Wednesday Picture: who painted Saltoun Road’s
street art Hitler cat?

Today’s Wednesday Picture solves one half of a local mystery – but leaves a big question about the other half. Maybe one of you will know the answer?

Regulars to the back-streets of central Brixton may recognise this unusual piece of street art on the corner of Rattray and Saltoun Roads in SW2. Stencilled onto a British Telecom junction box before Christmas it depicts a cat – one that unmistakably looks like Hitler.

The monochrome masterpiece has intrigued many locals: is this moggy’s passing resemblance to one of the world’s most murderous despots deliberate – and, if so, what does it mean? Is it an unusual piece of political symbolism (erm, you want to stroke it but you should fear it?) Or perhaps it is a romantic coded message from a love-sick regular at the nearby Effra pub to a moustachioed crush – who he or she yearns, ahem, to pet? Or is it just meant to be a wryly amusing and aesthetically pleasing piece of feline-friendly street art? Either way: who painted it – and why right here?

Well, we have discovered at least half of the story behind the intriguing stencil. Devan Brodie, a hairdresser, is a long-standing local who has lived a few doors from the stencil on Saltoun Road for more than a decade. And the enigmatic artwork is quite simply, he says, a portrait of his cat Albert. You can see the resemblance for yourselves, below, but even Brodie doesn’t know who painted it. So how can Albert’s owner be so sure it isn’t just coincidence?

Aside from the striking similarity (see below), Brodie says he is convinced it is Albert’s portrait because the stencil’s appearance coincided with his cat’s disappearance from the area, where he had previously been a prominent street presence. “Everyone knew Albert. He’s a very personable cat,” Brodie explains. “The cat-flap leads into our garden – but Albert prefers to climb over several fences and walk all the way around the corner of Rattray Road to hang about on the street instead. He always knew he’d get more love there.” Brodie describes how Albert would carefully position himself on ledges and walls to give himself maximum exposure to passers-by who might lavish affection on him. “He would even follow people down the street, and we’d often look out of the window to see Albert rolling around on the ground with some complete stranger rubbing his belly. He was a very social cat, and quite a character.”

Albert’s distinctive looks also made him, briefly, a viral celebrity when someone posted a snapped photo of Albert on the comedy website, Cats That Look Like Hitler, and he topped the “most popular ‘Kitler’” chart.

But it wasn’t until Albert was run over and nearly died towards the end of last year that Brodie realised quite how well-loved his cat was. A passer-by had found Albert lying in the road, seriously injured, and taken him straight to Brockwell Veterinary Surgery, nearby. Brodie got a call from them saying Albert immediately needed to go to the intensive care unit at the animal hospital in Hertfordshire to have any chance of survival. So he raced home from work to take Albert there: miraculously – after two weeks of hospital treatment, and a couple of metal bars and wiring to help mend Albert’s broken jaw, which had been split clean down the middle – the cat was allowed home for a long recuperation, during which he would not be allowed outside for nearly six months.

And this is when the stencil appeared. Six weeks after the accident, in mid-December last year, with Albert healing indoors and off his usual street patch, Brodie had already answered the door to several passers-by asking, “Where is the cat that lives here? We miss him!” And a complete stranger, who’d found photos of Albert on Flickr posted by a friend of Brodie’s, got in touch to ask after the cat, saying “Albert was a friend of mine.” People would also stop Brodie in the street asking after his cat. But this time Brodie answered the door to his neighbour: “Do you know there’s a painting of your cat around the corner?” he said. Brodie dashed around the corner in his slippers and was amazed to see his distinctively moustachioed cat staring back at him. He took a photo and went back in doors to get out a magnifying glass and compare the positions of all Albert’s markings to those in the painting. “I was so shocked to see it,” says Brodie. “But it’s definitely him.”

Albert is nearly mended now, and due to venture back into the outside world again in a few weeks. “We think he’ll approve,” says Brodie. “He’s a very vain cat – and who wouldn’t like to have their portrait painted?”

“Whoever painted him must live locally and have got to know Albert,” he says. “We’d love to know who it was.” But maybe someone out there does. Let us know if it’s you…

Words and main image: Kate Burt; all other images: Angel Descuidado