A Docklands Interregnum

The docks of mid-nineteenth century London must have been a maelstrom of all manner of different types of human industry and activity. Like any great port area, here would have been a hive of different peoples, languages and vocations. The ships cargoes had to be discharged and made ready for transportation, the ships repaired and refurbished before their next voyages, and their sailors, starved of entertainment after months at sea, would have been carousing the taverns and brothels of the area, whilst awaiting their next embarkation orders.

The port authorities and governing classes would meanwhile have been struggling to bring regulation and system to the docks, as the churches strove to inject some much needed moral guidance into the equation.

The docks would have attracted all kinds of characters – criminals, opportunists, entrepreneurs, employment seekers and more, from all around Britain and far further afoot too. Stories of perilous experiences, of far off countries would be exchanged, and exotic goods of various types dispersed and shown off, even, for example, a pair of boa constrictors that could be shown off for a small fee in the local taverns. From sea and from land tumbled in the under-nourished, the ill, the injured, the widowed and orphaned, the street urchins, and gangs all carousing the area in search of easy pickings, gainful employment, or just some kind of means of hope or survival.

The London Boroughs. Newham was formed out of the old boroughs of West Ham and East Ham. From: http://hidden-london.com/miscellany/london-boroughs-map/

Leaving the docks and heading up Farmer Street, past the birthplace of Charles John Robinson, would have been to walk along a road of seamen and docklanders’ families, a community formed by maritime trade. Farmer Street ran very roughly parallel to New and Old Gravel Lane, and all off these three streets emerged onto the New Ratcliff Highway. Turning left down the Highway would bring you in fairly short order to St. George of the East, birthplace of Harriett Wombwell, and perhaps the location of Richard Wombwell’s chandler’s and grocer’s businesses. A right turn into Betts Street just past St George of the East would be called for you should you wish to do some business with or simply pay a visit to that famous German supplier of wild animals, Mr Charles Jamrach.

Going further north, you would soon reach the Commercial Road, headquarters of George Wombwell’s menagerie emporium, having by then possibly passed by North Street where Harriett and Charles were living in 1841. Further north and to the east lay the parishes of Hoxton, Haggerston, West Ham, Forest Gate, to take just some examples.

London Underground map showing Docklands and The East End

The trend is clear, and was replicated by Richard Wombwell and other dockland families also. When the opportunity  arose, move and put some distance between yourself and the docks. And if like, Charles John Robinson, the sea was in your blood, and the docks were your life, the message of your wife was likely to be that you either investigate your ‘stay-over’ options, or learn the meaning of the word ‘commute’.

Thus the East End of London straddled Shadwell, Stepney, Limehouse, Shoreditch, Bow, Bromley-by-Bow, Poplar and Mile End, and the residences of the Robinsons were scattered across both the boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Hackney.

Harriett Wombwell and James Edmonds

This Harriett Wombwell is not to be confused with Harriett, the daughter of Maria West. 


Rather, she is the second daughter of William Wombwell, and grand-daughter of George’s elder brother, Samuel. Harriett was born in 1815 in Braintree. She married James Edmonds. It was to this Harriett that George Wombwell was to bequeath Menagerie Number Two in his final will. 

And so under new management, the caravan wheels rolled on, the census returns scattered over the atlas of Britain, women giving birth on the road, and - in this strangely egalitarian community - assuming roles from the bottom to the top of the organization. 

Below in the 1881 census, is Harriett, aged sixty-six on the road in Grantham, Lincolnshire.

James himself had worked his way up through the menagerie hierarchy. There is a report concerning him from 1866, albeit not of a particularly impressive nature:


This was the very same year that George Wombwell junior had been dispatched to Paris to replace one of the menagerie elephants that had just died, and the very same James Edmonds who had purchased Jamrach's famous Bengal tiger, the tiger that 'ate the boy on the Ratcliffe Road'. 

In 1884, the management of the menagerie passed to the son of James and Harriett, James Charles Edmonds, Coincidentally, James Charles had married, in 1879, Albertina Jamrach, daughter of Charles Jamrach, properly, Johann Christian Carl Jamrach, for the owner of the famous East London animal emporium was in fact an immigrant from Hamburg, Germany.

