Tower of London Menagerie Sculptures
ghost animals of the royal zoo
Lifelike wire animals roaming the grounds outside the Tower, recalling the 600-year royal zoo that once lived within its walls.
Free to visit · Tower Hill · Tower Hill · EC3N 4AB
Opening: Grounds viewable any time
For some six hundred years the Tower of London housed a royal menagerie, a genuine zoo of lions, a polar bear that fished in the Thames, an elephant and other exotic gifts to the crown. To remember it, the artist Kendra Haste created a series of beautifully lifelike animals out of galvanised wire, and they now prowl the grounds and the old moat.
You can see many of them for free without buying a ticket to the Tower itself, a lioness stalking the moat, baboons scrambling, a great bear rearing up. They are free, charming and a little eerie, ghosts of the strange creatures that once lived behind these walls.
Getting there: In the dry moat and grounds around the Tower of London, by Tower Hill station.
Best time to go: Daytime, on a walk around the outside of the Tower.
Insider tip: You can spot several of the wire animals for free from the public walkways around the moat, no entry ticket needed. Look down into the dry moat for the lions and baboons, the most dramatic of the group.
Free things to do in London · London Free Guide