Tall tales

While Wills and Kate asked for donations to be made to charity rather than opting for the regular John Lewis wedding list, William's royal ancestors had far grander gift ideas. As early as the 1200s exotic beasts were given as symbols of power and status and over a period of 600 years almost 300 weird and wonderful animals were kept at the Tower of London. King Henry III received three lions from Emperor Frederick II in 1235, while in 1816, a grizzly bear called Martin was given to George III by the Hudson's Bay Company.

In a new exhibition exploring the historic Royal Menagerie, visitors can gawp at the 60 species - ranging from lions and monkeys, to alligators and kangaroos - that were once housed inside the Tower's walls. Stand-out stars include a polar bear who fished in the Thames for his lunch, the dog-faced baboon who was fond of smoking a pipe, and a 19th-century family of fearsome lions named Fanny, Miss Fanny, Miss Fanny Howe and Miss Howe. Catchy.

Given that staff at the Tower of London didn't know the first thing about caring for white-headed mongooses or striped hyenas, disastrous consequences were sadly inevitable. In 1604 the Lion Tower exploded after an accident with stores of gunpowder, in 1698 a grizzly bear mauled a boy to death and in the same year a leopard urinated on onlookers including the highly unimpressed London Spy diarist Ned Ward. After a young boy got his leg torn off in the Monkey Room in the late 1700s, the beasts were banished to London Zoo where they were kept safely behind bars at last.

These bizarre bestial stories will sit alongside a collection of life-size animal sculptures made from galvanised wire by artist Kendra Haste in an interactive exhibition in the Brick Tower which uses multimedia to evoke the sights, sounds and smells of the Tower's wildest inmates.
Royal Beasts is at the Tower of London from 22 May as part of a semi-permanent display; entry is included in the standard admission charge of £18 for adults (hrp.org.uk)