A Cat Cinema is a place where you can unwind and relax with a cuppa, a cake, a cat on your lap all while watching a movie! We will adopt 10 homeless cats who are sociable, friendly towards humans and comfortable in the presence of other cats.

  
We will work closely with an animal shelter to assist them in rehoming their rescue cats through our 'Cat Wall' and our social media platforms. 

We feel that the existing Cat Cafes in the UK do not give enough back to their local communities. As well as actively working with a cat shelter to assist their mission, we will provide free ‘Cat Therapy’ to the groups can benefit the most. We are excited to say that we are currently in talks with leading charities to make this happen!

One afternoon per week we will invite children and adults with mental health issues (depression, anxiety, mood, eating and stress disorders), physical, mental and general learning disabilities (autism, Down's syndrome, ADHD, Asperger’s and others) andlife-threatening or terminal illnesses (cancer patients, heart disease, brain tumors and others).

The benefits of Great Kitten will be numerous for Londoners:

Reduced Stress and Lower Blood Pressure 

Interaction with cats has been proven to reduce stress levels, which also leads to lower blood pressure.

In London, 44% of workers are currently going through a period of stress, and 13% of workers feel like they are close to breaking point due to stress. We offer a way for workers to combat this problem.

Depression, Anxiety and Mental Health

45% of stressed Londoners go on to suffer from further mental illness. Interaction with cats has been proven to reduce levels of depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. 

Enhanced Mood

People of London are less happy, more anxious and dissatisfied with their lives compared with the UK average. 15-30 minutes spent with a cat has been proven to chemically enhance mood and happiness. We are excited to bring a little more sunshine to the lives of Londoners!

Loneliness

According to a 2012 poll, over a quarter of adult Londoners say they feel lonely most of the time. At Great Kitten, we will not only be a customer-focused cinema and cafe that gives back to the local community - we will also organise speed dating, cat yoga, pet care seminars and animal welfare workshops to bring people together.

We are a nation of cat lovers – 26% of households across the UK own a cat, however many Londoners are not allowed to keep a pet at their homes due to strict landlords, or simply they don’t have the time to look after a cat. We offer a slice of feline fun for people who are missing a moggie in their lives!

 
Following the huge success of Cat Cafes around Europe, we're taking this concept to the next level by combining 3 of Britain's most loved: Cinema, Cats and a Cuppa.

While working in London we saw first hand the demand for constant innovation within London's entertainment scene. As animal lovers with a flair for business, seeing the global popularity of Cat Cafes got us thinking - how could we add a twist to an already successful concept?

Simple - we add a cinema! We believe that the combination of 3 of Britain's most loved - cats, cinema and a cuppa - will be a winning one. We'll show around 10 movies per week of all different kinds for you to enjoy snuggled up to a kitty! One week it could be the latest blockbuster, the next an art-house cult classic - we'll be sure to cater to a varied audience. We're not just going to show cat-themed movies in case you were worried!

As well as the unique cinema experience we will offer, an important part of our mission is to give back to the local community. Once a week, we'll invite children and adults who struggle with mental health issues (such as depression and anxiety), physical disabilities or life-threatening illnesses. All expenses will be covered from our profits. Each of these groups has been proven to benefit from cat interaction and we would love to put smiles on their faces. 

If this sounds like a purr-fect place to spend your time and perhaps meet a new feline friend or two, please help us make it happen! Check out our perks - we offer the chance to enjoy our unique experience of Cats, Cinema, a Cuppa and Cake at varying prices, or we have a number of perks on offer which will enable us to help our chosen charities.

The welfare of our cats is the most important part of our venture - without happy cats, there will be no Great Kitten! Our cats will be completely in control of their environment and we will allow them to exhibit their natural behaviour - they'll be free to choose if they want to cuddle, play or sleep! We will design an enrichment program that will result in a happy, stimulating and safe environment for our rescue cats.

We will ensure that the cats we adopt are:

Physically and mentally stimulated

We will create a space that is full of high places for cats to exercise and climb onto, toys for cats to play with and plenty of scratching posts for cats to exhibit their natural behaviour.

