About the Project
In November 1910 Frank C. Bostock's 'Jungle' arrived in Sheffield centre. Utilising the temporary spaces opened up by the slum clearance around the infamous Crofts the Jungle provided a fantastic spectacle of entertainment for the local population. The Jungle was primarily a large menagerie, however it soon became a melting pot of early fairground devices and bizarre shows and exhibitions.
Bostock's Jungle would make a return to Sheffield in the winter of 1912, an arrangement made shortly before Frank Bostock's death in October 1912. Following the First World War the Bostock Jungle was not resurrected, though the tradition of travelling menageries continued through the 1920s with the Bostock and Wombwell organisation (visitors to Edmund Road Drill Hall on many occasions).
This website is part of a research project to uncover and understand the physical and cultural environment of the Sheffield Jungle. It looks at the changing space of Sheffield, the social history associated with the slums, and the cultural history linked directly to the forms of entertainment that the Jungle included: exotic animals, human feats and wonders at the borderlines of the imagination. Key sections of the website are dedicated to these research areas.
The main thrust of this project is to re-broadcast the literature associated with the Sheffield Jungle as it occurred week-by-week exactly 100 years ago. Effectively a century old blog. As we uncover and share this information we will start to learn about the history of the Sheffield Jungle, informing the other research areas of the website.
As the project unfolds we hope to instigate a series of events exploring and celebrating the Sheffield Jungle, and we encourage your interest and involvement.
The project will run from Autumn 2010 to Spring 2013 - covering both visits of the Bostock Jungle to Sheffield. Each Jungle (1910-11 and 1912-13) will be documented "as it happened" through local news. The equivalent of the interim period will be used to develop a broader set of research articles and engagement. On completion of the project we will publish a series of articles and a book on the history of Sheffield Jungle and linked entertainment in the Sheffield region.
We welcome your feedback and contributions to this project - contact us via telephone 0114 2227293 or via email to nfa@sheffield.ac.uk.
* Click here for weekly updates on the project *
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