Lounging in the Aq was performed by George Leybourne in answer to Alfred Vance's Walking in the Zoo. It shows Leybourne by one of the fish tanks in The Royal Aquarium and Winter Garden, the ambitious establishment in Toothill Street, Westminster, Westminster, opened in January 1876, intended to rival the Crystal Palace as a venue for exhibitions, concerts and plays. It was covered with a roof of glass and iron and decorated with palm trees, fountains, pieces of original sculpture, thirteen large tanks meant to be filled with curious sea creatures, an orchestra capable of accommodating 400 performers, and an unusually large organ installed under Sullivan’s supervision. Arthur Sullivan was on the board of directors, along with Henry Labouchere and William Whiteley.

The Aquarium adopted an expensive system of supplying fresh and sea-water from four cisterns, sunk into the foundations. This quickly ran into operating problems, and although fish were there for a short while, for most of its existence there were none, which became a standing joke; but the directors did display a dead whale in 1877. The all-day variety entertainments at the Aquarium gradually became less respectable, with billiards matches, novelty acts and side-shows of all kinds, and commercial stalls offering perfumery and gloves. George Robey made his first professional appearance at the Aquarium in 1891.