Menagerie Management and Marketing

Creating a brand. From the BBC.

The Wikipedia entry for George Wombwell dates the establishment of the travelling menagerie to 1810, and states that by 1839 it comprised fifteen wagons and a brass band. The article notes the difficulties faced in keeping creatures from such far-off climes alive and healthy. George though was also alert to principles of waste management and recycling. Dead animals were sold on to taxidermists, to medical schools, or even exhibited in their own right, as the following famous story recounts:

Wombwell frequented Bartholomew Fair in London and even developed a rivalry with another exhibitor, Atkins. Once when he arrived at the fair, his elephant died and Atkins put up a sign "The Only Live Elephant in the Fair". Wombwell simply put up a scroll with the words "The Only Dead Elephant in the Fair" and explained that seeing a dead elephant was an even a rarer thing than a live one. The public, realising that they could see a living elephant at any time, flocked to see and poke the dead one. Throughout the fair Atkins' menagerie was largely deserted, much to his disgust. 

The story, whether true or not, is a reminder that George was not the only entrepreneur to seek his fortune in the menagerie business. Competition was not only fierce, but unprincipled. The first volume of Shaun Everett’s biography of George is based entirely on the story of Wallace the lion, the first lion to be successfully bred in captivity in Britain. A fight was set up, so it is said, between Wallace and six bulldogs to be staged in Warwick in 1825. Even at this time, the savagery of such a spectacle raised consternation, and George came in for excoriating criticism in the press. Shaun suggests however that in fact the terrible fight may never have taken place. George had exploited the idea, and the attacks that were then made on him as free advertising to promote his menagerie further. All this is in line with boa constrictors being bought for seventy-five pounds, and, much later, the Bengal tiger bought from Jamrach that ate a boy on the Ratcliff Road. In the Wombwell marketing code, the truth was never allowed to stand in the way of a good story.

George Wombwell Junior Timeline

Since this story of George Wombwell junior seems to have take numerous side-turnings and digressions including up the Yangtze River, the Duaro Valley and to Bedford, Virginia, here is a timeline that illustrates some of the main events in his long life:

