Route starts at Hyde Park Corner

 

STOP: Animals at war

LOCATION: Park Lane junction with Upper Brook Street

 

This memorial was inspired by Jill Copper’s book Animals in War, and was made possible by a specially created fund of £1.4 million from public donations.   The memorial consists of a curved Portland Stone wall: the symbolic arena of war,emblazoned with images of various struggling animals, along with two heavily laden bronze mules progressing up the stairs of the monument, and a bronze horse and bronze dog beyond it looking into the distance. The horse was modelled on a retired Charger from The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery called Ben Bragg.

 

This monument is a powerful and moving tribute to all the animals that served, suffered and died alongside the British, Commonwealth and Allied forces in the wars and conflicts of the 20th century. It was unveiled by HRH The Princess Royal in November 2004, the 90th anniversary of the start of World War I.  

 

The British, Commonwealth and Allied forces enlisted many millions of animals to serve and often die alongside their armies. These animals were chosen for a variety of their natural instincts and vast numbers were killed, often suffering agonising deaths from wounds, starvation, thirst, exhaustion, disease and exposure. 

 

This Memorial is a fitting and lasting tribute to them all.

 

Images of the many different animals used in 20th century conflicts are depicted in bas-relief on the inside of the longer section of wall. On the outside of this wall a line of ghostly silhouettes is carved, representing the animals lost in the conflicts.

 

STOP: Pet cemetery 

LOCATION: Junction of North Carriage Drive and Bayswater Road

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Hyde Park's Pet Cemetery was started in 1881 by the gatekeeper at Victoria Lodge, Mr Winbridge.  First was Cherry, a Maltese terrier, who succumbed to the infirmities of old age. Cherry belonged to the children who would visit Hyde Park regularly, befriending gatekeeper Mr Winbridge, who sold them ginger beer and lollypops.

 

When Cherry died, they approached Mr Winbridge to ask if they can lay Cherry to rest in Victoria Lodge’s back garden – a spot he loved. Permission was granted and today a tiny tombstone still stands bearing the inscription, ‘Poor Cherry. Died April 28. 1881’.

 

The idea soon caught on and when Prince, a Yorkshire terrier owned by the Duke of Cambridge was next to be interred (after meeting his untimely end under the wheel of a carriage), Hyde Park became the place for wealthy Londoners to bury their beloved companions.

 

The inscriptions are simple statements of affection for trusted companions. One reads: ‘Our dear wee Butcha, 31 Jan 1894’; ‘Darling Cupid, 1898’; ‘Sandy. A faithful friend for 12 years, May 1900’.

 

Mr Winbridge ended up donating more and more of his garden to the pet cemetery. The dogs were sewn up in canvas bags and Mr Winbridge carried out the interments. The owners were mostly not present owing to their great distress.

 

Most of the pets – there is a cat as well as many dogs - were owned by distinguished members of society who lived on the edges of the park. Walking around, you can see some names that are recognised today like Peter, Leo, and Sam. Others are less likely to be used, like Freeky, Bogie, Baby, Smut and Scum.  By the time the cemetery closed in 1903, 300 tiny burials dotted the grounds.  The cemetery also admitted three small monkeys and several birds. 

 

STOP: Albert memorial

LOCATION: Kensington Gardens, shortly after turning off West Carriage Drive

 

Prince Albert's Memorial, erected in 1872 in London's Kensington Gardens, depicts him enthroned amid the continents, each one symbolised by a different animal. In this Eurocentric view of the world, Europe holds sway surrounded by industrious and grateful natives. It is a view that endures in depictions of slavery, missionary work, colonialism and foreign aid right up to modern advertising campaigns. Invariably these depictions tell us more about the way Europeans have traditionally seen themselves than about the people depicted.

 

It was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband Prince Albert who died of typhoid in 1861. The memorial was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic Revival style.  It is 176 feet (54 m) tall, took over ten years to complete.

 

At the corners of the central area, and at the corners of the outer area, there are two sets of sculptures. Four groups depicting Victorian industrial arts and sciences - agriculture, commerce, engineering, manufacturing and four more groups representing Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe.  Each continent group features a large animal - a camel for Africa; bison for the Americas; elephant for Asia and a bull for Europe.   Africa has a camel instead of a lion because the lion represents Britain in so much other sculpture. 

