Neighbourhood Penang, Malaysia
Cats in George Town
A shophouse city with the best street art in Southeast Asia, a project that painted a hundred and one lost kittens onto its walls to get real ones adopted, and the real ones asleep in the doorways underneath.
Where to find cats in George Town: The old town of George Town, Penang, around Armenian Street, Cannon Street and the clan houses. When: Morning, before the heat and the tour groups, or the evening. The murals are best in soft light. Why here: The one city that used its cats as street art to get its strays adopted, and it worked.
The short version
- Where
- The old town of George Town, Penang, around Armenian Street, Cannon Street and the clan houses
- When
- Morning, before the heat and the tour groups, or the evening. The murals are best in soft light
- How long
- Half a day for the murals and the cats. A day with the mansion and the jetties
- What it costs
- The streets are free. The Blue Mansion tour is a ticket. The hawker food is the reason to stay
- Why here
- The one city that used its cats as street art to get its strays adopted, and it worked
What to bring
- Early morningArmenian Street is a queue by ten. At eight it is a lane with cats in it and paint on the walls.
- Shoes for shophouse five-foot waysThe covered walkways are uneven, stepped, and the cats sleep in them.
- A list of the kittensThe 101 Lost Kittens are murals, sculptures and stuffed-toy installations scattered around Armenian Street. Finding them is the walk.
- Small ringgitFor the hawker stalls, the trishaw if you weaken, and the clan house entry.
Why there are cats everywhere
In 2013 three artists painted a hundred and one lost kittens onto George Town鈥檚 walls to get the real ones a home.
George Town is a colonial port of Chinese shophouses, clan houses, mosques, temples and a UNESCO listing, and since 2012 it has been a city of street art: a Lithuanian artist painted children on bicycles onto a wall on Armenian Street and the town has not stopped since. The cats came the year after. Artists for Stray Animals, three of them, from Thailand and Malaysia, began the 101 Lost Kittens project: murals, sculptures and installations of cats around Armenian Street, one hundred and one of them planned, to make people think about the strays and adopt one.
The best known is Skippy, a giant cat painted on a wall at Armenian Street Ghaut, a real cat with a deformed leg who was rescued, adopted and now lives on Langkawi. Others are cats on doors, cats in alcoves, and, in one case, stuffed toys in a cage. Finding them is what people come for, and it sends them down every lane in the old town, which is the point.
The real cats are in the same lanes. George Town is a Straits port, and its cats are the port鈥檚: in the five-foot ways of the shophouses, in the courtyards of the clan houses, at the Blue Mansion, where one has become a fixture on the tours, and at the hawker stalls, where they are fed. Someone on Armenian Street put up a hand-painted sign asking cars to slow down for them. It is that kind of street.
The walk
From the Blue Mansion through the old town to Armenian Street, the murals and the clan house, and down to the Ghaut and the water. Three hours, with the hawker stalls as the halfway.
- From Penang airportBus 401E or a Grab to the old town45 minThe bus runs to Komtar and the jetty. A Grab is cheap and direct.
- From Butterworth, on the mainlandFerry to George Town15 minThe classic way in, and the way the trains arrive.
- From KomtarWalk east into the old town15 minThe tall tower is the landmark. Everything on this page is downhill from it.
The Blue Mansion
The indigo Chinese mansion on Leith Street, restored, with tours and a resident cat who has decided the tours are for him. Start here and walk south into the old town.
The mansion cat. He does the tours.Jacklee, CC BY-SA 4.0 Armenian Street
The street of the murals: the children on the bicycle, the cats of the 101 project in doorways and alcoves, and the sign asking drivers to slow down. Cats in the five-foot ways of the shophouses along it. Early, or it is a queue.
Under the painted ones, a real one.Alexey Komarov, CC BY-SA 4.0 Khoo Kongsi
Through the gate off Cannon Street into the courtyard of the grandest clan house in the town. Ticket at the gate. Cats in the courtyard, and carved dragons on everything.
The old town. Shophouses, five-foot ways, and something asleep in each.cat_collector, CC BY 2.0 Armenian Street Ghaut and Skippy
Down to the water end of the street, where the giant cat mural is: Skippy, painted on a wall, rescued in real life. The clan jetties are beyond, on stilts over the harbour, with their own cats.
Real, not painted. Both kinds count here.Jacklee, CC BY-SA 4.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Straits port cats, lean, short-coated, often with the kinked tail of Southeast Asia, in the five-foot ways of the shophouses and the courtyards of the clan houses. Fed by the hawker stalls and the shops, and used to a street where drivers are asked to slow down for them.
Five-foot-way cats
Asleep in the covered walkways.
The shophouse cats. Step round.
The mansion cat
On the tours at Cheong Fatt Tze.
A fixture. Ask the guide.
Painted cats
On walls, doors and in cages.
The 101. Not all painted; some are sculpture and one is stuffed toys.
Everybody says The cats are just street art.
Actually The street art is about the cats. The 101 Lost Kittens project exists to get the real strays adopted, and Skippy, the giant one, was a real cat who was. Look under the murals; the subjects are usually asleep there.
How not to be the annoying one
- The five-foot ways are people鈥檚 shopfronts. Step round the cat; do not block the shop.
- Feed at a hawker stall by buying something. The stalls feed the cats.
- Do not lean on the murals for a photo. They are paint on old plaster and they are wearing away.
- The sign on Armenian Street means it. Slow down.
- If you want a cat, ask at the stalls. The project was about adoption and there are still cats who need it.
