The trio were as common a sight in seventies Chelsea as mini-skirts and Mary Quant eyeliner, driving around in a convertible Mercedes, dining in the finest restaurants and partying with glamorous women. And one of them was a lion.
Christian the lion cub was famous among the bohemian and glamorous social world which congregated in that trendy part of south west London and included The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix and Vivienne Westwood, as well as his owners Anthony ‘Ace’ Bourke and John Rendall, whose death at the age of 76 was announced today.
The Lion Man of Chelsea, as Rendall came to be known, and Bourke were flatmates who ran a furniture store, coincidentally called Sophistocat. They came across Christian in the pet department of Harrods department store, where back in the day you could buy tapirs, snakes, monkeys, pumas and even lions as well. This was before the Endangered Species Act of 1976, which made it illegal for exotic creatures to be sold to the public. For the princely sum of 250 guineas – about £3,500 in today’s money – Christian was theirs.