 

For eighty years the statue of Prince Albert had been covered in black paint. Various theories existed that it was deliberately blackened during World War 1 to prevent it becoming a target for zeppelin bombing raids or domestic anti-German sentiment. However, research suggests that the black coating pre-dates 1914 and may have been a response to atmospheric pollution that had destroyed the original gold leaf surface. 

 

STOP: Dolphin and boy

LOCATION: Cheyne Walk, junction with Chelsea Embankment

 

The Boy with a Dolphin sculpture is widely considered to be one of London’s most graceful public works of art.   It was created by Sir David Wynne, a self-taught artist who established his studio on Campden Hill, Holland Park in the early 1960s.  Shortly after setting up shop, Sir David was invited to sculpt the heads of all four Beatles, a task which required him to spend considerable time with the group and led to a lasting friendship.   It was in fact Sir David who introduced the Fab Four to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; an association which led to the Beatles making a visit to the guru’s meditation school in India - a period which greatly influenced much of their later work.

 

Having read Zoology at Cambridge, it comes as no surprise that sculpting creatures is Sir David Wynne’s true passion, especially when they are shown to be interacting with humans.  Other noted works by Sir David Wynne include a statue of ‘Guy’ the Gorilla; one of London Zoo’s most celebrated inmates, which is now in Crystal Palace park.  

 

The Dolphin and Boy was first unveiled in October 1975 as a follow on from an earlier sculpture; the equally balletic Girl with a Dolphin which can be found outside the Tower Hotel near St Katherine’s Dock.   Sir David said “the boy is being shown that if you trust the world, the thrills and great happiness are yours… “ The pair’s delicate, gravity defying appearance is a great technical achievement, accomplished with the use of a double cantilever design.

 

The boy featured in the artwork was modelled upon Sir David’s son; Roland David Amadeus Wynne (Roly for short) who was 11 years old at the time and later went on to play bass in a rock band known as Ozric Tentacles.  Tragically, in 1999 at the age of 35, Roly committed suicide.   Today, the beautiful, sweeping statue depicting him in more innocent times has been dedicated to Roly as a memorial.   David Wynne died in September 2014

 

STOP: Brown dog

LOCATION: Battersea Park. Difficult to find.  On Carriage Drive North, take the path on the right immediately after the Old English Garden.  The exact location is correct on Google maps.  

 

A memorial to a dog that inspired rioting in the streets of London.  

 

To understand the gravity of this little statue, we have to go back to 1903, when allegations of inhumane (and illegal) experimentation on a brown terrier at University College London caused an outrage. Although the medical professor in question won his ensuing libel case, the incident inspired a groundswell of support for the British anti-vivisection movement.   

 

In response, the original Brown Dog Statue was erected by Battersea council.  A well-established centre of progressive politics, Battersea was home to London’s only anti-vivisection hospital (which neither conducted animal experiments, nor employed physicians who approved of the practice) and thus was friendly territory for the statue and its supporters. The memorial featured a bronze sculpture of the now-infamous brown terrier, drinking fountains for humans and dogs alike, and an inscription that detailed the suffering of the pooch, calling out University College London by name, and advocated for the abolition of such experimentation.

 

Medical students at UCL were incensed, arguing that the dog had been properly anaesthetised (possibly true), that no law had been broken (also possibly true), and that anti-vivisectionists were superstitious, sentimental idiots impeding the advance of science.  Additionally, they pointed out that these things happen at other universities, so maybe the inscription shouldn’t only reference UCL (fair enough). 

 

After a year of grumbling, a group of medical students decided to take matters into their own hands by attacking the memorial with a crowbar and a sledgehammer. Though foiled by the round-the-clock police protection that had been assigned to the dog statue, the incident kicked off the Brown Dog Riots that saw medical students from various prestigious English universities clashing in the streets of Battersea with anti-vivisectionists, suffragettes, trade unionists, socialists, and other progressive factions, as well as fighting police in Trafalgar Square.

 

The mainstream press was apparently largely supportive of the medical students, offering up mindblowing headlines like “Medical Students Gallant Fight with Women.”

 

Things finally cooled down in 1909, when a Conservative council was voted into power in Battersea. Tired of the ongoing controversy, the new government ripped the statue down under cover of night.  Despite petitions and legal injunctions undertaken to restore it, the statue was hidden away in a blacksmith’s shed and ultimately destroyed.

 

However, the anti-vivisection movement remains active in the UK, and the Brown Dog Affair remains an emblematic event in the history of the cause. So, in 1985 — 75 years after the removal of the original — a new Brown Dog Statue was erected in Battersea Park bearing the controversial inscription of the original.

