Before It All Began,,,
Given that Alison and I are both qualified Chartered Accountants, the question we have been asked most over the last 25 years is "What on earth are you doing running a cat shop?"
The answer has always been the same. We wanted to "create our own business" and we have always had a passion for cats.
It was one cold, dark evening in February 2000, over a glass of wine that Alison suddenly said "What About Cats?"
"What do you mean, What About Cats?" I said somewhat bemused. We had been owned by our tabby cats, Geoffrey and Ethel, since 1996 but didn't see how their existence fitted in with my glass of wine.
"As an escape from the rat race!" came the excited reply.
Suddenly, years of tying ourselves up in knots about a "good business idea" fell away as a clear vision entered both our heads. The more we thought about it, the more we became convinced that this was the moment we had been searching for in our lives. The moment where we decided to give up our professional careers to start something that would be our passion. In fact it was already our passion, we just hadn't spotted what was going on. We acquired two rescue cats shortly after getting married in 1996 and we already had a growing collection of cat themed knick-knacks, picked up on holidays and at antique fairs.
We researched the market and identified cat shops in Brighton, Canterbury, Windsor and Bath. Realising that we needed to be in a tourist-oriented destination and having enjoyed previous visits to York, we set about planning a move 200 miles north of our then home in St Albans.
We bought a house near York station in case things didn't work out and we had to get "proper jobs" again in Leeds! Peter found a shop on Low Petergate, where our landlord insisted on a detailed business plan and a huge 12 month rent deposit. We were pretty confident this would work, so we coughed up and opened our doors and our website on 16th July 2001.
From Launch to 2018
Peter distinctly remembers hearing people examining our shop window in July 2001 and loudly saying that a cat shop was a crackers idea and would be gone in a few months.
How wrong they were!
Nine weeks after opening we published our first mail order catalogue. Here's a montage of pages, followed by a bigger version of page 2 where we show our first shop, our cats and say a little about our ethos. The only thing we'd add to the comment about avoiding "cat tat" is that we aim to consistently offer great items at all price ranges. It doesn't matter to us whether you're a seasoned collector of premium Winstanley cats or a small child buying a little holiday souvenir, your happiness and cat-isfaction is equally important to us!
At this point, rather than type reams of words, I'm going to hand over to our You Tube channel to summarise our story in pictures up to 2018.
From Rat Race to Cat Place - a Pictorial History of The Cat Gallery
Our You Tube channel is an interesting place to explore. If you have joined our cat-loving community since 2018, I'd particularly recommend:
The Cat Gallery Channel Trailer
We no longer do a new video every week on You Tube, but you can keep up to date with Alfie, Charlie and more on Facebook and Instagram.
Best of all, sign up for The Cat Gallery Email Newsletter (sign up box at the bottom of every website page). This will keep you up to speed with everything, including Sales and other Special Offers.
The You Tube channel also includes a video elegy I wrote on Ethel’s passing in 2017. The reaction brought home to us just how much people enjoyed seeing and hearing about our cats, mentally adding them to "cats they know".
Rest assured that Charlie and Alfie will continue to feature in our online scribblings.
Overcoming Adversity
We've had our ups and downs over 25 years. Low points include:
9/11: This happened 55 days after we opened. International traffic to York went quiet with zero Americans travelling.
Edinburgh 2004-2007: Buoyed by our initial success in York we thought we'd try a Cat shop in Edinburgh with Dogs upstairs. Despite the valiant efforts of our lovely Manager, Polly, we had to admit defeat after 3 years. We put the shop in the wrong place. Rose Street had the wrong clientele, we needed to be on, or near, The Royal Mile. This episode helped us to focus on our York shop with mail order and online for anyone not local.
National Crises: The 2008 Crash, Brexit and Covid took many good businesses with them. We focused on what we could control and tried hard to deliver great products at fair prices. Thank you for rewarding us with your continued custom.
Giving Back:
The York Cat Hunt
York is now well known for the many cat statues on its City Centre buildings. We have played our part in that, having launched the York Cat Trail (now renamed York Cat Hunt) in February 2011. It has guided thousands of visitors around our beautiful adopted city on a treasure hunt that is as fun for adults as it is for kids - and there's a magical reward for children too!
Charity Fundraising
We have grown into this over time. We experimented with an optional donation box in our mail order catalogue and realised that customers almost expected one to be there. Donations come in all shapes and sizes. What we guarantee is that 100% of any amount donated is passed to our Charities of the Year. No admin fees or credit card fee deductions - we fund all of that ourselves.
Spurred on by the difference we could make, Peter laced up his trainers and began running. Starting with the York 10k in 2009 and progressing onto multiple marathons, including Brighton in 2025 and London in 2026. In total, over £115,000 has been raised for cat charities in just the last 5 years. Beneficiaries in recent years have included Cat Chat, International Cat Care and Cats Protection.
Our 25th Anniversary
Having launched a hugely popular collection of Lucky Cats in 2023, we thought it would be a nice idea to create a special silver and enamel version as our "Anniversary Year Cat". It is skilfully crafted in sterling silver and enamel by top Italian silversmiths, Saturno.
It's quite a coincidence, and we hadn't remembered this until we started putting this blog post together, but Saturno silver and enamel cats actually featured in our first mail order catalogue. You can see them above - bottom right of the spread that is in the bottom right quadrant.
The Next 25 Years
Peter says:
"The Cat Gallery will continue to serve the needs (and desires!) of cat lovers both now and in the future. Whilst Alison and myself might not manage all of the next 25 years, we have a fabulous young team, who most definitely could!
Without customers we would be nothing, so thank you very much for sticking with us during our first quarter century."
Alison & Peter, Alfie & Charlie