14 Dec 1822	George is born in Stoke Newington, probably in Lordship Road, the son of Zachariah Wombwell and Mary Webb
19 Mar 1823	He is baptized in Stoke Newington
1832	He is adopted by his Uncle, George Wombwell, founder of Wombwell’s menagerie and heads off on the road.
1833	His father, Zachariah Wombwell, dies in Stoke Newington
1847	At the height of his career, he is a member of the party that meets Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and Prince Edward at Windsor Castle
1849	His mother, Mary Webb, dies in Stoke Newington
7th Oct 1850	He marries Fanny Eliza Kienlen at the New Gravel Pit Meeting House, Paradise Fields, Hackney
1850	His Uncle George dies and leaves one part of his menagerie to George, namely Menagerie Number Three
30 Mar 1851	George is recorded as a Wild Beast Merchant of Wombwell’s Menagerie resident at 79 Corn Hill, Ipswich
1851	His daughter Ann Fanny Wombwell is born in Hackney, London. George’s servant, Thomas Burrows, is crushed by an elephant but survives the experience.
1855	A run of disasters leads to the decimation of George’s Menagerie stock
28 Apr 1855	George’s Menagerie Number Three is auctioned off for a pittance at Nova Scotia Gardens.
2 May 1855	The other Wombwells write to the Times disassociating their own Menageries from any involvement with George’s
18 June 1855	Bankrupted, George is removed from his caravan next to Cremorne Gardens to Whitecross Prison
30 July 1855	George appears in court. He may have been bailed out by members of the Wombwell family, and then worked for them as a hired hand.
26 Oct 1858	Jamrach’s famous Bengal Tiger escapes and wanders off down the Ratcliff Road. George may have been involved in its subsequent purchase.
7 April 1861	He is resident with his wife and daughter at 1 Grove Cottage, Poplar All Saints, and recorded as a photographer and artist.
6 Aug 1863	Death of his first wife, Fanny Eliza Kienlen in Hackney.
1866	Mrs Wombwell commissions George to bring an elephant back from Paris for her. After various disasters, George succeeds in bringing the elephant back to London, where it immediately dies.
22 Feb 1869	George marries Elizabeth Adella Cresey in Yarmouth, Norfolk. Born in 1849, Elizabeth is twenty-seven years younger than George.
1870	Their daughter, Amelia Gertrude Wombwell is born in South Shields, Durham.
2 Apr 1871	George is resident in Stockton, Durham, now a musician. His daughter Ann Fanny Wombwell is now living in Hampstead, London, with Mrs Wombwell, the partner of his Uncle George.
3 Apr 1881	George is living at 132 Provost Street, Shoreditch, Hoxton Town. George is still a musician, and his wife is working as a dressmaker.
11 Apr 1881	His first daughter, Ann Fanny Wombwell marries Herbert Sowerby in Shanghai, China. They are members of the China Inland Mission but shortly after join the American run Protestant Episcopal Mission.
Feb 1882	Ann Fanny Wombwell and Herbert Sowerby head up the Yangtze River to Wuhan and begin their work there.
5 Apr 1891	They are living at 107 Provost Street. His daughter Amelia has now become a shirtmaker.
1894	The marriage is recorded of Amelia Gertrude Wombwell and Jacob Valentine in the civil registration records. Jacob is a member of the Sephardic Jewish community and it is possible they went through a religious ceremony a few years earlier, since their first daughter seems to have been born in 1892. Ann Fanny Wombwell and Herbert Sowerby complete their missionary service in China and possibly return to England to discover that whilst they have been making conversions, George has been leaking them.
4 Jan 1897	The Daily Mail publishes a full-length profile of his life and sets up a subscription fund for him.
5 Mar 1897	The Daily Mail reports that its Subscription Fund has raised three pounds and fifteen shillings.
1897	His second wife, Elizabeth Adella Cresey dies in the Infirmary
Prob 1890s	George is visiting his Bradley relatives probably to get help in writing down memories for sale for publication. The full story of Peto the elephant is thus preserved.
1900	The entire family of Herbert Sowerby and Ann Fanny Wombwell are now settled in Virginia, USA, all to become naturalized American citizens.
31 Mar 1901	George, now a musician and widower, is living at 22 Ottoway Road, Hackney
3 Mar 1909	George’s obituary appears in the newspapers, reporting his death in Tottenham, Edmonton
1923	His first daughter, Ann Fanny Wombwell dies in Bedford, Virginia, USA
1958	His second daughter, Amelia Gertrude Wombwell dies in Shoreditch, London.

The Death of Peto the Elephant

It did not take too long for the final denouement to unfold for the unfortunate Peto the elephant. As usual, finding others to blame for the calamities that he had played such a central role in engineering, George recorded that:

After some weeks finding that he was too vicious and dangerous for the menagerie it was decided to destroy him and he was sold to Mr C Rice the naturalist for his skin and bones.

Mr Rice was preparing to have him destroyed but Mr Smith would not allow it on his premises and bought it himself believing he could tame him by kindness – but to no purpose. I told Mr Smith that unless the den was kept constantly clean the animal would have fever in the feet and die – it so happened and this was the end of the Indian elephant “Peto”, the old companion of the now giant African elephant Jumbo.

Mr Rice was probably Charles Rice, recorded as a competitor of Jamrach's in the Victorian animal import business, so the purchase was most likely for commercial rather than scientific purposes. It is interesting also that George manages to provide two different versions of Peto's demise in two successive paragraphs, firstly suggesting that Peto had to be put down as a menace to society, and immediately after, managing to put the blame squarely on Mr Smith for allowing Peto to develop 'foot fever', an accusation for which for once he might possibly have had some justification. 

We may comfortably assume that the price paid by Charles Rice for the corpse of Peto the elephant can hardly have compensated Mrs Wombwell for her investment in bringing Peto to England, nor for her familial loyalty in entrusting George with the task of bringing her a new elephant. Skipping forward five years from George's dating of the Peto the Elephant saga to 1866, the 1871 census finds George in Stockton, Durham:



Passing over the fact that George's age varies quite wildly between records, presumably thanks to a liberal dose of imaginative self-reporting, he has now become a 'musician'. Barely fifty years of age, he has - just as he reported to the Daily Mail - been reduced to playing his cornet in the circus and menagerie bands. Anything to keep him away from the animals.