 

STOP: Battersea Dogs and Cats home

LOCATION: On the left immediately after the railway bridge when you join Battersea Park Road

 

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home was established in Holloway in 1860 and moved to Battersea in 1871. The organisation holds an average of 260 dogs and 220 cats at any given time and has over its history helped more than 3.1 million dogs and cats.

 

During WW2 then manager Edward Healey-Tutt advised against people euthanising their pets because of fear of food shortages. Throughout the war Battersea fed and cared for over 145,000 dogs.  In 2002, the name was changed from Battersea Dogs Home to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home (cats were first admitted in 1883).

 

In addition to the site in south-west London, the Home also has two other centres based at Old Windsor and Brands Hatch.  

 

• Battersea Dogs & Cats Home cared for nearly 5,000 dogs and over 3,000 cats in 2015 (over 8,000 animals a year)

• Battersea Dogs & Cats Home has an average of 260 dogs and 220 cats at any one time on site and on foster

• The home's average daily intake is 13 dogs and 9 cats

• The average stay for dogs is 30 days and for cats is 22 days. There is no time limit on how long a dog will stay in Battersea's care until a loving home can be found

• Across all three sites, the home employs approximately 400 members of staff in a range of operational and administrative roles

• There are currently 1,200 volunteers working in the home. They carry out a range of functions including walking the dogs and socialising with both the dogs and cats, gardening, kennel support, administration and leading education talks

 

STOP: Vauxhall City Farm

LOCATION: Tyers Street

 

Vauxhall City Farm was founded in 1977 as Jubilee City Farm by a group of architects squatting at St Oswald's Place, following large-scale demolitions in the neighbourhood between 1972 and 1976.

 

The farm contains animals such as alpacas, sheep, goats and pigs which are used for the farm's education and youth work as well as for filming and photo-shoots. The farm's pigs have appeared on the Alan Titchmarsh Show, and the goats were used to graze a meadow on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 2013. In April 2009 BBC London’s 'Farmyard Cam' streamed live footage of the sheep at the farm.

 

The farm operates a therapy riding centre as well as youth and animal projects. It also hosts a group of spinners who make yarn from the wool of the sheep and alpacas using dyes cultivated from vegetables and plants grown on the site.

 

STOP: South Bank Lion

LOCATION: South east side of Westminster Bridge

 

This statue first started life are one of three lions sitting on top of the Lion Brewery in the 1830s. The Lion Brewery prospered until it was badly damaged by a fire in 1931.  The brewery lay mostly derelict before being demolished in 1949 to make way for the Royal Festival Hall.  When the brewery was knocked down , the largest lion was preserved, seemingly at the wish of King George VI.  It was painted red and moved to the entrance to Waterloo station, just in time to greet visitors to the Festival of Britain.

 

But he was uprooted again when an office block was built next to the station in 1966. The GLC cleaned the statue and moved it to its current position at the end of Westminster Bridge, and renamed him the South Bank Lion.

 

Originally, there was a triplet of lions created for the Lion Brewery.  One of the Southbank Lion's siblings survived, and can be seen at the entrance to the Rowland Hill Gate at Twickenham rugby stadium. Sadly, the third lion was destroyed.

 

An inscription on his paw, 'WFW Coade 24 May 1837' gives a very precise birthday for this lovely lion.  The WFW is his creator's initials: William Frederick Woodington was a notable sculptor, and curator of the Royal Academy's School of Sculpture from 1851.  

 

The secret to this big cat's polished appearance is down to a very special material: Coade stone. Not really stone at all, Coade stone is actually a ceramic material, or fortified clay, made to a recipe by a Richard Holt, and tweaked and perfected by Mrs Eleanor Coade around 1770.

 

Coade stone was popular for making statues and architectural decorations in the late 1700s and early 1800s, as it was easy to work with, and resistant to weathering.  It fell out of favour in the 1840s - today the cheaper Portland Cement is more likely to be used.  There are about 650 examples of Coade stone artworks still around today: the lion is one of the best examples.

 

STOP: Bear Gardens

LOCATION: Off the left off Park Street, shortly after passing the rear of Tate Modern 

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The Beargarden or Bear Pit was the venue for bear baiting, bull baiting and other animal sports in the London area during the 16th and 17th centuries.   Samual Pepys visited in 1666 and described it as "a rude and nasty pleasure". The last recorded event at the Beargarden was the baiting of "a fine but vicious horse" in 1682.

