The black cats guarding Greater London House have been removed

THEY stood guard for decades, welcoming workers as they entered the old Carreras cigarette factory in Mornington Crescent.

But the landmark giant Black Cats – a much-loved piece of design gracing an art deco building – have disappeared.

Today (Thursday), the New Journal can reassure readers that the 10-foot-high black moggies are in safe hands.

Inspired by an Egyptian temple and representing the goddess Bastet, the originals dated from the 1920s when the factory was built for the Carreras cigarette firm, a family-run business originally based in the City Road, Islington with a tobacconists shop in Soho.

Called the Camden Arcadia Works, it was built on a communal garden designed for people living in Mornington Crescent.

The cats were forged in bronze by east London based foundry Haskins, and were a key feature of a building inspired by the Egyptology craze that swept the world following Howard Carter’s discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings in 1922.

Architect firm Collins sent designers to the British Museum for inspiration and created a 550-foot long facade with Egyptian designs, including 10 cat faces along the upper floors and soaring columns.

They also added a solar disc at the centre of the facade, representing the Egyptian Sun God Ra – a design tic that has long since disappeared.

A source working on the project told the New Journal: “The cats are so striking and such an integral part of the place. They needed some TLC, so they’ve been taken away to be groomed, if you like, and will return in due course.”

The cats are not the originals.

In 1958, when the Carreras sold up to the South African Rembrandt tobacco firm, the production was moved out to Essex.

One cat was taken to Basildon, while the second was shipped across the Atlantic to Jamaica and placed outside the Carreras factory in Spanish Town.

In 1962, the factory was converted into offices and the Egyptian motifs were seen as old hat, and much was removed.

In 1996, when building firm Resolution GLH took the building on, it commissioned architects to restore it to its former glories.

Drawing on the original designs, the cats reappeared as hollow, fibre glass copies.

But by the start of this year it was decided the two cats had used up all their nine lives – and current owners Lazari Investments had the 10 foot high felines removed from the plinths they have graced since 1998 to be refurbished.