Traces and Representations: Animal Pasts in London's Present

Abstract

Although non-human animals have long been recognized as inhabitants of the metropolis, there have been few academic studies of their historical existence. However, visible glimpses of the past lives of animals and their relationships with humans in the landscape still exist across London today. Their presence led to the formation of the metropolis itself, both in the creation of distinctive environments for particular trades or sites of spectacle, and later in their representation in various ways in the public and heritage landscape. From the late nineteenth century, there were public sites in which dead animals could be mourned, and in which they could be commemorated in a positive light as individual beings. During the twentieth century, an animal past was more likely to be seen within the construct of heritage rather than as recognition of a former animal presence. Different forms of representation were developed: for example, generic animals represented people who had campaigned for animal welfare. After World War I, the role of animals in warfare was recognized in the landscape. More recently, named individual animals have created interest in dead national or local figures. This important part of London's past needs to be acknowledged and analysed.

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