Black Cat tobacco factory
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this from the top of a bus. I had to blink hard, rub my eyes, and look again – and even then I thought I was hallucinating.
The Black Cat cigarette factory was built here in 1928 – just after Tutankhamun’s tomb had been discovered, and in the middle of a fad for all things Egyptian. It’s a marvellous, Egyptian-influenced façade, but it’s also one of the first applications of pre-stressed concrete to an industrial building in London – hence the huge windows that make the façade so dramatic.
The two huge cats that flank the entrance are modelled on the Egyptian goddess Bast. They’re actually replicas – the originals, cast in bronze, were transferred to other tobacco factories in the 1950s. One of them is now sunning herself in Jamaica, lucky girl. Look up, and you’ll see little black cats’ heads in roundels between the large windows and the attic storey.
Black Cat Factory, Mornington Crescent, NW1
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