Washing the Lions
Many people in London received this
invitation 150 years ago.
No
lions had been kept in the Tower for decades.
Visitors have been sent to White Gate (there is no such gate in Tower).
This joke was first reported in a newspaper more than 300 years ago:
“Yesterday being the first of April, several persons were sent to the Tower Ditch to see the Lions washed”
Dawks’s News-Letter, April 2, 1698.
TOWER OF LONDON
Please to Admit Bearer and Friend
to view the
ANNUAL CEREMONY
of Washing the Lions,
on Wednesday, April 1st, 1857.
Visitors admitted only at the White Gate.