An Unexpected Visitor Appears Through the Floorboards

It was only a decade since East London had witnessed a Bengal Tiger strolling up the Ratcliffe Road. Now, late night revellers stumbling and swaying out of the local hostelries would again be rubbing their eyes, as Peto the elephant was marched not entirely willingly towards Beth or, more likely, Bett street, probably that very same street where Charles Jamrach held court over his own supply of exotic animals. George however at this point had the more pressing concern of how to accommodate Peto: 

At night when all was quiet “Peto” was walked to Beth Street, Ratcliff Highway and lodged in a gateway – crowbars were driven into the ground and “Peto” was chained to them – he had a good bed of straw and plenty of food and was left to himself.

Leaving Peto to himself was to prove to be another error of judgement: 

However about 4 o’clock in the morning there was a great cry of “Murder” and “Police” – on myself and keepers going to the scene we found that “Peto” had amused himself by tearing down the plaster ceiling over the gateway and knocking up the floorboards where a man, his wife and family were sleeping in happy ignorance of the elephant lodger below them and of course were much frightened. 

Arrangements were then made with Mr E T Smith and “Peto” was removed to Cremorne Gardens to await the arrival of the menagerie from the north of England.

The moving of Peto to Cremorne Gardens must have brought back some memories to George though. It was from here, back in June 1855, that he had been invited to step down from his wagon and accompany the authorities to Whitecross prison to await bankruptcy proceedings. 

George's 1866 visit to Cremorne Gardens, this time in the company of Peto the elephant, must indeed have been starting to look as if it would end in a similar outcome:

Cremorne Gardens, 1864 by Phoebus Levin
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=540257

After much difficulty he was got there – a strong den was made and he was secured – the French keeper however desired to return to Paris and left. From that time “Peto” fretted and began to shew his temper and would strike with his trunk at all who went near him – several keepers experienced with elephants tried to control him but failed and one, Edward Hendy, who thought he had mastered him was struck and had his ribs broken.

One cannot help but to be curious as to whether Mrs Wombwell was ever presented with a properly itemized expenses bill for the procurement of Peto, and had the opportunity to absorb the sheer trail of destruction that George Wombwell junior seemed to leave behind him as he proceeded on his merry way. One thing seems for sure though - Peto's French keeper had seen enough of les Anglais, and, more specifically of les Wombwells. 

Charles Jamrach

Charles Jamrach originally set up business in the East of London at 164 Ratcliffe Highway. When he died in 1891, he left over 7000 pounds to his son Albert who continued to run the exotic animal business until 1919, when it closed down finally, presumably at least partially due to the damage done to the trade by the First World War.

Jamrach himself was born in Hamburg in 1815, and it was from there that the family brought their business to London and turned it into an emporium that was to be the main supplier of zoos, menageries, and circuses in the UK. The London operation had three premises, including a bird shop and museum on the Ratcliffe Highway, a menagerie in Betts street, and a warehouse in Old Gravel Lane.

Jamrach feeding his animals.  A daughter of Charles Jamrach was to marry into a branch of the Wombwell family.

Employing agents across the UK and abroad, Jamrach sought to corner the market for exotic wildlife imports, which could then be sold on to the likes of the Wombwells, and later, it would seem, also be used as raw material for wild animal themed furniture, or what became known as Wardian furniture. To exemplify, one later commentator advised that elephants' feet 'make fine footstools, liquor stands, or, if cut long in the leg, umbrella stands'.

Jamrach’s own version of the Bengal Tiger story was actually published in ‘The Boys’ Own Paper’ in 1879. In Jamrach’s version, the purchaser was not George Wombwell junior, but Mr Edmonds of the Wombwell Menagerie, and relative of George. This would have been James Edmonds, husband of Harriett Wombwell (note: not the Harriett Wombwell who was the daughter of Maria West) who had inherited from the original George, Menagerie Number Two. This would not of course though preclude George junior’s involvement in the transaction. 

