bedlam; bellatrix lestrange

day 26 : petting zoo

welcome to my vivarium,
please, come and see,
a sight to behold of the utmost delicacy

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oh, london's finest like to come and gawk at me, rattle my bars and rile me up
i'm a hoot apparently-
and only two-pence to see!
so come down to see me,
down at the royal menegarie

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menegarie
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by the 1750s, bedlam accepted tourists, for a small fee, becoming a top tourist attraction for londoners who would go and taunt, jeer at, and antagonize the patients there. patients were essentially put on display as zoo animals.
in a short amount of time, bedlam's popularity grew to rival that of of St. Paul's Cathedral, and by the 1780s visitors were only permitted when accompanied by a hospital governor or senior officer.