had 'three delightful cats in residence'.
  
  
• In 2007 the modest but well-reviewed two-star Hotel Excelsior on the Left Bank in Paris, France was reported to have a friendly resident cat called Rocket, who allowed himself to be picked up and photographed with guests.
  
  
• The Anderson House, a hotel in Washaba, near Minneapolis, USA, used to welcome guests' cats, but if you hadn't brought your own and missed him, the hotel would lend you one of the fifteen named resident cats to keep you company in your room.
  
  
• There used to be a wonderful Pussy (named for Mrs. Slocombe's cat in Are You Being Served?) at the Negresco Hotel in Nice, France, who would hang out in the bar, but is no more.
  
  
• There was a famous pair of strays named Whisky and Soda at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa.
  
  
• Black cat Sam is the resident feline of the Gervis Court Hotel in the English south coast resort of Bournemouth. He has his own web page where you can read more about him and see more images.