History of Animals at the Tower of London by Scarlett Brock, Newstead Wood School

The menagerie was home to wild and exotic creatures never seen in London before by the people that visited. The first of the animals to arrive were a trio of leopards gifted to King Henry III by Roman Emperor Frederick II. These leopards are supposedly a reference to the three lions that were on the King’s coat of arms and are now used as a football symbol for England. From this point onwards, the menagerie only grew and started housing even more creatures that are bizarre to imagine in the Tower such as a zebra, an ape and even a polar bear. However, the polar bear did not spend all its time in the Tower itself. Gifted by the King of Norway, the polar bear was often allowed to swim and hunt for fish in the river Thames while attached to a long chain. 

A large variety of new enclosures were built to house all these new animals. This included; a Lion Tower built under the rule of Edward I and an Elephant house which had its own keeper. At one point during the 19th century, the Tower of London housed over 300 animals in total, this unsurprising led to there not being enough space to ethically house them all. For this reason, in 1835 all the animals were removed from the Tower, and most were given to what is now London Zoo. Luckily, the animal’s memory lives on at the Tower with wire sculptures decorating where the animals would have had their enclosures.