The London Zoo

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It was one hundred and fifty years ago, in 1826, when a hundred and thirty-one visionary gentlemen paid out the large sum of £2 a year to become subscribers to the newly launched Zoological Society of London. Literary journalists thought the idea of establishing an 'Ark in London for the reception of pairs of living things' a wild speculation. The capture and transporting of wild animals was hazardous, to sy the least. Money problems became acute, too, so in 1845 entrance was thrown open to the public. In the people poured, and the extraordinary brainchild of Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir Humphrey Davy was a wild speculation no longer. The Zoo became a vitally important centre for the study of life in almost all its forms; like the circus and the pantomime a vivid part of childhood's memories; on account of both, an example to the world.Sally Holloway's painstaking research has produced a story which features delightful accounts of the animals, from the massive alcoholic Jumbo of the 1870s to the political pandas of today, while at the same time doing full justice to the Zoo's pioneering and scientific achievements.