later a scale raised-relief map of Sevastopol featuring model armies which was updated daily to show the troop movements. When a large collection of captured Russian weaponry and uniforms was added in 1855 this exhibit attracted greater attention and was visited by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Among the more outlandish attractions were an Arctic exhibition featuring stuffed polar bears alongside a "living native of the Arctic regions", and the "Earthmen", a pair of pygmies from a tribe of Southern Africa that according to one hyperbolic advertisement "burrowed under the earth ... subsisting on insects and reptiles", but more reasonably were said to shelter in caves and hollows. Lectures on the exhibits and current events such as the Crimean War or the construction of the Panama Canal were held at regular intervals and "guides to knowledge" were positioned in the various galleries to assist and inform the visiting public. Competition, closure and demolition Although Wyld undoubtedly recouped his investment within the first year of opening, over the remaining nine years of its existence the appeal of the Great Globe slowly waned. The attraction continued to draw crowds, but it was never as successful as in 1851 when the Great Exhibition had pulled visitors into the capital. By the mid-1850s the building was looking shabby and Wyld had been forced to start using it as a venue for variety shows. Competition came from Burford's Panorama in the north of the square which ran topical shows just as Wyld did – Burford ran a panorama show of Sevastopol at the same time as Wyld was exhibiting his model. Burford's Panorama was the oldest of its type in London, having been established in 1790, but there were many similar attractions in the capital, among them the Diorama and the Cyclorama in Regent's Park, the panoramas of "London by Day" and "Paris by Night" at the Colosseum, the dioramas at the Gallery of Illustration in Regent Street, and the Panorama of Paris and Versailles in the Linwood Gallery in Leicester Square. The Panopticon of Science and Art, constructed in the square in 1854, also affected visitor numbers. The Panopticon was constructed by a consortium hoping to take advantage of the market for scientific and cultural attractions, but like the Great Globe it struggled to draw sufficient visitors. After two years the Panopticon closed down; it reopened shortly afterwards with the addition of a circus