{"id":33583,"date":"2024-02-22T10:30:53","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T09:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=260777"},"modified":"2024-02-22T13:11:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T12:11:34","slug":"the-madcap-world-of-the-victorian-circus","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/the-madcap-world-of-the-victorian-circus\/","title":{"rendered":"The madcap world of the Victorian circus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Historian John Woolf introduces the performers and promoters of the Victorian travelling circus, and explains why the entertainment held such appeal for the 19th-century public <\/p>

By Dr David Musgrove\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 22 February 2024 at 09:30 AM<\/p>

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What was it like to step inside the \u2018Big Top\u2019 of a 19th-century travelling circus?<\/p>\n

In this bonus episode accompanying the HistoryExtra podcast series The Tiger Tamer Who Went to Sea<\/a>, David Musgrove speaks to Dr John Woolf about the rise of the travelling fair, the railways that allowed its transformation into one of the biggest entertainment spectacles of the era, and the circus\u2019s most famous and complicated characters, from PT Barnum<\/a> to Buffalo Bill.<\/p>\n