 

The Beargarden was a round open structure, comparable to the public theatres built in and around London starting in 1576.  Illustrated maps of the city show a substantial three-storey building that resembles the theatres nearby.  Its exact location is unclear, and apparently changed over time. 

 

The date of the Beargarden's construction is unknown; it was in existence by the 1560s, when it is shown on a map of the city. 

 

The English monarchy had had an official "bearward," an officer in charge of its "bears, bulls, and mastiff dogs," at least from the reign of Richard III.

 

Surviving descriptions of the entertainment offered at the Beargarden have an extraordinary ring to a modern ear.  The crowds were amused at the whipping of the old blind bear "Harry Hunks" until the blood ran down his shoulders. (At least some bears — perhaps the fiercest, longest-enduring ones — were given names: "George Stone," "Ned Whiting," and the most famous, "Sackerson.").  There are descriptions of horses with apes tied to their backs set upon by dogs. An early account in 1544, mentions "...a pony with an ape fastened on its back, and to see the animal kicking among the dogs, with the screams of the ape, beholding the curs hanging from the ears and neck of the pony, is very laughable.”   On a few rare occasions lions were baited.

 

The shows at the Beargarden had surprising aspects; according to contemporary accounts, music and fireworks were used, and special effects were employed.

 

Within London, by the mid 16th century the Bankside area was the usual venue for animal baiting. This area, between modern Park Street and Bankside, had previously been the site of a number of medieval fish ponds, tenement buildings and inns, collectively known as the ‘stews,’ and was the centre for brothels and prostitution from the 13th to the 15th century. 

 

STOP: Alaska Factory

LOCATION: Grange Road, junction with The Grange

 

Opened in 1869 for working seal fur, only the entrance gates with the carving of a seal remain of the old factory, once the haunt of  'shavers, blubberers, fleshers, dyers, tubbers and top-hatted wing-collared aproned craftsmen'. 

 

The newer 1930s art deco building is by architect Wallis Gilbert, who also designed the Hoover buildings in London. '1869' reads a plaque on the arch - that's the year the original building was built.

 

The company was established in the City of London in 1823, under the name Oppenheim, before changing hands and becoming Martins and moving to Bermondsey. It was the centre of the London seal fur trade.

 

The seal skins were initially imported from Antarctica, and later from Alaska and Canada. Unhairing, dressing and dying of the furs was undertaken at the factory which employed a tenth of all the fur workers in the UK at its peak. 

 

Martin's lent its workers, skills and machinery to the WW2 effort.  345,000 sheepskins were prepared for RAF and US Air Force flying suits, and flying coats and specialist clothing were also manufactured here.

 

Although much of Bermondsey was damaged during the second world war, the only bomb that hit this factory failed to detonate.

 

Little is known about the factory after the second world war, except that the decline of the fur trade due to changing fashions led to its closure in the 1960s.

 

STOP: Dr Salter’s cat

LOCATION: Bermondsey Wall East, by The Angel pub

 

A collection of four happy statues known as Dr Salter’s Daydream.  The history of these figures are slightly more poignant than most.

 

Born in Greenwich in 1873, Alfred Salter won a scholarship to study medicine at Guy’s Hospital at the young age of 16. An overused phrase today, Salter truly dedicated his entire life to tackling the poverty of 19th Century Bermondsey, for which he made a huge personal sacrifice.  In a letter to his beloved wife, Ada (herself a tireless campaigner against poverty and the first female London Mayor of Bermondsey (1922)) we can see the frustration, then resolve of the Salters:

 

"Oh, the cruel wickedness of our society today! To thrust down these people by means of low wages and chronic unemployment into hopeless despair, and then leave them in that condition with no organised or conscious effort to rehabilitate them. What can we do?”

 

“You and I feel we have the same mission in life… we are living and working for the same goal- to make the world, and in particular, this corner of the world, happier and holier for our joint lives.”

 

So instead of moving into a safer, wealthier neighbourhood the Salters moved into the heart of Bermondsey, Jamaica Road, and set up a surgery for the local poor. Alfred incurred the wrath of his medical peers for charging as little as sixpence for a consultation and giving them free to those who couldn’t afford it.  In 1902 the couple had a daughter, Joyce, and the new parents made the decision to educate her locally, showing yet more commitment to Bermondsey. Aged only eight Joyce tragically contracted Scarlet Fever, common in poverty stricken areas, and died soon after. Two people who had given everything to improve the lives of those around them had lost their only child.  

