IT WASN’T only The Field that made a splash in 1853. An announcement during May of that year that an ‘Aquatic Vivarium’ was to be opened in Regent’s Park Zoo caught the imagination of many of the three million people who lived in the capital. Popularly called a ‘Fish House’, the name alone must have raised some quizzical Victorian eyebrows. It was to be the first aquarium in the world.
By the 1850s London was the biggest and wealthiest city globally but its prosperous veneer masked serious problems. Diseases were rampant, dirt and smell contributing to the poor health of the one-third of its occupants who lived in poverty. Regent’s Park Zoo was sponsored by the Zoological Society of London and had been opened in 1828. Located in northwest London, and originally intended only for scientific study, it offered an attractive green space with novel things to see and do. It could
