It was the habit of James S. Bowerbank to hold “open house” on regular occasion, where those of a like interest in natural history, regardless of their social disposition, would gather to spend the evening discussing the topic of the day. Almost everybody who was anybody in the natural history world, at some time or another, attended at least one of these gatherings. Those in regular attendance in the early 1850's, included Dr. E Lankester, Mr D. Mitchell and Philip Henry Gosse.
Bowerbank and Lankester, having more than a passing interest in aquariums, had set up modest freshwater aquariums for their own experimentation, following Warington's instruction. Mitchell, then Secretary to Regent's Park Zoological Gardens Committee, having seen Bowerbank's small aquarium, and always looking for new exhibits to boost the revenue of the gardens, was keen to have a freshwater aquarium on display. Gosse, in the summer of 1851 had just finished writing “Fishes”, the fourth of a series of five natural history books for young people, which was about to be published. In his description of the sea-horse he noted, " in a small vessel of seawater, the habits of two females of the species had been observed alive for twelve days, by a naturalist in Jersey".
On a Monday evening in April 1851, Mitchell, after viewing a large glass tank produced by Sanders and Woolcott, recognised the opportunity it presented, and with Lankester and Bowerbank's support, was encouraged to approach the Gardens Committee with a proposal that they should build a fish house; confident the Members would recognise the prestige it would bring to the gardens. As expected, the committee immediately adopted the proposal and put it forward to the society Council for funding.
Gosse, suffering with ill health, left London on January 29th to recuperate in Devonshire, probably realising with the added support of the Gardens Committee, the adoption of Mitchell's proposal would be a mere formality; presenting him the opportunity to satisfy his own marine aquarium ambitions .
With no reply forthcoming, on the 3rd February 1852 , the Gardens Committee urged Mitchell to seek the progress of the proposal at the Council meeting the following day. The Council referred Mitchell to the notes of the meeting held on January 21st, where he discovered a list of works, “which appeared most desirable”, which included a glass house for an Aqua Vivarium. At the next Council meeting, February 18th, it was ordered that the construction of the glass house should be immediately commenced at the western boundary of the flower garden (1).

Upon his arrival at the Devonshire coast, Gosse immediately started collecting the most common anemones and seaweeds to begin his aquarium experiments. Taking the specimens back to his lodgings at St Marychurch, he set them up in confectionary jars and glazed pots in an effort to have them survive successfully in the manner he had seen at Bowerbank's house. Achieving limited success, on the 12th February 1852, finding the availability of anemones and other species to be quite restrictive, Gosse investigated the prospects of the north Devonshire coast. Discovering an abundance of anemones and a variety of other seashore creatures, he decided to move to Ilfracombe in May, enabling him to broaden both his studies and experiments.
By summer of the same year the Regent's Park Aquatic Vivarium, being constructed in the fashion of a glass conservatory upon a low perimeter wall enclosing an area of 60 x 25 feet, was nearing completion and, on June 30th , two large glass tanks and two smaller slate tanks were ordered from Sanders & Woolcott. Upon delivery, the tanks were installed on the west side of the building under the instruction of Mr Sanders. The smaller slate tanks, the header and sump tanks, were mounted above and below the much larger glass aquarium tank. When operational, water from the header tank, drawn by hand pump from the sump tank, would be allowed to drain into the aquarium in a controlled flow, thus overflowing the aquarium back into the sump. Recommended by Gosse in his fountain design, the advantage of this system was twofold, purification of the water as it fell through the atmosphere from the header tank, and by driving small bubbles beneath the surface as it re-entered the aquarium, it would aërate the whole. Experiments and trials, setting up a freshwater aquarium for a pike, commenced as soon as the first set of tanks were in position.
