The Human Zoos of London

We take a look at London's grisly past...

London Focus

Just two hundred years taking a trip to the zoo meant something rather different to going to see the penguins. An altogether different kind of zoo existed in the capital, one where actual humans were plucked from their homes, enslaved and made a spectacle of, merely for the purposes of entertainment.
“Hottentot Venus” was the nickname of Saartjie Baartman, a South African slave put on display at Piccadilly Circus for the amusement of London’s population in the early 19th century. She was found by a British doctor travelling through Africa, who noticed her pronounced curves and elongated genitalia, and quickly realised he could make a fortune out of her figure by making her into a walking exhibition. He promised her owner she would return with great wealth, as there was a huge audience for “freak shows” in London, and sure enough the city was enthralled. In 1810 she was paraded for the masses, dressed in a body stocking and wearing face paint, while her new owner would order her to sit, stand or dance for the crowds. Baartman’s exotic image made her a celebrity of sorts, with her body - in particular her voluptuous derriere - adorning postcards and becoming the subject of many a caricaturist. Once the authorities got wind that she may be acting against her will, she stated that she wished to stay, as her options consisted of returning to a life of slavery or “performing” to crowds of people. Baartman was later sold on to a Parisian circus, and after becoming an alcoholic and turning to prostitution in a bid to escape, died at the age of 26. Within two days her entire body had been dissected and fitted into display cases, to be exhibited in Paris till her remains were returned to South Africa in 2002.
\n\nIf the story of Baartman is harrowing, then it is also unsurprising given London’s one-time penchant for all things freakish. One is reminded of the Elephant Man, the tragic Joseph Merrick, who was abandoned by his family due to his deformity. His abnormally large, lumpy head and lameness meant it was impossible for him to get a job, and his only route out of homelessness or a workhouse was a life of being put on display as a freak.
In the 19th century London was obsessed with gaining a glimpse into the unknown. The Promenade of Wonders was located on the corner of Drury Lane and St. Giles High Street, however no human exhibits were on display. In their place were cat’s head skeletons, wooden giants and pigs preserved in spirits, a precursor to Damien Hirst’s shark in formaldehyde perhaps. Piccadilly’s Egyptian Hall, dubbed “Hall of Ugliness” by Punch in 1847 announced via huge placards that it contained the most hideous deformities the world had ever seen: Siamese twins, giants, bearded women, and other characters who frequently popped up on the pages of the Guinness Book of Records.
Penny slot machines became popular in busy areas like the West End, Oxford Street, Kentish Town and Lambeth. Some involved placing a coin and turning a handle to view a fairly banal slide show of the Changing of the Guard, or some other equally tame set of images aimed squarely at tourists. On the other hand there were venues not dissimilar to peep shows, which permitted customers to step to the room upstairs to have a good look at the seated characters tattooed from the neck down to their feet. Some of these shops were identified by heavy red curtains on the outside, others were anonymous-looking, but all were to be found full to the brim.
\n\nMore disturbing shows were just as popular. As the British Empire grew, its conquests were brought back to the UK to be snooped at. Men, women and children from far-flung locations were common exhibits in London throughout the 1800s. Under the misleading labelling of science or education, this became one of the most popular forms of city entertainment. At Vauxhall Gardens one could look at Bushmen children along with baboons and Ojibbeway Indians; at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly one could gawp at reindeers standing side by side with Laplanders; in fact the term “living curiosity” was used to refer to both animals and humans alike, as both were of equally exotic interest to the average Londoner. The humans would be placed in mock set-ups of their villages, and would be made to pose and/or dress up; even worse, they were sometimes displayed in cages.
In 1855, Quaker physician John Connolly commented that these exploits were far from educational, rather that the people put crudely on display usually returned to their homeland “having gained small notice from the ethnologist, and excited no moral interest even among the most serious or the most philanthropic”. He also claimed they had “been merely regarded as objects of curiosity or of unfruitful wonder.” More frightening still were the “theories” these displays and their organisers supported, including ideas on racial hierarchy such as the ones propagated by Hitler.
Of course London wasn’t the only guilty city; New York’s Bronx Zoo, Paris’ Jardin d’acclimatation, the Cincinnati Zoo and the 1889 Parisian World’s Fair amongst numerous others featured these depressing scenes too (it’s worth noting that London Zoo, opened in 1826, never partook in the exhibiting of humans). The World Wars inevitably put a stop to these displays in Europe (with the exception of Belgium, where the last one took place in 1958) but worldwide, it wasn’t eradicated till the 1930s, when the movies overtook living curiosities as pastime.

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