The establishment of a zoo was a major advance, for at last people could see wild life in the raw. Founded by the Zoological Society of London in grounds laid out by the architect Decimus Burton, the Regent's Park Zoo opened its doors to the public in 1828. Early visitors were confronted for the first time with exotic bears, kan¬garoos, zebras, llamas and an ostrich. It seems odd to us today that the public were encouraged to feed them: there was a stall selling cakes, fruits and nuts for people to give to the animals. In the first six months after the zoo opened, it had 30,000 visitors.

The walks and promenades soon became a parade for fashionable London, and the zoo was familiarly known as 'the most delightful lounge in the metropolis'. Animal care being in its infancy, there were often unfortunate confrontations between beasts and humans: ladies who thoughtlessly poked their parasols through the bars of the monkey cage found their veils and dresses ripped and gashed by paws thrust back at them. On hot Bank Holidays the stench from the many cages could be overwhelming. In 1840, a kangaroo escaped, causing havoc as it hopped energetically amongst the throngs of panicking visitors - see the Victorian engraved illustration of a kangaroo below and in the 'Animals and Birds' category on this website.

The zoo had Indian elephants from the very beginning. It was one old woman's job to sell buns and cakes to feed them. The zoo resisted appeals that the elephant keepers should wear exotic Asian costume to add to the spectacle, but the elephants were permitted to give rides to children, who clambered excitedly up specially-built staircases and clung precariously to the howdah, which was filled to bursting (there is a picture of this in the selection offered on this website). In early days the money for the rides went to the keeper in the form of tips. One favourite of the London public, Jumbo, who was at the zoo during the 1870s and 80s, earned a creditable £600 a year for his labours.

There was always a conflict between education and entertainment – the Victorians were particularly fascinated by the exotic and freakish - and the authorities had to battle to maintain the zoo's prime function, which was an educational institution.
Advertising for zoos at the time was often little more than a succession of fairground-style hyperbole: 'Our ele¬phant runs faster than a racehorse, is able to drink forty buckets of water a day or the same quantity of beer, and if fed on bread alone his daily intake would be enough for a working man for two years', ran one example. The animals quickly caught the public imagination and were often caricatured in Punch and in music-hall songs. One refrain by The Great Vance went: 'Walking in the zoo is the OK thing to do.'

Courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection

Click here to see an illustration of children riding on an elephant at the zoo

Victorian engraving of a kangaroo

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