A historical site about early London coffee houses and taverns and will also link to my current pub history site and also the London street directory
Cat and Kittens, Eastcheap
There is, somewhere leading out of Eastcheap, a narrow lane, with the euphonious
name of Cat and Kittens Lane, and in it there was once a public-house called the
Cat and Kittens. Whether it was, in any way, from this tavern that the slang
name for pewter pots emanated, I cannot say, but among a certain class of people
quart pots used to be known as cats, and pints and half-pints as kittens.
References :
Lots of references are made to two sources on the
internet archive
:
Edward Callows, Old London Taverns &
John Timbs, Club life of London Volume 2