Neighbourhood Singapore, Singapore
Cats in Kampong Glam and the community cats
A city that counts, sterilises and registers its street cats block by block, calls them community cats, and put a bronze one on the river. Where to meet them anyway: the shophouse lanes around the Sultan Mosque, and the void decks of any housing estate.
Where to find cats in Kampong Glam and the community cats: Kampong Glam, the old Malay and Arab quarter around the Sultan Mosque, Arab Street and Haji Lane, and the housing estates everywhere else in Singapore. When: Early morning or after dark; the middle of the day is too hot for anyone. Any month; it is always the same month. Why here: The most managed street cat population in the world, and where it lives.
The short version
- Where
- Kampong Glam, the old Malay and Arab quarter around the Sultan Mosque, Arab Street and Haji Lane, and the housing estates everywhere else in Singapore
- When
- Early morning or after dark; the middle of the day is too hot for anyone. Any month; it is always the same month
- How long
- Two hours for Kampong Glam. An evening for a housing estate’s void decks
- What it costs
- Free. The Cat Welfare Society takes donations and needs them
- Why here
- The most managed street cat population in the world, and where it lives
What to bring
- Seven in the morning or seven at nightSingapore’s cats are under the void decks and in the drains through the heat. They come out when it drops.
- Something for the Cat Welfare SocietyFounded in 1999, it runs the sterilisation and feeder network that keeps the community cats in the state they are in.
- A housing estate on your listThe cats of Kampong Glam are the visible ones. The population lives in the HDB estates, in the void decks under the blocks.
- Nothing for the catsFeeding is by registered volunteers, on a schedule, and littering fines are real. Leave it to them.
Why there are cats everywhere
Singapore does not have stray cats. It has community cats, with a programme, a register and a society, and it is not a euphemism.
The city-state manages everything, and its cats are no exception. Since the nineteen-nineties the street population has been sterilised under a national programme, fed by registered volunteers at fixed points, and looked after by the Cat Welfare Society, which mediates between cats, residents and the housing authority. The cats live under the housing blocks, in the void decks, the open ground floors of the estates where most Singaporeans live, and in the monsoon drains, which are cool, and they are ear-tipped, healthy and, by the standards of this site, remarkably well organised.
The city even has a breed. The Singapura, the smallest pedigree cat in the world, was promoted in the nineties as the Kucinta, the love cat, from the Malay words for cat and love, and bronze Kucintas sit on the river wall by Cavenagh Bridge. The pedigree is disputed and the street cats it was supposedly bred from, the drain cats, are the real thing: small, ticked, with the bobbed tails of Southeast Asia, looking up at you from the gratings.
Kampong Glam is where visitors meet them. The old Malay and Arab quarter around the golden-domed Sultan Mosque has shophouses on Arab Street, murals and bars on Haji Lane, and cats on the five-foot ways, fed by the shopkeepers. In 2024 the housing authority finally lifted its decades-old ban on cats in flats, and the community cats have a route indoors for the first time. The programme, and the society, are the reason it worked.
The walk
The Sultan Mosque and the lanes of Kampong Glam in the morning, then the river for the bronze Kucintas, then, in the evening, any housing estate for the real population.
- From Changi airportMRT to Bugis45 minChange at Tanah Merah or Expo. Bugis is a five-minute walk from the mosque.
- From Anywhere on the MRTTo Bugis or Nicoll Highway15 minKampong Glam sits between the two.
- From Kampong GlamWalk to the river20 minDown North Bridge Road to the Fullerton and Cavenagh Bridge.
The Sultan Mosque
The golden dome at the heart of the quarter, with Bussorah Street’s palms and shophouses leading to it. Cats on the five-foot ways of the shophouses. Modest dress and shoes off if you go in.
A Kampong Glam ginger, looking up at the dome, or at you.williamcho, CC BY-SA 2.0 Arab Street and Haji Lane
The textile shops of Arab Street and the murals and bars of Haji Lane, a block apart. Cats in the shop doorways and on the back lanes behind the bars, fed by the kitchens.
A tortoiseshell with the local bobbed tail, on a back lane.René Modery, CC BY-SA 2.0 Cavenagh Bridge and the Kucintas
Down to the river and the oldest bridge across it, by the Fullerton, where the bronze Kucinta cats sit on the wall. The real ones are around the quay in the evening, near the restaurants.
Adopt me, said the sign. Since 2024, a flat is allowed to say yes.fechi fajardo, CC BY 2.0 A housing estate, any of them
Take the MRT to any residential stop, Toa Payoh, Tiong Bahru, Bedok, and walk the void decks under the blocks at dusk. The community cats are here, at the feeding points, with their volunteers.
Under a block, at dusk. The population, as opposed to the postcard.Wahj, CC BY 2.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Community cats: small, short-coated, ticked tabby and tortoiseshell and ginger, with the bobbed and kinked tails of the region, sterilised, ear-tipped, fed at fixed points, and comfortable under the blocks. Sociable at the feeding points, wary in the drains, and since 2024, adoptable into flats.
Void deck cats
Under the housing blocks at dusk.
The population. Fed by registered volunteers.
Drain cats
Looking up through the gratings.
The originals. Cool in the heat, and the Singapura’s supposed ancestors.
Shophouse cats
On the five-foot ways of Kampong Glam.
The visible ones. Fed by the shops.
Everybody says Singapore has no street cats because the government removes them.
Actually It has tens of thousands, sterilised and fed under a national programme and represented by a society since 1999. The government manages rather than removes, and in 2024 it let them into the flats. It is the most organised cat system in the world, and it works.
How not to be the annoying one
- Do not feed. Registered volunteers do, on a schedule, and littering fines apply to cat food.
- The mosque asks for covered arms and legs and shoes off. Cats are exempt.
- Void decks are residents’ shared space. Walk through; do not linger with a camera.
- Give to the Cat Welfare Society. It is the system.
- If you fall in love, the society rehomes. Since 2024, even into an HDB flat.
