The Tower of London, London · Travel Poster

Not just a view, the heritage behind it. Ella writes about the place, its hidden history, and the details that never make it into the guidebooks, all printed on the poster.

Everyone comes to the Tower of London for the crown jewels and the ravens, and almost nobody knows that for a while it was also home to a polar bear that went fishing in the Thames. In 1252 King Haakon IV of Norway sent Henry III a great white bear, most likely a polar bear, and Henry kept it in the royal menagerie he had started inside the Tower. The upkeep horrified him, so he handed the bill to the sheriffs of London, and then in 1253 he gave a wonderfully practical order: make the bear a muzzle and a long, stout rope so it could be led down to the river to swim, bathe and catch its own supper. So most days a Norwegian keeper walked a polar bear through the streets to the Thames, let out the rope, and let it dive for salmon in the middle of medieval London while crowds gathered on the banks to watch. The menagerie went on for almost six hundred years, gathering lions, an elephant and more, until the animals were finally moved out in 1835. The guidebooks tell you about the executions and the jewels. They rarely tell you that Londoners once lined the river to watch a white bear fish for its dinner.

An original illustration, available in colour or black and white, created for the Ella's Adventures travel poster series.

No frame included.

Please note that, to protect the original artwork from copyright infringement, the images shown on this website are low resolution. The poster you receive is printed in high resolution, with all the detail and clarity of the original.