The Royal Menagerie

Michael Montagu looks back at the animals once housed in the Tower of London

- Michael Montagu

It is almost 200 years since the Zoological Society of London opened its animal collection in Regent's Park. There was a zoo before that, actually a menagerie, in a very surprising place, the Tower of London, begun by King John in the very early years of the 13th century.

Collecting rare and exotic creatures has a long history, when they were often given as diplomatic gifts to reigning monarchs. We know that at the old royal manor of Woodstock near Oxford (now home to Blenheim Palace), King Henry I had a wall seven miles long built in 1110, to contain his animals, which included camels, porcupines and lions.

Lions first appeared at the Tower of London in February 1235, a gift to King Henry III from his brother-in-law Emperor Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire. They were living representatives of the three lions that were then the royal coat of arms. A gift of a polar bear arrived in 1252, presented by Haakon IV of Norway to our King Henry III. It arrived with its own keeper.

The menagerie wasn't open to the public then, but Londoners were able to get a glimpse of the bear because it was allowed to swim in the River Thames, to catch its own fish. It was fitted with a collar and a "stout cord", to stop it from going its own way. When not in the river, the poor thing was kept muzzled and chained. Ideas of animal welfare were very different to our own.