TOWER OF LONDON
WAS ONCE A ZOO
G'day folks,
In the 13th century, the Tower of London
earned a new profile as King John started collecting exotic animals from
all around the world and created the royal menagerie.
Ever since, kings
and queens have held all the animals that they received as gifts from
other monarchs at the Tower, and the place became an attraction where
Londoners could see polar bears and captive lions, to name a few. The
zoo remained active until the 1830s, and all the inhabitants were
subsequently moved to the London Zoo.
To remember the castle's legacy as the royal zoo, artist Kendra Haste
created a sculpture of three lions to be displayed at the Tower of
London. The sculpture is a nod to an archeological discovery made in
1936, during which 2 lion skulls from the Middle ages were found in the
moat of the fortress. These were not ordinary lions either, but a
variety of Barbary lions that have been extinct for over a century.
Clancy's comment: The Tower of London appears to have had a multitude of uses.
I'm ...
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