Cat Webb: author, lighting engineer, repair café fixer
Everyone has a story. Cat Webb – author, lighting engineer, repair café fixer – talks about their Islington life. Interview by Nicola Baird
Catt Webb posing for Claire North (their pseudonym) publicity shots. Photo by Gareth Webb
They may have just moved to Kennington, but Cat Webb, 40, has a very close connection to Islington. For starters they were born and raised in Newington Green.
FOLLOW ISLINGTON FACES a new interview is published regularly.
“Home was 200 metres on to the Hackney side. We always called the Hackney side ‘Islington Borders’, but no one called the Islington side ‘Hackney Borders’! My life was the 73 from the bus stop at Newington Green heading south into Islington for my entire childhood. Then I went to university at LSE, stayed in a hall residence on Rosemary Avenue for the first year and I kind of bimbled around a bit on Cally Road in the second year, then stayed on Caledonian Road in my first flat. I was there for a number of years and then in 2013 I went down to Bunhill at the end of 2025,” explains Cat.
After months of refurbishment Cat is settling into their new south London space, but isn’t ready to give up on Islington visits. For starters a lot of their work is off Upper Street and as Cat jokes: “My mum is still in Newington Green, I’ve not lost my passport quite yet.”
Cat Webb, repair café volunteer and lighting technician, helping fix sewing machines at Islington’s repair cafe in January 2026 has strong opinion about the way: “Musicians can’t help but integrate and engage with the sound engineer, but lighting engineers, we tend to be little anonymous shadows wearing a beanie hat.” Similarly at a repair cafe the fixer and someone who is hopeful that they may get items fixed stay very close to each other. (c) Nicola Baird for Islington Faces
We’re talking over Zoom after meeting at the first Repair Café of 2026 in Caledonian Park. Cat, wrapped up in a thick grey scarf and woolly jumper, has many talents. They wrote and published their first fantasy novel, Mirror Dreams, aged just 14, and are still a prolific author publishing under the names Kate Griffin and Claire North. They are also ace at mending things, but often freelance as a lighting engineer around Islington.
Cat explains that, “at a repair cafe volunteers fix your small electronics and when it’s available there is also clothes repair, where fixers will attempt to patch and salvage your garments. The fixers aren’t necessarily trained, we sort of learn on the job, but usually most of us come in with some skills that are relevant. My skill is that I am a lighting engineer for live music, so I mostly try to fix lights. But over the years you start picking up how to fix toasters and appliances with motors like coffee grinders and sewing machines. I try to prioritise doing repair cafes as I think it’s important to use the skills I’ve got as best I can. But obviously gigs often happen on Saturdays, so it’s a juggle.”
Islington’s repair cafes were set up in 2023 by Islington Climate Centre and Islington Council – Cat namechecks Pawel Ryczan, Belle Jacobs and Caroline Royds (Caz) as key in getting them going. “Islington Council is quite good at advertising it, so if you look at the website they tend to have ads, and there is a website called Restart. It’s a political movement as well as a local one that covers all the repair cafes,” they add.
===
Cat Webb, writer, repair café volunteer and lighting technician is a big fan of Exmouth Market and Islington’s music venues: “I recommend gigs at the Union Chapel and Islington Assembly Hall as there’s real fun stuff coming up.” (c) NB for Islington Faces
Places Cat Webb loves in Islington
They are mostly in South Islington because I spent over 10 years in Bunhill.
I love Exmouth Market, EC1. It’s a nice place to have a cuppa. And there’s this beautiful burble you get in spring evenings of people just hanging out.
I love Regent’s Canal which I grant you fairly quickly turns into Hackney, but let’s ignore that. Whenever I went for a run it was just a gift to be able to run alongside water.
On a similar vibe I love the New River Walk which I’ve done quite a lot when going to see my mum up at Newington Green. This little sliver of nature snaking between the roads, heading from north to south is just a lovely gift.
