The Carreras Cigarette Factory cats stand imposingly outside the entrance of this Egyptianate art deco building (now Greater London House) on Hampstead Road in Camden Town. The decoration of the front of the building—constructed 1926–28—was inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, and the 2.6m (8½ft) bronze cats are stylised versions of the Egyptian god Bastet. The building had been conceived as a “temple” to Bastet, and the architects’ original drawings reveal that it was to be named Bast House, though the name was never used.