By early autumn, Gosse's anemone and seaweed collection was almost complete and in September, he submitted a paper to the Annals and magazine of Natural History, detailing his successful marine aquarium experiments; also of his ambition to have marine specimens displayed in London. Returning to London in late October, he took lodgings in Hampton Terrace, Camden Town; within easy walking distance of the Zoological Gardens. Meeting with Mitchell soon after he returned, they agreed that he should immediately supervise setting up one of the newly installed tanks as a marine aquarium, using the specimens he had brought up from Devonshire. Two weeks after the Zoological Society's Financial Review, on February 16th 1853, the Council issued another order for the installation of the remaining tanks on the eastern side of the building.
Gosse's marine display proved an immediate success to the audience of inquisitive members who visited the nearly finished fish house, so Mitchell again approached the Council to urge them to expand the marine display. The Council agreed that eight of the fourteen tanks should be devoted to the display of marine creatures and that Gosse, with appropriate remuneration, should return to the seashore to collect more specimens (2).

Mentioning no reason for his choice, Gosse left London for Weymouth , a Steam Packet Port on the south coast of Dorset on April 8th. With such a large order to satisfy, he determined to collect the specimens by dredge, with the assistance of Jonas Fowler, a local fisherman who had previous experience dredging with Bowerbank. They immediately started work, sailing all day when the weather and tides allowed, and on landing, packed the specimens in seaweed in readiness for dispatch to London by the evening mail train; sending over 3000 specimens in three months.
At the start of the London season, Saturday, 22 May 1853 , the new fish house opened its doors to the public, with some of the marine tanks still not fully stocked. Before the official opening a private viewing of the exhibition was held for invited guests only; the general press, although aware of the new exhibit, were not admitted until the official opening ceremony. Either by design or accident, upon opening the Aquatic Vivarium exhibition received extensive coverage in the major London papers; but the Gosse's pivotal role was not mentioned. I suspect the case being that most of the London press reports I have read, seem to derive from the initial report published on the day by the Illustrated London News.
Probably having read a more informative report of the success of the fish house in the local newspaper, Philip Gosse returned to London in early July to present Mr Mitchell with a bill for his three months labour. Mitchell, ever conscious of expense, deemed it excessive and submitted it to the Council for their consideration, who in return directed Mitchell to try and persuade Gosse to reduce it.
Disappointed by Mitchell's response and his lack of remuneration, Gosse returned to Weymouth determined to carry on with his writing and studies, but not supply any more specimens to the Society. By refusing to supply any more specimens until the account was settled, Mr Thompson of Weymouth, both a friend and dredging partner of Gosse, was allowed to take up the challenge of continuing the supply, ensuring all of the displays would be completed; without affecting his friendship with Gosse.
Anxious to sort the problem out, upon returning to Weymouth Gosse wrote to the society Council, but again they directed Mitchell to respond to the letter. Frustrated that the Council would not communicate with him, Gosse contacted Thomas Bell, his cousin from Poole and Fellow of the Zoological Society, asking him to raise the matter with the Council on his behalf. Bell contacted Mitchell and asked him on August 17th , to “give notice” to the Council “on his intention to bring forward the subject of Mr Gosse's account at the next meeting”, but he was unable to get the Council to change position, and the dispute lingered on.
On February 28th 1854 , the Zoologist published the Zoological Society of London Secretary's Report, which included comments upon the progress of the fish house and of its inhabitants.
“Algæ are growing luxuriantly in those tanks which are not agitated by the vivacious evolutions of the sea-fish, and this secondary feature is well worth the attention of botanist, to whom the opportunities thus afforded of studying the development of these plants are of the most complete character; while the extremely beautiful effect of colour, dependent partly on the Algæ themselves, and partly on the peculiar action of transmitted light, are not less instructive to the artist. The present arrangement of the house consists of six tanks of freshwater animals, chiefly fish, on the western side; and seven of marine animals on the eastern side; exclusive of several movable tanks of smaller size, which are placed as occasion requires in various parts of the central area”.
Desperate to have his account settled, in May of 1854, Gosse wrote to the Council again, requesting the matter go to arbitration, which met with their approval; Bell representing Gosse and Bowerbank acting on behalf of the Zoological Society. Finally on September 30th, 1854, Bowerbank found in favour of the Society, awarding Gosse only £150, which he quietly accepted. The dispute did not entirely diminish Gosse's respect for the Society and in 1856, he was proud to be elected un-apposed, into its Fellowship (3).

