Exeter Exchange

The Exeter Exchange originally housed small shops (milliners, drapers, hosiers) on the ground floor, and rooms above which were let to the Land Bank.

In April 1770, Giovanni Battista Gervasio, an Italian mandolinist who toured Europe, gave a concert in "the room over the Exeter Exchange.

The menagerie at the Exeter Exchange at various times included lions, tigers, monkeys, and other exotic species, all confined in iron cages in small rooms.

Cross renamed the collection the Royal Grand National Menagerie and employed a doorkeeper who was dressed as a Yeoman of the Guard.

When the Exeter Exchange was demolished in 1829, as part of general improvements to the Strand, the animals were dispersed to the new London Zoo in Regent's Park and Cross's new enterprise at Surrey Zoological Gardens.