The tower of London is opening an exhibition on the menagerie kept at the tower, going back to the reign of King John in the 1200's. The exhibition opens from May 2011 and the admission is included in your ticket. Should be an interesting story to be told. Historic Royal Palaces > Home > Tower of London > What's on > Royal Beasts http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12105010
Thanks for that! I'll be adding that to my list of places to go this year! I bought a book on the Tower Menagerie last year, ( [ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tower-Menagerie-Amazing-Collection-Beasts/dp/074348388X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293993587&sr=1-1]The Tower Menagerie: The Amazing True Story of the Royal Collection of Wild Beasts: Amazon.co.uk: Daniel Hahn: Books[/ame]) but didn't have the attention span at the time to read much of it. A fascinating topic though, and an exhibition may whet my whistle better than a book anyhow.
The late great Clinton Keeling did a television documentry about the Tower Menagerie a few years ago, 'Kings & Beasts'.