I am a writer and a nerd, so I love a library and my favourite of all the Islington libraries I’ve been to is Finsbury Library, 245 St John Street (open Monday – Saturday) because it’s just big and bright and it’s got a really good collection of books. It’s a nice place to work and I also like the sound it makes on that tin roof when it rains. I’m a writer and if I’ve got to research something for a book, I will happily sit in the library for a morning in a comfy chair doing some research.
I have a weird fondness for Ironmonger Row Baths, 1 Norman Street, EC1. As a kid, I was sent to swimming lessons there and it was the worst place in the world. It was traumatic, it had the sodium lights that barely illuminated anything, it felt like a thousand metres deep and all you could see was darkness waiting to swallow you whole. And then I grew up and came back as an adult and they’d completely refurbished it and suddenly it was nice. There’s quite a lot of community stuff, classes, squash courts and the pool is not terrifying or grim to use anymore! They’ve got the Turkish Bath downstairs, which is pricey, but lovely once a year as a treat.
====
What a London view. One time resident of Bunhill, Cat Webb, writer, repair café volunteer and lighting technician notes that: “Local elections are always an exciting time but have dreadfully low turnout.” (c) CW
Music
Cat gained some practical skills by going to RADA (jokingly known as ‘ra-di-dah’) to study “technical theatre and stage management. Then I worked in theatre for many years. I started off as a casual technician at the National Theatre, but my interest was design. Over time, I realised that theatre design, when it’s good, it’s wonderful. But a lot of the time, it’s toxic and underpaid. And so I moved slowly sideways into just doing live music.”
Most of their music work is now at two of the borough’s most fab venues, Union Chapel and Islington Assembly Hall.
“Initially it was very handy that they were both walkable from my flat in Caledonian Road and then Bunhill. If you’ve done eight hours of Death Metal it’s quite nice to not have to get on the Victoria line, and just walk calmly home letting your mind decompress from the intensity of the work. Also they work for me in terms of the size and a nice range of music. The Union Chapel tends to have a range of folksy stuff and a regular comedy night and the Assembly Hall gigs tend to be quite indie which I really enjoy. They’re also both interesting enough venues that they can sometimes get quite big bands coming through. I did Damon Albarn a few years ago and Magnetic Fields, and at the Union Chapel we’ve had the White Stripes doing more intimate shows. You get a lot of bands who are on the way up as well. They’re 900 cap venues so they’re quite big, but they’re not enormous so they tend to be quite attractive to artists who are rising up through the ranks, have done well and are hoping to go even further,” adds Cat.
“The Union Chapel is also a Grade 1 listed building. It is a beautiful space physically, quite difficult to light. They’re both difficult in different ways, but I feel the privilege of working the space, particularly as a lighting engineer. My job is to make the musicians look good, give the audience the best possible time and to serve the venue.”
===
Catt Webb posing for Claire North (their pseudonym) publicity shots. (c) CW
Writing Life
If you want to explore Cat’s adult fiction then you’ve got two authors to pick between – Claire North and Kate Griffin. “The Kate Griffin books probably have the strongest Islington links,” says Cat. “They’re an urban fantasy series set in London (first book is A Madness of Angels, published 2009). It’s a long time ago now but I wrote a lot of them while living in Caledonian Road.” In a bid to avoid confusion, Cat adds, “there are two Kate Griffins, me and the author of Fyneshade. She’s more active than me with that name.”
It’s clear that Cat has a huge fondness for Islington so if you’re into music, getting stuff fixed or maybe just want a fun urban fantasy book you might well come across them.
Find our more
Repair café dates are on the Islington Climate Centre website https://www.islingtonclimatecentre.co.uk/events/repair-cafe and the Islington Fixers https://therestartproject.org/groups/islington-repair-cafe/ Also see:
Next Repair Cafés are on Saturdays:
* 20 June at the Church on the Corner, Barnsbury Street, N1 0ES from 10.30am to 2.30pm.
* 11 July at Elizabeth House, Hurley Street, N5 1ED from 1.30 to 4.30pm. Booking is advised but drop-ins are possible too. To RSVP see https://www.islingtonclimatecentre.co.uk/events-1Also for info about Cat’s books see here
Over to you
If you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via nicolabaird dot green at gmail dot com. If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola