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In this fascinating and lucid account of exotic animals in nineteenth-century Britain, Helen Cowie shows that they were surprisingly pervasive, to be seen not only in London, but in zoological gardens and travelling menageries all over the country. The two most important static collections of exotic animals of the early nineteenth century were the centuries-old menagerie at the Tower of London and the menagerie on the upper floors of the Exeter Change in the Strand. Most though by no means all of the animals in the Tower were transferred to the infant London Zoo, whilst those from the Exeter Change were moved to the Zoo’s lesser-known rival in south London, he Surrey Zoological Gardens. The latter enterprise, with its landscaped gardens and exotic animals, supplemented with concerts, panoramas and the like, was the model for several similar commercial ventures set up in provincial cities, many of which like the Surrey Zoological Gardens themselves, were short-lived; civic pride, novelty and high admission charges proving inadequate to sustain them.
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