Goddards Chingford Kennels & Cattery

Spare but decent, with staff that try hard and keep the place clean.
The kennels are located behind a nondescript vet’s office on the A112 in Walthamstow — keep a sharp eye out, as the building is easy to miss.
This is not a luxury pet hotel, it’s a large kennel facility. The prices are low, and the attached vet’s office is theoretically able to handle emergencies that might happen while the owner is away, although I haven’t personally had to test their abilities. The grounds are nothing spectacular, with a few fenced outdoor areas and a main path upon which some dogs get walked. The facility is noisy, as I believe not all of the dogs get walked daily. Our dog is deaf, so she doesn’t notice.
I’ve had generally good experiences with the staff. Most of the workers are young women who seem to care about the pets with which they’ve been entrusted, but seem to have somewhat uneven experience and handling abilities.
Our dog has gotten generally good treatment there, although despite being small (18 lbs) and elderly (about to be 12 years old), she can be cranky, and not every employee has been able to handle her as a result. Still, the kennels she’s been put in have been sizable and kept reasonably clean, and she’s been in better shape at the end of her stays here than at other facilities.
Bottom line: if you want your dog or cat to be pampered and get lots of personal attention, this is not the facility for you. But if your pet can’t be kept with others (like ours) and you need a place that will house and care for her without costing a fortune, you could do much worse than these kennels.

I have to say I found this a very strange place. Kennels facilities and set up, particularly with vets right on site, seemed promising and staff seemed excellent on phone and email but in person the staff in reception were off-​hand in the extreme and in dire need of some customer service skills. They barely looked up when customers entered, no small talk, barely even any eye contact, really unfriendly atmosphere but chatting to each other about who was going on lunch break etc. on collecting my dog afterwards no-​one in reception gave any indication they knew who my dog was or how he had been or showed the slightest interest. I have no reason to think my dog wasn’t given good care but my dog has been very nervous and anxious about confined spaces ever since and we won’t be going back. I have been to other kennels before and had no issues at all

Maybe it was just our visit or maybe it was just our cat but it wasn’t a great experience. First off, the staff were friendly, I will say that. But as our usual cattery was completely booked (and we did leave it to the last minute to decide to take a trip) we needed a place to leave him for a few days. The pens were not very clean and as it was one of those odd warm weekends when we visited, it was quite hot in the cattery. When we picked our cat up, he wasn’t the same for a few days. In fact, he was really needy. Wanted to stay on our laps and he’s usually really independent. Again, it may have just been our cat but we won’t be dropping him off here again.