Tiddles

For other uses, see Tiddles (disambiguation).

Tiddles (1970–1983), also known as the Paddington Station cat, was a beloved London cat who lived in the ladies' toilet at Paddington Station. Fans treated him to near-constant gifts of choice meats and fattened him into his famously large physique, recognised by his first place finish in the 1982 London Fat Cat Championship. The ladies room attendants cared for Tiddles, which involved processing his large quantities of international fan mail.

The cat turned the toilet into a tourist destination, with more visitors stopping in for Tiddles than for the loo.[1] He was described as "the Paddington cat who is nearly as famous as Paddington Bear".[2] Upon returning from London, a La Crosse Tribune reporter wrote that Tiddles was "as much of an attraction as the British Museum and the Tower of London".[1] Upon the cat's death at age 13, a British Rail representative said "he was an institution."[3]

Discovery

On a cold morning in 1970, when Tiddles was a stray of about six weeks, he brushed against the leg of June Watson on the Paddington Station platform, where she had worked as a ladies' room attendant for the past twenty years.[4] Watson took an interest in the small hungry kitten after realizing he was not a rat, and did not object when the kitten followed her downstairs to the toilets and proceeded to move in. She named him Tiddles.[5][6][7][8][9][10]

Word quickly spread of "Paddington Cat" among women, who doted on Tiddles and drew parallels with the fictional Paddington Bear, who arrived at the station with a note pinned to his coat saying "Please look after me".[1][11]

Lifestyle

Tiddles spent most of his time in the ladies' room, where he snuggled in a large pillow-filled basket made of wicker and lined with brocade (his third bed after outgrowing the previous two). On the tile walls surrounding him, colorful fan mail from hundreds of distant corners of the world was plastered.[1] Tiddles took nibbles of his cat grass, which was grown in pots near the cloakroom area. Other times, he strolled through the stalls. Tiddles was known to resist visitors' touch until they presented him choice cuts of meat, at which point he happily sprawled out on his back.[12] Watson one time tried taking Tiddles home with her, but the cat much preferred Paddington Station, where he sometimes strolled the platform before crowds arrived. She reported that he would meet her at the entrance, but never venture further. "He doesn’t leave the station. He doesn’t like the traffic," she explained.

Watson printed a sign and displayed it next to Tiddles to help tourists:

I’m a boy. My name is Tiddles.

I was 10 years old in October, 1980
I live down here in the ladies’ loo. My weight is 28 lbs.
I can walk, run, and jump when I feel like it
I eat rabbit, kidney, cod, steak, and chicken.

I go upstairs early in the morning for a walk on the platform.

Obesity

Watson set out saucers to collect coins from visitors who wished to support the cat's care, and a large portion of guests contributed. The generosity went further, with fans frequently bringing food for Tiddles.

The cat adjusted to near-constant meat offerings from doting fans, and his taste preferences evolved toward a diet of delicacies: chicken liver, kidneys, rabbit, and steak, always in fresh and high-quality cuts.[6][13][14] "He won’t even smell canned cat foods, dry mixes or even expensive canned salmon" said June Watson. Tiddles was given a personal refrigerator in the Paddington Station to chill his meats and milk (though fans often brought food for him as well).[5][15] Tiddles' veterinarian eventually prohibited his favorite food of raw liver due to blood pressure concerns, but his obesity and health conditions nonetheless continued to worsen.[1] Weight loss attempts repeatedly failed, as fans continued to overfeed him.

The obese cat was far from "tiddly", making his name ironic.[7][9][16]

By 1982, Tiddles won the title of London Fat Cat Champion, weighing in at 30 pounds (14 kg).[6][17] The high-calorie gourmet handouts had "blown Tiddles from being a waif kitten into a mighty moggy".[18] Due to his shocking size, he was filmed by a Canadian camera crew, featured in foreign magazines,[7] and painted by Frances Broomfield in 1993.[19] Though likely the most famous fat cat in Britain, the fattest was a feline named Poppa in Newport, Wales, who won the 1984 Guinness World Record.[1]

Fans and festivities

A La Crosse Tribune reporter who traveled to London said he was "as much of an attraction as the British Museum and the Tower of London".[1] He was "a London tourist attraction in his own right," per Londonist.[20] A writer for The Age in Melbourne called Paddington Station's ladies room the "loo of all loos".[21]

The cat was flooded with festive offerings around Christmas, and even had his own Christmas tree,[10][1] The toilet attendants decorated with Union Jacks and decor or Charles and Diana to celebrate the Royal Wedding in 1981. Tiddles' corner of the ladies' room had appeared similarly festive for the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, and tabloids joked that Tiddles' interest in the royals may be because the cat, who was surrounded by adoring women and gourmet food, was "something of an aristocrat himself."[22]