Friendly towards humans

We will choose cats who are extremely sociable around humans and do not shy away from the touch and presence of large groups.

Free to roam around our Cat Cinema with Human-Free Zones

Our cats will be free to come and go as they please at all times. We will have 2 human free zones in our Cat Cinema - 1 indoor and 1 outdoor. It is imperative that our Cats have access to outdoor areas to hear the stimulating sounds and to benefit from the warmth of the sun on their fur.

Used to the company of other cats

We will adopt cats who have previously lived happily with other cats. We will aim to choose 1 or 2 litters of kittens so the transition into living in our Cat Cinema is as smooth as possible, and they will be surrounded by other cats that they know and trust.

Stray and unwanted cats in London number in the thousands. We see the need to help solve this problem.

Our key mission is to be a Forever home for our kittens and to promote Cat adoption in London and across the UK.

We promise to do this do this in a number of ways:

·  Adopting 10 cats from a cat shelter to give them a forever home.

·  Featuring rescue cats who currently need forever homes on our 'Cat Wall' to encourage our customers to adopt.

·  Featuring rescue cats from our partner shelter on our social media platforms and website to encourage our followers to adopt.

·  Hold Cat Welfare workshops, seminars and committee meetings at our venue with industry experts.

·  Raising awareness of Cat Welfare in schools in the London and South-East area through visits and workshops

In addition to our promotion of Cat Welfare in London and the UK, we will also provide ‘cat therapy’ to the groups who need it most.

One afternoon per week and paid for by our profits, we will invite children and adults with:

· mental health issues (depression, anxiety, mood, eating and stress disorders)

· physical, mental and general learning disabilities (autism, Down's syndrome, ADHD, aspergers and others)

· life-threatening or terminal illnesses (cancer patients, heart disease, brain tumours and others)

‘Cat therapy’ benefits these groups in the following ways:

· Increase in serotonin (happiness chemical) and decrease in cortisol levels (stress hormone) is beneficial for those with anxiety and depression

· Helping children with learning difficulties and ADHD by lengthening their ability to interact, improving awareness of surroundings and teaching bonding skills.

· Facilitating the development and socialisation of children with autism by improving their ability to share, make bonds, make eye-contact with others and comfort others when in distress.

· A 1998 study showed that ‘cat therapy’ reduced the anxiety levels of people with psychosis, severe depression and severe mood disorders.

· For those with life-threatening or terminal illnesses, interaction with a cat has been shown to improve happiness and bring a smile to their face which, even just for a moment, is something we would be proud to do. 

We will enforce the following rules to ensure that our cats remain as comfortable as possible:

No disturbing sleeping cats

No picking up cats

No rough playing with our cats

No feeding our cats food from outside

No flash photography

In 2014, we moved to Vietnam for a year to experience a different lifestyle, a new business culture, and to travel.

Whilst travelling Asia, we had plenty of time on our hands to brainstorm all of the possible ventures we could start when back in London. The bigger plan became clear for us after visiting a Cat Cafe in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. 

We immediately fell in love with the idea. So you can rescue animals by providing them with a loving forever home, and at the same time help people benefit from the positive effects of interaction with cats? 

As avid film lovers, it wasn't long before our restless minds came up with the idea of combining the two! We knew that cat cafes were getting increasingly popular in Europe, with 2-month waiting lists to book a table. We were also aware of the popularity of the quirky and unique cinemas popping up in London practically every week.

We knew immediately that combining 3 of Britain's most loved - cats and cinema and a cuppa, is bound to resonate with Londoners, cat-lovers and cinema-goers alike. 

That was it for us. We knew we would not rest until we opened Great Kitten - the World's First Cat Cinema & Cafe in London. We returned to the UK to work on our business plan, marketing plan and social media strategy. We realise that this a learning process and undoubtedly there are many ups and downs in store for us, but we know one thing - if you want something badly enough, there is nothing or nobody that will stop you from reaching your dream - and there is nothing else that we want more than this. We believe we will make it - do you?