London animal art: Where can you find a giant cat and a dead bird

Let’s first go to Tobacco Dock in Wapping, where a small boy came to regret trying to pet a Bengal tiger that was having a bad day.

On 26 November 1857, exotic pet store owner Charles Jamrach was taking in a new shipment of beasts when a large tiger broke free of its cage and took a wander through the East End of Victorian London.

Accounts differ about what happened next but the story tends to go that the big cat approached a young boy who thought he’d give the big furry moggy a stroke, only to be picked up in its jaws and carried off.

Jumping into action, Jamrach caught up with the pair and wrestled with the tiger in an attempt to release the boy, before another man turned up with a crowbar and clouted the beast over the head until it opened its mouth.

The boy was taken to hospital where he was said to have miraculously only suffered minor injuries. The tiger, meanwhile, was sold to a menagerie in the West Midlands, where it again proved its cage-breaking skills by smashing into the one next door and killing a lion.