Cat trapped in St Paul’s Cathedral basement rescued by RSPCA

A cat which fell 15 feet down a shaft at St Paul’s Cathedral and got stuck in the basement for more than four hours has been rescued by the RSPCA.

The grey Burmese female, named Paula by staff at the RSPCA Finsbury Park Animal Hospital because of where she was found, was covered in fleas and had a grazed chin, but was otherwise “unscathed”.

A teenager found the cat trapped in a dark basement inside the Grade I listed building, after playing in the churchyard.

She told RSPCA officers she had seen Paula, who also has hair loss, quickly running before “(vanishing) underneath a slab of concrete”.

Sidonie Smith, an animal rescue officer at the RSCPA, took a torch and a carrier before entering the 349-year-old cathedral’s basement, which had not been used for 25 years.

She said: “We were called by a young teenager who was playing in the churchyard after school and she’d seen the cat run off and vanish underneath a slab of concrete.

“She was very upset, but she was able to give me a W3W (What 3 Words) geotrack location of the point where the cat had disappeared and I went to it.”

“When I spoke to security about gaining access it turned out it was an opening down to an old storage basement that apparently no-one has used a key to get down to for 25 years.”

She walked down a steep and narrow staircase in complete darkness before entering a chamber which led to several corridors, to find the cat, which was covered in fleas.

“Fortunately, the cat had fallen on to a bed of leaves and she was largely unscathed. She’d shot through the gap above and dropped down into the basement,” she said.

“She was very nervous and frightened, no doubt through the shock of falling from height, and I had to grasp hold of her.

“I leaned on the chute to reach up to the spot where she landed. She was covered in fleas and she had a slight graze on her chin, but, happily, nothing was broken and she was able to move around.”

The RSPCA contacted Paula’s registered owner who claimed to have sold the cat four years before, and have now put “found” posters around St Paul’s in hope of finding her owner.

The grey-haired cat was treated at RSPCA Finsbury Park Animal Hospital before being moved to the RSPCA Leybourne Animal Centre near West Malling in Kent.