Entrepreneur Lauren Pears is opening the UK’s first cat cafe in London (Picture: File)

The UK’s first-ever cat café is coming to London in the next couple of months after members of the public donated over £100,000 to make one cat lover’s dreams a reality.

Entrepreneur Lauren Pears has already started looking at prospective sites in the Old Street area of London and is aiming to have the café up and running by May.

The 30-year-old claims she has already found the 10 to 15 cats which will staff the café, with the animals coming from the Mayhew Animal Home in Kensal Green, north-west London.

Customers will be able to stroke the 10-15 cats during their time in the cafe (Picture: Alamy)

Ms Pears, who was inspired by the popular cat cafes in Japan, said she spotted a gap in the market with large numbers of British city dwellers unable to have pets of their own due to living in rented accommodation, small flats or financial constraints.




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The café will provide a place where cat lovers can stroke the roaming felines while drinking their coffee.

‘We tried to figure out a solution where the cats don’t get too stressed out which is why we’ve introduced the cover charge,’ Ms Pears told the Independent.

The cafe is sure to attract cat lovers from all over London (Picture: Getty)

‘That way, people can stay as long as they like without feeling like they’re against the clock which works for the cats because it takes cats a little time to get used to people.’

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She added: ‘We’re going to have a volunteer programme so people who can’t afford the cover charge can actually come in overnight and look after the cats.’

Cat cafes are popular in Japan and last year Vienna also opened a similar type of eatery (Picture: Reuters)

The 30-year-old said she has already received over 300 job applicants, with an extra 15 a day still being sent in.

The £100,000 raised by the public for the venture came through the crowd-funding website Indiegogo.

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