Wine parties were held at the ladies' loo to celebrate the anniversary of the cat's adoption into Paddington Station.[23]

Death

By the end of his life, Tiddles weighed 32 pounds (15 kg) and resembled "a beach ball with fur".[17][24][20] He was euthanised in 1983, aged 13, after veterinarians found fluid around his lungs.[13] British Rail said it was saddened by the loss, with a representative saying Tiddles "was an institution".[3]

A decade after Tiddles' death, cats were no longer being kept as permanent vermin patrol in British Rail stations. The practice dates back to the 1840s, when feline patrollers prevented rats from chewing through cables, and cat patrollers were "paid" by the British Rail in food, board and medical treatment.[25] Before being phased out entirely, the number of cats on staff across all stations declined from 2000 in the 1930s to just 200 in 1993.[26][25]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Paddington cat!". The Vancouver Sun. 1981-09-05. p. 109. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
  2. ^ "Purrfect life for a very fat cat". Evening Post. 1980-12-24. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
  3. ^ a b "Death of the ladies' man". South Wales Echo. 1983-12-02. p. 11. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
  4. ^ "Cat-in-residence at the super loo". The Age. 1980-12-05. p. 17. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
  5. ^ a b Sam Stall, 100 Cats who Changed Civilization: History's Most Influential Felines, Philadelphia: Quirk, 2007, ISBN 9781594741630 , pp. 136–37, p. 136.
  6. ^ a b c Anthony Lambert, Lambert's Railway Miscellany, London: Ebert, 2010, ISBN 9780091937713, p. 13.
  7. ^ a b c Gerald L. Wood, Guinness Book of Pet Records, Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives, 1984 /Sterling, 1985, ISBN 9780851122755, pp. 75–76.
  8. ^ "The Paddington Cat", in Philip Wood (ed.), A Passion for Cats, The Cats Protection League, Newton Abbot / North Pomfret, Vermont: David & Charles, 1987, ISBN 9780715389713, p. 92.
  9. ^ a b Michael Zullo, Cat Astrology: The Complete Guide to Feline Horoscopes, rev. ed. Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews McMeel, 2001, ISBN 9780740718687, p. 22.
  10. ^ a b Joan Palmer, All About Cats, London: Ward Lock, 1986, ISBN 9780706362978, pp. 23–24.
  11. ^ Jayne R. Smith, "Innocent Abroad: The English Teacher in England", The English Journal 72.3, March 1983, pp. 80–85, p. 81 (online at JSTOR, subscription required), recommending visiting him when passing through London and giving his weight as 28 lb.
  12. ^ "Paddington cat!". The Vancouver Sun. 1981-09-05. p. 109. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
  13. ^ a b Sarah Hartwell, Overweight and Obese Cats, MessyBeast.com cat resource archive, updated 2011, retrieved 24 September 2012 (with picture).
  14. ^ Amanda O'Neill, Cat Biz: A Compendium of Amazing Facts and Anecdotes from the Cat World, Dorking: Interpet, 2006; Hauppauge, New York: Barron's, 2007, ISBN 9780764134678, p. 88.
  15. ^ "Fat Animals", The Week, 8 September 2010 (with picture).
  16. ^ Adrian Room, The Naming of Animals: An Appellative Reference to Domestic, Work, and Show Animals, Real and Fictional, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1993, ISBN 9780899507958, p. 130.
  17. ^ a b Stall, p. 137.
  18. ^ "Kitty corner". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1983-02-28. p. 43. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
  19. ^ Tiddles, 1993 (oil and tempera on panel), reproduced from a postcard at Patrick Roberts, "Tiddles of Paddington Station, London", Working Felines: Rail Station Cats 2, Purr 'n' Fur, 2009, retrieved 15 December 2015.
  20. ^ a b "Tiddles - The Fat Cat Of Paddington Station". Londonist. 2024-02-06. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
  21. ^ "Cat-in-residence at the super loo". The Age. 1980-12-05. p. 17. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
  22. ^ "Tiddles shows the flag". The Sunday People. 1981-07-26. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
  23. ^ "Party time for loo cat". The Sunday People. 1979-09-09. p. 15. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
  24. ^ "Rising concern over feline obesity", Cat Watch, 1 January 2006 (Online at Highbeam).
  25. ^ a b "British Rail cats facing slack". The Age. 1993-08-26. p. 12. Retrieved 2025-09-23.
  26. ^ "Article clipped from The Sault Star". The Sault Star. 1993-07-27. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-09-23.

Further reading

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