 

The folk of Bermondsey - to whom Joyce’s parents had devoted their lives - had come to love the little girl so much, that they now referred to her as, “our little ray of sunshine.”  So acute was the local concern for Joyce Salter, that Alfred and Ada placed a regular bulletin on their front door, informing the distressed public of their daughter’s progress.

 

They never overcame their grief but continued to dedicate themselves to their neighbourhood and when Ada died in 1942, Alfred wrote to a friend that “the loneliness is almost unbearable, but I have to learn to bear it.” He died only a few years later at Guy’s Hospital in 1945.

 

In 1991, to celebrate the history of this remarkable family Diane Gorvin created ‘Dr Salter’s Daydream’ on the face of it a happy scene of a man watching his daughter play with her pet cat from afar. 

 

STOP: Jacob the dray horse

LOCATION: Queen Elizabeth Street

 

The famous Courage brewery dray horses were stabled on this site from the early nineteenth century and delivered beer around London from the brewery on Horselydown Lane by Tower Bridge. 

 

This area became known as Horselydown in the sixteenth century (derived from ‘horse-lie-down’) - (allegedly) a description of working horses resting before crossing London Bridge into the City of London.  This name appears on a 1561 map.

 

This horse is named Jacob after the commissioning property developers, Jacobs Island Company, who took their name from the Victorian name for this area, Jacob's Island, at the time a notorious slum, celebrated in 'Oliver Twist' as the scene of Bill Sykes’s death.

 

STOP: Tower of London Menagerie

LOCATION: Tower of London, west side by the tourist entrance.

 

These animal sculptures are a nod to the heritage of the Tower. Medieval Kings around Europe used to give each other rare and exotic animals as gifts. It was relatively common for great Kings and aristocratic rulers to have a menagerie of wild animals. 

 

William the Conqueror had established a small menagerie at his manor in Woodstock, near Oxford, but over time the most prominent one was established at the Tower of London. It remained the royal Menagerie of England for six centuries.

 

There have been all sorts of animals over the years but favourites include:

 

In 1235, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II gave King Henry III of England 3 ‘leopards’, which were probably actually lions, as a gift. Frederick has just married Henry’s sister Isabella so wanted a special gift to underpin their special relationship. The lions were apparently to compliment the three lions on Henry’s shield.

 

In 1252 King Haakon IV of Norway sent a polar bear, and keeper, to King Henry III. The bear was apparently kept on an extra long leash so it could dive into the nearby Thames and catch fish.

 

In 1255, King Louis IX of France gave Henry an African elephant. A monk who went to see the animal wrote: ‘the people flocked to see the novel sight…The beast is about ten years old, possessing a rough hide rather than fur, has small eyes at the top of its head, and eats and drinks with a trunk.’

 

By the time of the reign of King Edward I (1272-1307) an official position had been created known as Master of the King’s Bears and Apes, later renamed as Keeper of the Lions and Leopards.

 

In the late 18th century an ostrich became famous for apparently being able to digest iron.  Sadly this didn’t prove to be the case as when the now dead ostrich was examined, it was found to have more than 80 nails in its stomach.

 

By the 16th century the Menagerie was open to the public and the animals were seen as a novel form of entertainment. Some of the most well known ‘performers’ included:

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• A leopard who seized umbrellas, parasols and anything else that she could snatch ‘with the greatest quickness … tearing them into pieces almost before the astonished visitor has become aware of the loss.’

• The Tower monkeys who lived in a furnished room where visitors would be amused by their antics and human like behaviour. A guidebook from 1810 tells us that ‘formerly several monkeys were kept, but one of them having torn a boy’s leg in a dangerous manner they were removed’.

• A zebra who seemed to like beer and would run off to the soldiers’ canteen to have a drink. She apparently allowed a boy to ride her round the Menagerie yard and roamed around the rest of the Tower with her keeper.

 

The Tower Menagerie was open to visitors. During the 18th century, the price of admission was three half-pence, or the supply of a cat or dog to be fed to the lions.

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As the 19th century progressed however, attitudes towards animal captivity changed and the sheer size of the menagerie made it untenable. In 1831 most of the animals were transferred to the recently established London Zoo although some were sold off to the American showman P.T. Barnum and went on tour with his show.

