The Exeter 'Change was built on the site of Exeter House, which was demolished in 1676, and then rebuilt as a market. By 1773 it was used as a menagerie, and there is a description of it in 1807, being full of lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes and other wild animals. It became a very fashionable place to visit and see the animals being fed. In 1829 it was demolished in the Strand improvement scheme, and in 1831 Exeter Hall was built on the site. Here at the Exeter 'Change, in Polito's Menagerie, Edward Cross kept some of his rare animals and birds. Cross was a dealer in these creatures and had many famous people among his customers, including King George IV and Lord Byron who said the hippopotamus reminded him of Lord Liverpool. The Menagerie later moved to the Surrey Zoological Gardens at Kennington. There is another watercolour of the same subject by Johannes Eckstein, dated 1798, in the Royal Library at Windsor