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London and Environs

Tower of London - The Royal Menagerie

At least since the 13th century when Frederick II of Germany sent a present of three leopards to Henry III (1216-72) the Tower has had a Royal Menagerie, although it may have been established as early as King John’s time (1199-1216).

Very soon the leopards were joined by lions and a bear and a document dated 1252 also informs us that the sheriffs of London were required to pay four pence a day and to provide a muzzle and chain for the maintenance of a polar bear which had been trained to catch fish in the Thames.

In 1255 King Louis of France sent Henry III an elephant to add to his collection. People from all over England crowed into the Tower to see it, “a huge animal that was landed to the great astonishment of the people”.

The collection continued to grow, gaining more visitors each year, including international visitors. During Queen Elizabeth I’s time a German visitor wrote of his visit to the Tower Menagerie: “All variety of creatures in the Tower including three lionesses, one lion of great size called Edward VI from his having been born in that reign; a tyger; a lynx; a wolf excessively old; this is a very scare animal in England, so that their sheep and cattle stray about in great number, free from any dangers, though without anybody to keep them; there is besides, a porcupine, and an eagle. All these creatures are kept in a remote place, fitted up for the purpose with wooden lattices at the Queen’s expense.”

Ned Ward, the owner of the King’s Head Tavern, visited the Tower Menagerie and wrote in 1703 of his visit there. Among many side commentaries he said of the animals themselves: “In their separate apartments were four of their stern affrighting catships [lions]….The next ill-favour’d creatures that were presented to our sight were a couple of pretty looking hell-cats, call’d a tiger, and a cat-a-mountain [panther], whose fierce penetrating eyes peirc’d thro’ my belly to the sad gripping of my guts, as if they would have kill’d at a distance with their looks.

In another apartment, or ward, for the conveniency of drawing a penny more out of the pocket of a spectator, are plac’d the following animals: first a leopard, who is grown as cunning as a cross Bedlamite that loves not to be look’d at. The next creatures were three hawk-nosed gentlemen call’d eagles… next to these were a couple of outlandish owls…”

While the animals were loved and well care for and fed by the standards of the day, they were also used for entertainment purposes by some monarchs. James I was nearly pathological in his love of animal baiting and arranged for a special showing in 1604. Unfortunately the animals were perhaps too well looked after and after two lions killed a chicken and ate it the night’s festivities failed miserably. Animal after animal simply refused to be bothered with killing each other. A spaniel was thrown in with a lion at one point and the two became fast friends, actually being allowed to live together “in perfect amity for several years”. Not one to give up, King James I tried other exotic baitings at the Tower, but there are other recorded instances of his plans simply not working out.

One story put round by a keeper told of how on cleaning days a trap door was opened the night before in the lion pens and once the lions had left the doors were closed so the keepers could enter first thing in the morning to clean. One day the trap door to one pen was not closed correctly and the lion reentered its pen during the night. The keeper in the morning, apparently still half asleep, entered the pen before noticing the animal watching him. Too scared to move, he froze: “The sudden surprise of this terrible sight brought me under such dreadful apprehensions of the danger I was in that I stood fix’d like a statue, without the power of motion, with my eyes steadfastly upon the lion, and his likewise upon me.”

The keeper had heard stories of a maid servant’s arm being torn off by the lions, and her subsequent death, and was afraid for his life. He was sure that any movement to leave would encourage the lion to chase and kill him. He continues: “At last he rous’d himself, as I thought to have made a breakfast of me; yet, by the assistance of the Providence, I had the presence of mind to keep steady in my posture. He mov’d towards me without expressing in his countenance either greediness or anger, but on the contrary he wag’d his tail, signifying nothing but friendship in his fawning behaviour. And after he had stared me a little in the face, he rais’d himself upon his two hindmost feet and laying his two paws upon my shoulders without hurting me, fell to licking my face, as a further instance of his gratitude for my feeding him….His tongue was so very rough that with a few favourite kisses he gave me, it made my cheeks almost as raw as a pork grisken, which I was very glad to take in good part! And when he had thus saluted me, and given me his sort of welcome to his den, he return’d to his place and laid him down, doing me no further damage.”

Today the actual location of the Royal Menagerie is pretty much unknown, although we know that Edward I’s Lion Tower was built in the south western corner in 1276-77. It is considered a “great lost institution” because of this. At its height it was an immensely popular tourist attraction with the number of visitors to the site rising dramatically after 1800.

A small industry sprang up around these visits, when gullible from-out-of-town visitors were sold tickets by street hawkers to the, fictional, Annual Washing of the Lions Ceremony supposedly held each year on April 1 (Aprils Fools Day).

In the 1930’s two big cat skulls, a leopard skull, and the skulls of 19 dogs were unearthed in the Tower and have been stored at the Natural History Museum since then. Radiocarbon dating dated the best preserved lion skull to some time between 1280 and 1385, the period when the Lion Tower was first built. The second skull has been dated to some time between 1420 and 1480.

The Royal Menagerie was closed in 1835, on the orders of the Duke of Wellington, and the remaining animals were moved to the Zoological Society’s Gardens in Regent’s Park, now better known as London Zoo.
 

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