Animal parades in Great Britain: elephants, lions, rhinos and toads

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-10 02:10

In May of this year, we wrote about "elephant occupation"that befell London. As it turned out, this was just the beginning. Aligning with their capital, other British cities, one after another, began to hold "animal parades": to date, London's initiative has already been taken up by Chester, Bath and Kingston upon Hull. Residents of Bath, one of the most beautiful cities in Great Britain, decided that they should have a parade of lions. Through the efforts of local businessmen, communities and simply not indifferent people, funds were raised to create sculptures, which were then painted by artists. After that, one hundred figures depicting the king of animals in full growth were installed near the most important sights of the city, as well as in parks and the most unexpected places. Why exactly lions? Everything is simple here: these animals have been symbols of royal England for nine centuries, and in Bath itself and its environs there are no less than five hundred images of lions. It is planned that the sculptures will stand in the city until mid-September, and in October they will go under the hammer for charitable purposes.

The next English city - Chester - from July 5 to September 12 was engulfed in "rhino mania". If desired, here you can count 62 large sculptures of rhinoceroses, painted by professional artists and talented amateurs, and 120 small ones, on the creation of which schoolchildren worked. According to the organizers of the parade, rhinos are one of those animals that are currently in special danger. The management of the Chester Zoo, home to nine black rhinos, has decided to organize a fundraiser to support these animals in Kenya and Tanzania, so a "rhino parade" is being held to raise awareness of the project.

Against the background of Bath with its royal lions and Chester with endangered rhinos, Kingston upon Hull looks rather strange, having organized a parade of … toads. As it turned out, huge sculptures of toads were installed around the city in honor of the 25th anniversary of the death of Philip Larkin, one of the most famous poets of Great Britain of the 20th century. One of the author's works is called "Toads", that is, "Toads". It will be possible to admire the huge amphibians for ten weeks, starting on July 17.