Commuters travelling through Manchester’s Piccadilly Station will be in for a surprise over the next few days as they will be confronted by the skeleton of an elephant.
It’s a very special elephant though to the people of Manchester as it is the skeleton of Maharajah who famously walked from Edinburgh to Manchester in 1872 with his keeper Lorenzo Lawrence after refusing attempts to get him on a train before residing at Belle Vue Zoo.
Maharajah is on loan from the Manchester Museum while the gallery he is in undergoes refurbishment.
His story is incredible.Edinburgh’s menagerie had got into financial difficulty and the animals were being auctioned. Belle Vue zoo in Manchester bought Maharajah but then had the task of bringing him back.
The original plan involved putting the elephant onto a train, but Maharajah did not take kindly to this and so the elephant and his keeper Lorenzo Lawrence walked back to Manchester.
It’s been suggested this may have been orchestrated by the keeper in order to make more money from undertaking the 160 mile journey on foot.
The journey took ten days covering about 20 miles each day. Maharajah was a famous attraction at the zoo and gave rides to visitors on a seat suspended between his tusks. After he died his skeleton was acquired by Manchester Museum.
Esme Ward, Director of Manchester Museum, which is one of The University of Manchester’s cultural institutions, said: “The aim of taking Maharajah to Piccadilly Station isn’t just to add more miles to his journey. It is about bringing the museum’s collections to people who might not usually get the chance to witness them. We’re also using the exhibition to raise awareness of population levels of Asian elephants, as they’re at a high risk of extinction.”
That gallery is currently closed for the Museum’s £13.5 million ‘hello future’ transformation. The development includes a new Exhibition Hall, South Asia Gallery, Chinese Culture Gallery and the world’s first Centre of Age Friendly Culture. The work is due to be complete in 2021.
During this time, the museum is working with local communities and businesses to display its collections across the city. It is inviting people to share their ideas of where in Manchester they would like to see other artefacts from the museum.
Esme added: “We have 4.5 million objects in our collection and will be taking some of our favourites directly to the people of the city to the places they live, work and play. We’re on a mission to become the most imaginative, inclusive and caring museum in the country – and Maharajah in Piccadilly exemplifies this ambition. Only in Manchester could the story of an elephant that refused to get on a train end in a train station”.
Maharajah will be on display until the 16th June.