Mitchell's 1854 report on the progress of the fish house, or as Lankester termed it “the Aqua Vivarium” glossed over many of the problems that had developed during the first summer. The design of the building, much in vogue at the time and influenced by the recently constructed Crystal Palace in Regent's Park, soon proved to be completely inadequate. The glass and iron framed construction allowed direct sunlight to fall upon the aquariums for many hours, thus raising their temperature above the tolerance of some of the inhabitants. It also encouraged the spontaneous growth of masses of confervoid algæ and its spores, turning the water in some of the most exposed aquariums into a thin green soup. In an effort to block out the rays of the sun, the inside of the glass roof and walls were painted white, which although achieving its immediate purpose of cooling the inside, only served to dampen the light upon the aquariums on the brightest days of summer; having little or no effect on the growth of confervoid algæ. Other than for a few weeks during the spring and autumn, the temperature inside the building, which directly affected the temperature of the aquariums, proved to be either too hot or too cold for the successful management of temperate marine creatures. The supplementary hand pumped circulating system also proved completely inadequate. The volume and position of the slate tanks being too small to affect the temperature of the water, and its controlled flow back into the aquarium was not of sufficient height or volume to either purify it or create anything but the smallest amount of aëration. The design of the aquarium tanks also compounded the problems; made with glass walls upon a slate bottom, within a cast iron supporting frame, measuring six feet long by three feet broad and deep, they offered very little surface area in relation to the volume of water they held. Thus for the water to mix naturally with the atmosphere, the supplementary circulating system was vital to the inhabitants well being. The errors of the marine system were however, in stark contrast to the freshwater aquariums. Within a few years of the aquarium opening, the gardens steam driven water supply was by chance, connected to the slate header tank supplying the line of freshwater aquariums, thus making a continuous flowing system, which had the immediate affect of creating a healthy environment for the fish and plants. In a letter to the Society, Lloyd could not help but draw this to their attention, suggesting that a sump tank of several times the capacity of all the marine tanks, would serve the same purpose for them, as the hosepipe had for the freshwater tanks. Much to his disappointment, his letters were in vain, and the Society carried on continually changing, and throwing away the turbid seawater at considerable financial expense. A few weeks before his death in 1860, Mitchell almost repeated the mistakes made in the Regent's Park fish house at the Paris Acclimatation Gardens , fortunately, Lloyd was invited to complete the project and immediately installed as big an underground seawater reservoir as the finances would allow; bestowing a modicum of success upon the establishment.
The Society briefly employed William Saville-Kent as curator of the Regent's Park aquarium in 1877, but he, as did his predecessors, soon concluded that beyond pulling the building down, few improvements were possible. London had to wait until 1922 for the Society to reveal its plans for a new aquarium, which took another two years to design and £55,000 to build (4).

Bob Alexander. November 2005.

1. “He [Mitchell] was at the house of Mr Bowerbank, at Highbury, near London , pondering over a little fresh-water aquarium containing Valisneria and sticklebacks one Monday evening in April, 1851”. Popular Recreator, p190, Lloyd.
“ Dr E. Lankester kept small fresh-water fishes and plants together on the balancing principle in 1849 and 1850, and so did at the same time Mr. (now Dr.) J. S. Bowerbank, at his house near London, where the late Mr. D. W. Mitchell, the then secretary to the Zoological Society of London, saw such an arrangement, which suggested to him the erection of a fish-house or aquarium in the Society's Gardens, Regent's Park” . Handbook to the Marine Aquarium. W. A. Lloyd. 1872 p12.
“About the same time (1851) Philip Gosse formed the acquaintance of the amiable and charming James Scott Bowerbank, who was then already at work upon his great monograph on the sponges. He occasion­ally attended those delightful gatherings which the hos­pitality of Bowerbank collected around him, and the two naturalists corresponded closely for several years”. Life of P.H. Gosse. E. Gosse 1890, p230.