It should be said though that distinguishing fact from fiction in the Wombwell story is a fool’s errand. Theirs was an operation that could have taken out a patent for Chinese whispers.

But here are Jamrach's own final words on the Bengal Tiger incident, together with some masterly comments from the presiding Judge, who had nothing but praise for the charismatic Jamrach for saving the boy's life, regardless of the minor detail that it was he who had been responsible for endangering it in the first place.  

The boy was taken to the hospital, but with the exception of a fright and a scratch, was very little hurt. I lost no time in making inquiry about him, and finding where his father was, I offered him £50 as some compensation for the alarm he had sustained. Nevertheless, the father, a tailor, brought an action against me for damages, and I had to pay £300, of which he had £60, and the lawyers the remaining £240. Of two counsel I employed, only one appeared ; the other, however, stuck to his fee right enough. At the trial the judge sympathised very much with me, saying that, instead of being made to pay, I ought to have been rewarded for saving the life of the boy, and perhaps that of a lot of other people. He, however, had to administer the law as he found it, and I was responsible for any dangerous consequences brought about in my business. He suggested, however, as there was not much hurt done to the boy, to put down the damages as low as possible. The jury named £50, the sum I had originally offered to the boy's father of my own good will. The costs were four times that amount. I was fortunate, however, to find a purchaser for my tiger a few days after the accident ; for Mr. Edmonds, proprietor of Wombwell's Menagerie, having read the report in the papers, came up to town post haste, and paid me £300 for the tiger. He exhibited him as the tiger that swallowed the child, and by all accounts made a small fortune with him.

All in all, quite an interesting little illustration of mid-Victorian values in action.

Jamrach and the Bengal Tiger

As George Wombwell junior lurched from one loss to the next, and his animals fell victim to fire, snow, and disease, for a while it would seem from his account to the Daily Mail, that he simply and expensively replenished his stock, including according to his own account from that doyen of animal suppliers, Charles Jamrach.

The most famous story concerning Jamrach dates back to 26 October 1858 and the escape of a Bengal tiger from the London docks while en route to Jamrach’s shop. Most intelligent observers on that day, unused to seeing Bengal tigers strolling down the Ratcliff Road quickly chose to make themselves scarce, with the exception of one astonished and slightly less intelligent eight-year old boy who was intrigued enough to try and make a closer acquaintance. 

The story is continued on Geri Walton’s Blog: 

The boy’s stroke was returned with a playful tap. That tap “knocked the child upon his face stunned; and, picking him up by the loose part of the jacket” the animal was proceeding up the road with the boy when Jamrach discovered the tiger’s escape and sprang upon it. Jamrach was a powerful man and attacked the tiger from behind. He grasped its “throat with both hands, [and] drove his thumbs into the soft place behind the jaw,” which caused the tiger to choke and loosen its hold, letting the boy fall. Jamrach also delivered several heavy blows with a crowbar, which “cowed the great beast, who turned tail and meekly trotted back … into the lair prepared for him.”

Once Jamrach had paid off a handsome £50 to the boy’s family for damages, he did not take long to find a willing buyer for the tiger. Geri Walton reports that George Wombwell junior then paid £300 for the beast, and in true Wombwell style it went on tour advertised as “the tiger that had eaten a boy alive in Ratcliff-highway.” 

A likely story! Jamrach fighting the tiger. 

There was no such thing as bad publicity in the menagerie business, and never any need to stick to the literal truth. The episode of the escaped Bengal tiger is by no means unique, and it is an open question as to what extent such dramas were deliberately manufactured to create publicity. In the end however, the menagerie had acquired at no small expense, a highly dangerous predatory cat. Charles Jamrach on the other hand had turned over a profit of £250 and will not have been sorry, it may be taken, to see the tiger in question to depart with its new owner.

As for George Wombwell junior, if he were involved in the purchase, it was not for his own menagerie, and it suggests that after his bankruptcy he sought employment with those relatives who had inherited the other parts of the original menagerie, after the death of his uncle in 1850.