 

It was finally closed in 1835 on the orders of the Duke of Wellington.

 

STOP: Fish street Hill

LOCATION: Lower Thames Street junction with Fish Street Hill, opposite St Magnus the Martyr church

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Fish Street Hill is on the line of a Roman road that led north from where the Romans originally built their wooden bridge over the Thames (later to be replaced by old London Bridge). 

 

In 1321 the Fishmongers moved from long-established premises just north of Queenhithe Dock to a site just west of today’s Fish Street Hill. It was then called by the name of ‘New Fish Street’ to distinguish it from Old Fish Street near Queenhithe. Gradually, over time, the name changed to Fish Street Hill and the earliest version of the name appeared in 1568.

 

Fish Street Hill was a busy street, bustling with shops, with plenty of traffic because it led north from old London Bridge.  By the 1800s old London Bridge (the one that once had the houses standing on it) was showing its age. It was around 600 years old and was very narrow. In 1831 a new London Bridge was opened on a new site – a short distance west of the old one. On the south side of the river, Borough High Street had to be realigned to meet the new bridge. In the City, a new road was constructed, leading north from the new bridge, called King William Street. This new road ran north beside the Fishmongers’ Hall and then had a bend to the west, taking it past the junction with Cannon Street and northwards to the road junction at the Bank of England.

 

This new development meant that Fish Street Hill was bypassed, with traffic passing over London Bridge and proceeding north to the junction with Cannon Street. Fish Street Hill led north into Gracechurch Street. To accommodate the traffic wanting to continue north via Gracechurch Street an awkward bend – which is still there to this day – was laid out.

 

Fish Street Hill was, until the 1970s, a narrow backwater, still lined with Victorian shops. By that time they were in decline and few people used the street for anything other than a short-cut between Lower Thames Street and Gracechurch Street.

 

STOP: The fur trade [Pelt Trader pub, Skinner’s Hall, Dyers Hall, Tallow Chandlers Hall]

LOCATION: Dowgate Hill, at the side of Cannon Street station

 

The success of London merchants, using the River Thames for importing raw skins and exporting dressed and manufactured furs, meant that London became one of the world's major centres of the fur trade.  Population increases led to more demand for fur, so much so that dealers only bought and sold skins, and employed others to dress and manufacture the furs.

 

Merchant skinners were operating in England as early as 1250.   In this one area were based the Skinners, Dyers and the Tallow Chandlers, all of whom were involved in processing the furs.  This site was ideal as it was on the Walbrook stream, the water was used in the various processes and the river was also a convenient drain for the filthy waste products. 

 

The livery company halls are still here on Dowgate Hill, although they largely now perform only a ceremonial function. 

 

The popularity of furs led to over-hunting and depletion of supplies, and forest clearances deprived animals of their natural habitat. The scarcity of furs drove prices up beyond the level that London merchants were prepared to pay, and the Hanseatic League was increasingly shipping the best quality furs to Italy to get the highest prices, rather than England. Political disputes between trading nations were also a factor in the decline of the English trade in furs. Tastes were changing, and imported fabrics such as velvet, damask, satin, and brocaded silks - which could be tailored to show off the figure - meant that fully fur-lined garments were no longer fashionable, and wealthy men and women preferred to spend their money on the new fabrics. Glass windows and improved methods of heating in buildings also took their toll on the need for furs.

 

By the 16th century furs were still worn but were no longer seen as a great status symbol.  Merchant Skinners who traded in other materials retained and increased their wealth, and none of the most prominent skinners in the middle of the 16th century was a skinner by trade. By 1563 only one in five who held office in the company was a skinner by trade.

 

STOP: Barge Master and Swan

LOCATION: Bottom of Garlick Hill

 

Vivien Mallock was commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Vintners for this life-size bronze. The Vintners’ Company shares with the Dyers the duty of ‘swan marking’ on the Thames. Believed to be the first public sculpture in London ever to be commissioned by a Livery Company, the Vintners’ Barge Master is shown in his traditional costume with a swan at his feet.

 

The Vintners and Dyers Companies share in the ownership of mute swans with the monarch and it is their job to catch and ring them in a ceremony known as 'swan upping' done each June. The Swan Marker is in charge of the Vintners’ Swan Uppers for the event, but also wears the uniform of Barge Master, dating back to the time when the Company owned a ceremonial barge on the Thames. After the unveiling, the Company will process from the church with their path being swept by the Company’s Wine Porter. The Vintners are the only Livery Company still to sweep the path of their procession. Wardens and members of the Vintners’ will wear traditional uniforms and carry posies.

