YOU wait for an elephant to come along, and before you know it, there are 16 of them in a row.
This is Gorbals Cross in June, 1952, when Chipperfield’s Circus was in town, and what better way to drum up business than parading your elephants through the streets.
That’s quite a crowd they’ve got, although I don’t think I’d walk that close to an elephant’s rear end. And look at the lads standing on top of the spiked railings in the shop doorway. One slip and it’s a trip to the infirmary.
No concerns it seems about health and safety as the children appear able to walk up to the elephants without any restrictions.
The Chipperfield family claim they can date the business back to the 1680s when a James Chipperfield has performing animals at fairs.
The circus was at its peak when this picture was taken, with the then owner Jimmy Chipperfield taking the show all over Europe with a giant tent that could hold 6000 people.
He later diversified into safari parks as costs rose for circuses and they became under increasing pressure to drop the animal acts due to animal welfare concerns.
Chipperfield’s Circus, under the management of other members of the family, only tours intermittently now, and without animals, concentrating more on acrobats. Thy days of 16 elephants strolling through Glasgow are now long gone.
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