Feline Fun is written/compiled by
Patrick Roberts
Copyright © 2003-08 Purr 'n' Fur UK
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British pub signs featuring cats
Gallery 1
Begin browsing the galleries below, or see the index of names and locations
where links will take you straight to a sign or name of interest.
We also have a short article about the history of inn signs here.
More signs in
Gallery 2 Gallery 3 Gallery 4 Gallery 5
Gallery illustrations
Left-click a thumbnail for an enlargement.
In many cases pictures of a pub or other signs are available from text links.
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The Romping Cat, one of two pubs of that name, is in Bloxwich, near Walsall in the West Midlands region of the UK. It previously had a sign showing a cat holding a beer mug and smoking a cigar or cigarette (see picture), but perhaps that is no longer considered acceptable. It now has this rather splendid Banks' brewery lion. |
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This cartoon-style Romping Cat is on a small country pub, renowned for its beer, near the village of Bomere Heath, not far from Shrewsbury in Shropshire. |
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The Fat Cat is a town pub in Chester, the county town of Cheshire, where a settlement dates back at least to Roman times. |
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The Cheshire Cat, of Alice in Wonderland fame, is a very well-thought-of pub and hotel on the south-eastern outskirts of Chester, near the village of Christleton. The pub dates from about 1973 and is on the site of the former Christleton Lodge. |
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The Puss in Boots is one of several with that name. This one is on the outskirts of Macclesfield, in Cheshire, on the road coming down the hill into the town from Buxton. The sign has been renewed since we photographed it originally and our picture to the left is of the latest version; but see the older one here. |
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Cat with No Tail: since we first posted the sign for this large pub on the outskirts of Douglas, Isle of Man, the pub appears to have been refurbished and the signs have been changed to the attractive painting of a tortoiseshell Manx cat. The previous humorous signs, kindly sent to us by Margaret Hunter, can be seen here. |
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The Cat and Fiddle is a well-known pub in Derbyshire, at the summit of the winding road across the moors between Macclesfield and Buxton. It is 1690 feet above sea level and is one of the highest pubs in Britain. The inn sign has been renewed since we first pictured it in 2004, but the older version can still be seen here. A rather nice pictorial panel of a cat with a fiddle can be seen on the front of the pub, and the same panel is clearly visible in a photograph of the inn on a pre-1918 postcard: see the whole card and an enlargement of the panel. |
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This pub, simply called The Cat, is an urban one in Ellesmere Port, a town in north Cheshire. It's interesting that the artist has chosen to represent it by a wild cat rather than a domestic one, but it's a very fine leopard! |
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The West Midlands seems to be a good area for cat-related pub names. The Cat at Willenhall, between Walsall and Wolverhampton, has undergone a makeover since we first visited in 2004, and these are the new signs. You can see the previous attractive sign here. |
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This Cat and Fiddle — with a different interpretation of the name — is between Derby and Ilkeston, also in Derbyshire, not far from Kirk Hallam. |
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This Squinting Cat — also, perhaps surprisingly, not a unique name — is on the outskirts of Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, in Clipstone village. |
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The Old Cat, a pub in the village of Wordsley, near Kingswinford in the Dudley area of the UK West Midlands. Circular signs like this are not so common. |
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The Cat and Bagpipes is in the North Yorkshire village of East Harlsey, not far from Northallerton. The name probably has nothing to do with animals. In the days of border raids from Scotland into northern England, the skirl of bagpipes often meant 'The Cats are coming!' — 'Cats' being an abbreviation for the old Latin term catphractes, or troops. They wore iron breastplates, a style later adopted by the northern raiders. |
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Another West Midlands Cat Inn, only a few miles from Wordsley (above), is this comfortable-looking one from Enville, a village between Stourbridge and Bridgnorth. Curiously, a 300-year-old regulation had long prevented this pub from opening on Sundays. It was only in October 2004 that customers were able to enjoy their first Sunday pint. |
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The Cat and Cabbage is in central Rotherham, in Yorkshire, but appears to be more of a 'diner' than a traditional pub. No pictorial sign, but a reader of the site says that the name is a reference to the York & Lancaster Regiment's badge, the rose and the tiger. The regiment recruited in Rotherham, Sheffield and Barnsley. A drawing of the badge can be seen at this page, and there's also an image at Regiments.org with regimental history and information. |
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The Owl and the Pussycat is one of four that we know of bearing this name, and is situated in Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey, not far from London. |
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The Devonshire Cat is a modern town pub in Sheffield, Yorkshire. There is no pictorial sign, but the cat silhouette is shown on the front windows. |
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Our second Fat Cat is in Alma Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire, not far from the city centre. Although only a small place, it has won several awards for 'Best Value Pub in Britain' and 'One of Top Five Urban Pubs in Britain'. |
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The Black Cat is a small, town pub in Bedminster, a district of Bristol, a major city in the south-west of England. |
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The Burmese Cat: this name might have derived from a brewery chairman whose wife bred Burmese cats; but the cat on the sign seems to have grown into something rather larger! The pub is in the town of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire (famous for its pork pies). |
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Gallery 2 Gallery 3 Gallery 4 Gallery 5
Cats that Got Away
Alphabetical list of pubs and locations
Short history of British pub signs
Notes and Anecdotes
Additional information about particular 'cat signs' or pubs
(cross-linked with gallery entries)
If you know of any more pub signs depicting cats,
or have information about sign or name changes,
please
!
All additions to or suggestions for the gallery gratefully received.
You might like to read about the adventures of Fleetwood who has visited over 60 pubs in Scotland and England with his humans
Grateful thanks are due to the Inn Sign Society for supplying and permission to reproduce images
of many older pub signs from their archive. Where appropriate these are acknowledged in the text above,
but otherwise all photos are our own except where indicated.
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Our featured feline at the head of the page, shown having quite a lot of fun, is Ragamuffin, or 'Rags' for short: sadly he is no longer with us. A cat of great character, who seemed to live by the maxim 'Life is for living', it was devastating for me when that life was cut short by a road accident. A 'rescue' cat, he lived with me in North Wales for less than four years only. You can see a little tribute to him here — and a more flattering photo.
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