It is one amazing animal story that is unlikely to be made into a popular children’s animation, but the life of Tiny the Wonder, a champion rat-catching dog in the 19th century, is now to be told in an immersive show at the Museum of London.
Tiny, an infamous Manchester terrier, was once celebrated in the City of London for being able to kill 200 rats in an hour and now, alongside a fox, a horse, a pigeon and an elephant, he is to be celebrated once again in the show Beasts of London, billed as the first to look at the history of the capital city through non-human eyes.
“We are concentrating on what it has been like for animals to live here as the city has changed,” said Francis Marshall, senior curator. The immersive exhibition, which opens on Friday, devotes “a chapter” to each animal and features special effects and projections as well as physical exhibits. The animals are voiced by well-known names, including model Kate Moss, Angellica Bell, Brian Blessed, Pam Ferris, Stephen Mangan and Joe Pasquale.
“My favourite animal may be Tiny, who was so small he wore a woman’s bracelet as a collar,” said Marshall. “He only weighed five-and-a-half pounds, and in around 1848 and 1849 he was owned by James Shaw, proprietor of the Blue Anchor Tavern in Bunhill Row, the pub now known as the Artillery Arms. He was a star attraction in the rat pits under the pub where crowds would gather to watch. Shaw used to bring the rats in from Essex because they were healthier than sewer rats.”
Manchester terriers are now trendy urban pets, so Marshall enjoys the fact that the breed has a less savoury past.
“There is an interesting arc generally in the exhibition showing how some animals are coming back in to the city and infiltrating, while others have never been away,” he said. “There was a peregrine falcon living in the dome of St Paul’s cathedral in the 19th century and there are still peregrines living in the city.”In fact, they don’t see London as a barren wasteland.
Beasts Of London is at the Museum of London near the Barbican, from 5 April to 5 January 2020.
