History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Do you remember Arthur the white cat, who appeared in a series of clever adverts for Kattomeat? This is an odd story from the late 1960s which involves the Russian Embassy in London and West Hampstead. In February 1968, 25-year old Irish actor Toneye Manning had a legal dispute with the pet food company Spillers over the ownership of Arthur. Manning, who was living in a bedsit in Sylvester Road East Finchley, issued a writ against Spillers for the return of, ‘one white cat, Arthur’.  Spillers did not have time to enter a defence and the court agreed Arthur should be returned to Toneye. He went with a bailiff to collect Arthur from Sonja Colville’s cattery at Horndon-on-the Hill in Essex. But Spillers subsequently contested the verdict, and the case went to the High Court on 20 February. The judge ordered Manning to return Arthur to Spillers who said they had legally bought the cat from Manning. But he refused, saying he had gone to the Russian Embassy and they had offered Arthur ‘p...