Residents’ Journal
The new cattery Image by Battersea Dogs & Cats Home
We’re very proud to be working with Battersea Dogs & Cats Home on this unique project. The scheme design is led by the need to deliver safe, hygienic and high-quality accommodation for the Home’s dogs whilst also helping to raise the Home’s profile in terms of this building’s visibility to passing commuters – Jonathan Clark of Jonathan Clark Architects
Architectural drawings Image by Jonathan Clark Architects
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at the charity, tells me that the animals are all assessed here, both behaviourally and medically. If they come in as strays, they are held in these kennels for seven days to give the owners enough time to claim them. After the week-long period, the animals become Battersea’s property and are prepared for rehoming; they are then moved to the Kent building, which is open to the public. The passage of time has dated Tealby kennels, and despite being state-of-the-art 20 years ago, the design is no longer efficient. Liz McWalter, head of dog intake and assessing, points out the lack of natural light and the fact that the dogs all face each other, their sensitive noses not failing to detect every other canine in the vicinity. ‘It can be a really stressful environment for them to be in,’ she explains. The current design of the Tealby kennels means that drainage is also a problem, evidenced in the number of dogs quarantined in a separate wing with kennel cough – the canine equivalent of a human chest cough and cold. The joint drainage system makes it incredibly difficult for the staff to fight infection; Liz and Louise explain that once one dog has a cough, it is more than likely to spread through the kennels like wildfire. Learning from previous impracticalities, the new kennels will feature individual drainage so that they won’t cross-infect other spaces. The rise in ‘status dogs’ has also highlighted the flaws in the existing kennels’