“You are seriously ill, Henry,” said my wife; “you have been in the study a great deal too much lately; you must throw it all up, and take a trip into the country”. Naturalist's Rambles; Gosse. 1854 p1.
“One prominent object that I had in view in coming to the coast was the prosecution of a cherished scheme for the conservation of marine animals and plants in a living state. For several years past I have been paying attention to our native Rotifera, and in the course of this study had kept fresh water in glass vases unchanged from year to year, yet perfectly pure and sweet and fit for the support of animal life” Ibid. p228,
All references to the Zoological Society Council are from the Council Notes (Z.S.L.) held at the London Zoological Society Library. “ Read minutes of the Garden Arrangements Committee, who met on January 21st and also on February 3rd to consider the Secretaries report referred to them at the last meeting of the Council. These state the works which appeared to the Committee, “most desirable, most immediately wanted, and which were capable of being executed with the least inconvenience of the present time”, were the following - Glass house for and Aqua Vivarium”. Z.S.L. 4 Feb. 1852 .
“Resolved that the site recommended by the Committee for Aquatic Vivarium be adopted, and that the building be immediately commenced at the western boundary of the flower garden”. Ibid. 18 February 1852 .

2. “The late Mr. D. W. Mitchell did not “devise” the Regent's Park Aquarium; he only projected or thought of it, and the work was planned and carried out by Mr. John Sanders”. Journal of the Society of Arts. 1876. Lloyd. P431.
“It was also ordered that two plate glass tanks should be erected on the West side (of the engine house) and a tank of enamelled slate at each end, of the Aquatic Vivarium”. N.H.M. 30 June 1852
“I even took sea-water, containing animal matter in suspension, so putrescent as to be highly offensive, and after passing it through the air in a slender stream a few times successively, the water was restored to purity. Another advantage is secured by the same process, Viz. the aëration of the water. For though the requisite oxygen may be supplied by the agency of the plants alone, the mechanical admixture of the atmospheric air with the water by artificial aëration is highly conducive to health and comfort of the animals”. Devonshire Rambles. Gosse 1853, p440.
“Should these experiments be perfected, what would hinder our keeping collections of marine animals for observation and study, even in London and other inland Cities?” On keeping marine animals and plants alive in unchanged sea-water . Annals No: 58. 2 nd Ser. 1852.
“The last date (in the form of a diary) in the “Devonshire Coast,” is October 16 th , 1852, soon after which Mr. Gosse returned to London, and after keeping his specimens there for nearly two months, he deposited the animals (in his own words “the individual specimens”) in the Regent's Park aquarium early in December, a fortnight after I first saw it” Popular Recreator 1873. Lloyd, p189.
“Early in December, 1852, I put myself into communication with the Secretary of the Zoological Society, and the result was the transfer of a small collection of Zoophytes and Annelides, which I had brought up from Ilfracombe”. The Aquarium, P.H. Gosse, p3.
“The Aquatic Vivarium containing an area of 60 feet by 25 feet – The sum taken for works and repairs at £1500 because I presume it will be considered a not only unavoidable but indispensable to complete the fittings of Aquatic Vivarium”. Z.S.L. February 2nd 1853 (From the Financial Statement for 1852).
“Read a report from the Secretary, upon which he was authorized to proceed with the tanks on the East side of the Aquatic Vivarium, and to complete them, upon the same plan, but with stronger glass, than that which was used on the West side. The estimated cost of this portion of the fitting was stated to be £200”. Ibid. February 16th 1853 .

3. “On the borders of the flower-bed in the Zoological-gardens, Regent's-Park, has been constructed, crystal-palace fashion, of glass and iron, a light airy building 60 by 20 feet in area, containing around its transparent walls 14 6-feet tanks of plate glass. Eight tanks will, in the first instance, be devoted to living marine animals, and of these six are ready for exhibition. They enclose masses of rock, sand, gravel, corallines, sea-weed, and are abundantly stocked with crustacea, star-fish, sea-eggs, actinia's, ascidians, shelled and shell-less molluscs, and fish of the genera gasterosicus, labrus, crenilabrus, blennius, gobius, and cottus . The whole are in a state of natural restlessness, now quiescent, now eating and being eaten” . Literary Gazette, 1853 .
