Alfred Vance--Walking in the Zoo

Alfred Vance, a Victorian Music Hall artist, and ex-solicitor's clerk, was the person who coined the term "Zoo", which offended the Fellows of the "Zoological Society's Gardens" by which they preferred the "Zoo" to be known. Vance performed a song in 1870 called "Walking in the Zoo":

"The Stilton, sir, the cheese, the O.K. thing to do,
On Sunday afternoon, is to toddle in the Zoo.
Weekdays may do for Cads, but not for me and you,
So, dress'd right down the road, we show them who is who.

The walking in the Zoo, walking in the Zoo,
The O.K. thing on Sunday is the walking in the Zoo.
Walking in the Zoo, walking in the Zoo.
The O.K. thing on Sunday is the walking in the Zoo."

"London Zoo, launched in 1828, first called itself a menagerie or "zoological garden," short for "Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society of London." The abbreviation "zoo" first appeared in print in the UK around 1847, when it was used for the Clifton Zoo, but it was not until some twenty years later that the shortened form became popular in the song "Walking in the Zoo on Sunday" by music-hall artist Alfred Vance. The term "zoological park" was used for more expansive facilities in Washington D.C., and the Bronx in New York, which opened in 1891 and 1899 respectively."

"Until the Victorian era, zoos were living displays of wealth and power, confined to the private pleasure gardens of the aristocracy. Then, in 1847, the Zoological Society of London began charging the public to view its collection of exotic animals in Regent’s Park. It was an immediate hit. The London Zoo captured the mood of the time. Elephant tusks had begun to grace the entrances to gentlemen’s clubs along Piccadilly; feathers from exotic birds were appearing on ladies’ hats."

"The first modern zoo, established particularly for scientific and educational purposes according to its founders, was the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes as part of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris (1793). It was, significantly, laid out like a picturesque park -- a semblance of Nature emphasized by Rousseau -- while the buildings themselves housed caged animals as if in museum display cabinets. About thirty years later, the Zoological Society of London was founded in 1826 by Stamford Raffles. The Zoological Society of London stated in its charter that its aim was "the advancement of zoology and animal physiology and the introduction of new and curious subjects of the animal kingdom". The members of the Zoological Society of London adopted the idea of the early Paris zoo when they established London Zoo as a scientific zoo in 1827. It opened in 1828 in Regent's Park, admitting members and their guests. Only in 1847 were working people allowed in, for a shilling. London Zoo admitted paying visitors to aid funding of its scientific work. The taxonomic presentation of animals at the London Zoo became the model for the nineteenth century. The success of London Zoo set off a Victorian wave of similar establishments.