Cats in residence in famous places in the UK are having a moment. Social media is full of accounts showing off their cats including the many cats of the National Trust’s Gunby Hall, Maisie at the Bishop’s Palace in Wells who has a Facebook account, and Lilibet who lives at London’s extremely smart Lanesborough Hotel.

Here we look at four cats in residence at three popular spots in the UK: Larry and Prince in Downing Street, Hodge at Southwark Cathedral, and Jock VII at Winston’s Churchill’s home Chartwell. We also look at some of their predecessors.

Larry and Prince

Larry and Prince are the official cats in residence in Downing Street, home of UK government. There have been many Westminster cats and they are all looked after by donations rather than by the taxpayer, despite their sterling service to the nation keeping the mouse population in check. Gladstone, the Treasury cat, even had a money box by his bed so that admirers could contribute to his upkeep. Downing Street staff hold events to raise money for cat upkeep, including quiz nights.

Larry is a rescue cat in a long tradition at Westminster, and a domestic tabby. After Larry was adopted from Battersea Cats and Dogs home, originally as a pet for David Cameron’s children, his high profile led to a 15% increase in stray cat adoptions from Battersea. Not content with his own social media account, he even has a Wikipedia page.  Larry, officially a civil servant, put most of his efforts in squabbling with Palmerston, previously the Foreign Office cat, rather than mousing. Larry’s lack of mouse catch became such a problem that reinforcements were drafted in in the form of Freya, another cat with her own Wikipedia entry and originally a pet for George Osborne’s children. She became official Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, a role dating from the 1500s. Freya was a far more effective mouser than Larry and a street-hardened character who dominated him. Tensions built up with Larry until they had to be separated by the police during a fight. Freya has since died.

Larry is a superstar in British politics. In the featured image for this article you can see him rubbing whiskers with Barack Obama. He ruled the roost in Downing Street for well over ten years and has been through six prime ministers. Now he has to make room for Prince, a new kitten brought in by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his family.

The Starmers already had a cat named Jojo. Between Larry’s stardust and Prince’s kitten cuteness Jojo hasn’t had much of a media look-in but reports suggest that Larry and black and white Jojo are slowly coming to terms with each other, following advice from Cats Protection on introducing cats to each other.

Prince is a Siberian kitten. Beyond a few early photo opportunities Prince hasn’t made much of an impact so we look forward to seeing how he grows into his role.

Hodge

Hodge is the cat in residence at Southward Cathedral, an Anglican cathedral in a building over 1000 years old. Hodge is another official mouser, and a cat with an Instagram account. He succeeds Doorkins Magnificat, who arrived at the Cathedral and made herself at home pretty much straight away. Southwark Cathedral works with CatCuddles rescue centre. Hodge arrived the very day that Doorkins died.

Hodge is a rescue cat, found on the street aged about two in 2020 in a very poor condition. He had a huge growth on his chin. He recovered well and is now a lively and friendly cat but he’s not the first Hodge. The original was owned by Dr Samuel Johnson in the 1700s and according to this article, doted upon. The original Hodge also has his own Wikipedia account.

Southwark Cathedral has a range of Hodge merchandise available including a calendar.

Jock VII

There have been a number of cats in residence at Chartwell, and they’ve all been named Jock. To make the point, the image here is Jock VI, current Jock’s predecessor. Why have there been so many Jocks at Chartwell?

It’s no coincidence. Churchill was a cat lover and when the Churchill family gave Chartwell to the National Trust in 1966 it stipulated that there must always be “a marmalade cat named Jock, with a white bib and four white socks, in comfortable residence at Chartwell” and so there has been. Incidentally Winston Churchill had a cat with him at Downing Street named Nelson, after Horatio Nelson. Nelson was adopted after Churchill saw him chase off a large dog. At the time Neville Chamberlain had a cat called the Munich Mouser. Nelson and the Munich Mouser got along about as well as Larry and Palmerston. There was a third cat around at the time, Peter. Until the government of the day authorised a spend of a penny a day towards Peter’s upkeep he’d been fed ample scraps by staff, to the point that he had no motivation to catch mice. Once his diet improved he became an impressive mouser.

The first Jock was a present to Churchill on his 88th birthday. He was given by Churchill’s private secretary Sir John Colville, known as Jock. Unfortunately Churchill lived only a couple of years longer, and Jock the cat was with him on his death bed in London. At that point Jock went to live at Chartwell. He lived until 1974 and is buried in the grounds with many other Chartwell pets.

There has been a succession of Jocks since then. Jock II liked sleeping in the day and prowling at night. Jock III could scratch but liked the visitors and Jock IV didn’t live very long. Jock V loved water and moved from Chartwell when his human left. Jock VI loved Chartwell’s Persian rugs but wasn’t keen on opera. Unfortunately his eyesight deteriorated to the point that life at Chartwell became too difficult for him.

Jock VII arrived in 2020 as a six month old rescue kitten. He was originally named Sunshine but had been living in terrible conditions with 30 other cats. Fortunately he was young enough to bounce back and assume a new identity. He’s enjoying life at Chartwell – if you go to visit you might spot him.