A Lion's Share Of Love

As a book with new photographs marks 50 years since the lion from Harrods returned to the wild, Christian’s former owner, John, shares his personal memories

- Katharine Wootton

It’s the story that tugged on the heartstrings of everyone who heard it and now, 50 years on, the tale of Christian the Lion is capturing the imagination of the next generation as a new book is released for the anniversary, complete with charming, never-before-seen photographs.

It was the late Sixties and in the bohemian borough of Chelsea, Australians John Rendall and Anthony ‘Ace’ Bourke had overheard an amazing story about a few lion cubs that had just joined the zoo at Harrods department store on Brompton Road.

Still seven years away from legislation that would ban the sale of exotic animals in England, wild pets were all the rage among the hip and famous, from Ronald Reagan’s elephant to Noël Coward’s alligator.

For the boys, the appeal of taking a lion home for tea was too fascinating not to consider, so heading down to the animal section of Harrods, located between the music and carpet departments, John and Ace caught their first glance of Christian, the stoic, strong lion who sat silently in his cage.

“Christian just looked at you impassively like you didn’t exist and never hissed or snarled like his sister, who was also with him. From that moment we could see he was a powerful and highly intelligent animal.”

For 250 guineas (£3,000 in today’s money) Christian was theirs and they took him to the pine furniture store where John worked on the trendy King’s Road.