“Read a reply from the Secretary in which he submitted an account which had been received from Mr. P. H. Gosse, for Marine Animals supplied by him for the Vivarium. The amount of this account appearing to be excessive, the Secretary was directed to communicate with Mr. Gosse with a view to its reduction”. N.H.M. 20 July 1853.
“Had a letter from Mr Gosse on the subject of his account, of which the Secretary was directed to acknowledge the receipt”. Ibid. Aug. 1853.
“The secretary reported that he had been requested by Mr Bell to give notice of his intention to bring forward the subject of Mr. Gosse's account at the next meeting of Council”. Ibid. 17 Aug. 1853 .
“£20 in favour of Mr Thompson of Weymouth for procuring marine animals to September 30 th ”. 1853. Ibid. 2 Nov. 1853 .
“Read a letter from Mr. Gosse proposing to submit the amount of his account to the arbitration of two gentlemen, one to named by The Council, and one to be named by himself, and binding himself to accept in discharge of his claim, whatever sum they or the referee whom they may appoint, shall decide on as fair and sufficient; it was then resolved that the proposition of Mr. Gosse be accepted and that Mr. Bowerbank be requested by The Secretary to act for The Council in reference to the settlement of Mr. Gosse's account”. Ibid. 17 May 1854.
“The Secretary reported that he had received the following letter from Mr. Bowerbank in reference to the subject of Mr. Gosse's claim referred to his arbitration on the past of The Society, by a minute of Council made on the 17th May last”. Ibid. 16 Sept. 1854 .
“Letter from Mr Bowerbank to Mr. Gosse in full of all demand against The Society”- My Dear Sir, I have conferred with Mr. Bell on the subject of the arbitration of the claims of Mr. Gosse and the Zoological Society, and we have agreed that the sum of £150 will be a liberal remuneration for the services he has rendered to The Society. Signed J. S. Bowerbank. It was then resolved that a cheque for £150 be signed in favour of Mr. Gosse. Ibid. 30 Sept. 1854.

4. “Consequently, in the first summer of its existence, the mortality of the animals in the Regent's Park aquarium was very great, and the vegetation was stimulated into far too rapid a growth, which rendered the water turbid, The modifications which have since been made in the building, and which still exist there, have but partially remedied its original defects, among which have also to be enumerated the very serious ones, of the small dimensions and tall and narrow proportions of the tanks (thus giving insufficient air-absorbing surfaces of water); and the chiefest of all, the very serious fault (in any but very diminutive tanks) of the absence of adequate means of purification by keeping the water ever in motion”. Illustrated London News. 30 Dec. 1871 , p638.
“Accordingly the Regent's Park aquarium was made virtually as a conservatory. But it was a diametrically wrong notion, as the first summer proved; and the second summer (1854) showed this still more conclusively; and the third (1855) yet more so, the evil being an accumulating one”. Popular Science Review. Lloyd 1876, p258.
“These good results were, however, obtained by accident and not design. The society possessed already a steam-engine, which pumped up water for the general use of its gardens, and it was a mere matter of course to connect the aquarium with this engine, and allow the water (which chanced to be drawn from a pure source) to run through the fish tanks”. Ibid.
“In reply, the society answered that a circulatory system did exist in a part of the sea-water series, but that it was almost useless”. Ibid p259.
“My reasoning was all in vain, however, for the society went on throwing away the sea-water when it was only temporarily un-fitted for use, and getting at a cost of several hundreds of pounds yearly a weekly supply from the sea, especially when soon afterwards another evil made its appearance, consisting of a greenish-brown dense opacity permeating the water, and quite hiding from view all it contained”. Ibid.
“The small Zoo and Crystal Palace aquaria were also abandoned, and from about 1890 to 1924 London was without a first-class aquarium. The Aquarium Book. Boulenger. 1925, p13.