 

In the Swan Upping ceremony, The Queen's Swan Marker, the Royal Swan Uppers and the Swan Uppers of the Vintners and Dyers use six traditional Thames rowing skiffs in their five-day journey up-river. 

 

The Queen's Swan Uppers wear traditional scarlet uniforms and each boat flies appropriate flags and pennants.  When a brood of cygnets is sighted, a cry of "All up!" is given to signal that the boats should get into position. The cygnets are weighed and measured to obtain estimates of growth rates and the birds are examined for any sign of injury (commonly caused by fishing hooks and line).  The swans are also given a health check and ringed with individual identification numbers by The Queen's Swan Warden, a Professor of Ornithology at the University of Oxford's Department of Zoology. The swans are then set free again. Children from local schools are invited every year to watch this.

 

On passing Windsor Castle, the rowers stand to attention in their boat with oars raised and salute "Her Majesty The Queen, Seigneur of the Swans". 

 

At the completion of Swan Upping each year, The Queen's Swan Marker produces a report which provides data on the number of swans accounted for, including broods and cygnets. This important data enables suitable conservation methods to be used to protect the swans.  Apart from Swan Upping, The Queen's Swan Marker has other duties. He advises organisations throughout the country on swan welfare and incidents involving swans such as vandalism.

 

STOP: Dr Johnson’s cat

LOCATION: Gough Square

 

Hodge was one of Samuel Johnson's cats, immortalised in a characteristically whimsical passage in James Boswell's Life of Johnson.  Although there is little known about Hodge, such as his life, his death, or any other information, what is known is Johnson's fondness for his cat, which separated Johnson from the views held by others of the eighteenth century.

 

Johnson bought oysters for his cat. In modern England, oysters are an expensive food for the well-to-do, but in the 18th century oysters were plentiful around the coasts of England and so cheap that they were a staple food of the poor. Johnson refused to send his servant Francis Barber to buy Hodge's food, fearing that it would be seen as degrading to his servant, so he would personally buy the food for Hodge.

 

Boswell also noted how Johnson went out to purchase valerian to ease Hodge's suffering as death approached. Although Hodge was not Johnson's only cat, it was Hodge whom he considered his favourite. Hodge was remembered in various forms, from biographical mentions during Johnson's life to poems written about the cat. On his death, Hodge's life was celebrated in An Elegy on The Death of Dr Johnson's Favourite Cat by Percival Stockdale (published 1778). In this poem the phrase "sable furr" indicates that Hodge was a black cat; also, the fact that Stockdale was Johnson's neighbour from 1769 onwards suggests that Hodge was alive at that time.

 

“...Who, by his master when caressed, warmly his gratitude expressed, and never failed his thanks to purr, whene'er he stroked his sable fur.”

 

Today Hodge is remembered by a bronze statue, unveiled by the Lord Mayor of the City of London in 1997, outside the house in Gough Square he shared with Johnson and Barber, Johnson's manservant and heir.

 

The statue shows Hodge sitting next to a pair of empty oyster shells atop a copy of Johnson's famous dictionary, with the inscription "a very fine cat indeed". It has become customary for visitors that walk past the statue to place coins in the oyster shells as tokens of good luck. To mark special occasions and anniversaries a pink piece of counsel's ribbon may be seen tied to one of the oyster shells or around Hodge's neck.

 

STOP: Sheep, Russell Square

LOCATION: South side of Russell Square, opposite Bedford Place

 

The Fifth Duke of Bedford, Francis Russell, stands in Russell Square, which he laid out on the former gardens of Bedford House. A keen farmer, this 1809 statue by Sir Richard Westmacott shows him with a plough and a sheep. You will also spot a number of other animals, including a cow’s head.  It depicts Francis Russell as an agriculturalist with one hand on a plough and sheep at his feet.

 

The earliest record of the area which would become Bloomsbury is in the 1086 Domesday Book, which records that the area had vineyards and "wood for 100 pigs".  The first mention of Bloomsbury was in the year 1201, when William de Blemond, a Norman landowner, acquired the land. The name 'Bloomsbury' is a development from 'Blemondisberi' - the bury, or manor, of Blemond.  

 

The ride ends at the cafe in Russell Square