Classic Pits/Cages

J

Jacobea

Well-Known Member
A bit of an odd question :rolleyes:

I write stories (trying to be a novelist), and in one of them, set in the mid 18th C, one of the character's has a menagerie. I'm not going to go into massive detail about it in the book, but I was wondering-anyone know of any "classic" examples of how animals used to be contained in the 19th C?

(I know, different century but I highly doubt there are many extant 18th C menagerie enclosures left).

I'm after names of zoos that I should for in the photo gallery, since I'm no great expert at where still has old, old exibits, although I can think of a few (Dublin and Schonnbrunn, although that latter's a little high class for my character!) I am particulary interested in old (Victorian-ate) aviarys, bear pits, monkey cages, etc.

Cheers all :)
 
Great suggestion Jimmy! I own that book and it has an interesting overview of the history of zoological establishments.
 
The aquarium at Bristol Zoo is a converted bear pit. You would never think so, but if you look at it, the two waterfalls were originally steps up to the viewing gallery and the walk-thru tank was the pit in which the bears lived. The old climbing pole is stood in the garden in front of the building.

Also, the raven’s cage at London Zoo is 19th C.
“It is unlikely that any of the cage’s 19th century fabric remains, though early views confirm that the cage’s appearance is essentially as built. It is no more than a large bird cage of the sort that might have formed part of any early menagerie.” Guillery, P. (1993) The Building of London Zoo. London. Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England.
And the original parts of London's African aviary which was built 1863 – 64 (Also Guillery 1993).

Alternatively try and dig out some pictures of the Blackpool Tower menagerie and the carnivore terrace London Zoo. Or you could save yourself hours of searching for out of print books and just visit Baird Court at The Bronx Zoo N.Y. (built 1903 but not dissimilar to older menagerie buildings) and base the whole thing on that.
 
It's been about 8 yrs since I was there, but the Jardin de Plantes in Paris had some fine examples of old enclosures etc... I especially remember the bear pits - but can't remember what animals they had in there (certainly nolonger bears!) I believe alot of the buildings are listed now so alterations have been limited.
 
There was of course a menagerie at the Tower of London from the 13th Century up to the early 19th Century. You're almost certainly already aware of that if menageries feature in your storyline, but there's loads of info about it if you Google. This blog contains more info than I've seen elsewhere, and, for example, describes how a poor unfortunate ostrich was fed nails in an attempt to prove the belief they were able to digest iron.

Round the watertrough blog

The author states the info was gleaned from a book called The Tower Menagerie by Daniel Hahn which may be worth getting.
 
Melbourne Zoo has a cage that has been saved from it's very early days (it's the sixth oldest zoo in the world so it has history.) It's been empty for as long as I can remember and has been restored for visitors to see how animals were kept in the early days of Melbourne Zoo. I'm going in the school holidays so I'll try and remember to get a photo for you.
 
Cheers all :D Sorry about the delayed reply.

I'll keep an eye out for that book in my local bookshop :) Looks like a very good read, and useful-I keep trying to shove in menageries wherever I can :rolleyes:

max - I'll have a look, though there weren't many images in the gallery, but I bet flickr will have some.

Ned - I'll look up Blackpool too, thanks :)

GillP- I have done some research on LOndon Zoo, since a later book of mine (planned) includes a visit there. I was looking up stuff the other day, but i didn't see that blog. Thanks :)

PAT - would be appreciated :D
 
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