Some eagle-eyed visitors to Battersea Park may have spotted a statue of a brown dog tucked away in the labyrinth of pathways but not many will know about its remarkable back story.
If you walk along the winding, leaf-strewn path to the north of the Old English Garden in Battersea Park there lies a serene sculpture of a small terrier, known as Brown Dog Statue.
But the story behind the statue is far from serene, involving tales of cruel vivisection experiments, mass demonstrations and a covert operation to rescue the statue under cover of darkness and a police escort.
Brown Dog Statue, erected in memory of dogs used in vivisection at the start of the 20th century, replaced an earlier statue of a canine, which was first put up in Latchmere Recreation Ground, in Burns Road, in 1906.
It bore the chilling description that read: “In memory of the brown terrier dog done to death in the laboratories of University College in February 1903, after having endured vivisection extending over more than two months and having been handed over from one vivisector to another till death came to his release.”
The current plaque references this in its description and also the “revulsion” of the people of London to the vivisection.
Early 20th century medicine deemed vivisection, where animals are operated on while alive, as acceptable practice and the pro-vivisectionist lobby took great umbrage, in particular, with the plaque’s description.
In 1907, under cover of thick fog, University College medical students attacked the statue with a sledgehammer, but they were soon rumbled by police.
But weeks later, a larger group of students, this time from across London, Cambridge and Oxford, led a demonstration which marched to Trafalgar Square and the park itself.
In response Battersea residents, angered by the treatment of their much-loved statue, started the famed Brown Dog Riots, which erupted for several days and led to counter marches by students, the burning of effigies and support from a newspaper campaign by the Battersea Borough News.
In an attempt to quell the situation, Battersea Council removed the statue under police escort in March 1910.
But rumours spread that the local authority had destroyed it, leading to the biggest march of all, when 3,000 people descended on Trafalgar Square once more.
The current statue was not erected until 1985 and has led a comparatively peaceful life.
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