London Zoo's Listed Building Problem

Zoos Ain’t What they Used to Be.
Modern zoos are not what they were even as recently as the 1960’s and this is a probably a good thing. I remember as a child being taken to see polar bears living in what looked like a concrete pit, where they had to endure baking sun with only a small, grey pool for their comfort, which seemed a poor substitute for the Arctic Ocean.



Mappin Teraces, 1972 photo by Sue Gilbert

This was at London Zoo, on the famous Mappin Terraces, which may have been architecturally innovative and apparently practical, providing a catchment for water to feed the aquarium below, but it was no place for a polar bear.

Constructed in 1913 in the newest fashionable materiel, reinforced concrete, the Mappin Terraces were jointly designed by Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell, secretary of the Zoological Society and Scottish architect John James Joass. The terraces were intended to simulate mountain scenery which it was thought would be a good backdrop for the display of bears and other creatures who could climb the rocks.  This illustrates the historic attitude; while London Zoo was established in the 1830’s as a collection for scientific study, the animals were on display to paying visitors by 1847 and though relatively well treated, their environmental requirements were not understood. Their primary function was to be an exhibit.

Today we know better, at least with some species, and there are no polar or any other bears at London Zoo, while its sister zoo at Whipsnade houses European brown bears in a large woodland enclosure. The now Grade II listed Mappin Terraces house Australian wildlife, emu, wallaby and others more suited to the arid, rocky environment. The only polar bears in the UK today live at the Highland Wildlife Park in the Cairngorms, where they roam in enclosures of several acres, with a lake and the climate is much more suitable for such Arctic species.






Menageries of animals existed in ancient times in Assyria, Babylon, China, Egypt, Greece and of course Rome, where animals were done to death in their thousands at the Coliseum and other arenas. Apart from these spectacles, menageries were private collections and not usually available to the general public, but reserved for the entertainment of the family and friends of their owners. They were often used for bear baiting or forced to fight each other and were housed in unsuitable, though sometimes grandiose, cages. When these unfortunate animals died, they were replaced by capturing another from the wild.  

The Royal Zoological Society’s London Zoo was founded in 1827 for scientific purposes, but the expense involved in maintaining and expanding a viable collection meant the public needed to be admitted and charged for the privilege. This followed from the practise at the Tower of London, where there had been a royal menagerie for six centuries. This had been open to the wider populace for half that time, Queen Elizabeth I was the first monarch to allow the public in.



Western Entrance with site of former Lion Tower

The first recorded wild creatures at the Tower of London were two lions in 1204 and King John ordered the adaptation of the barbican at the Western entrance, renamed the Lion Tower, to house them. This was not actually inside the palace walls, presumably in consideration of the danger, should the lions escape into the palace which was a royal residence until after the Tudors. Since then it has served many roles, as the secure home of the Royal Mint, the crown jewels, the royal menagerie and most notoriously as the royal prison, though far fewer people were executed there than is generally supposed.

The prisoners in the Tower were people of status and were housed in comfortable circumstances; the animals were less well treated. The menagerie housed animals in rows of two-tiered cages with arched entrances, enclosed behind grilles. They were set in two stories, and it appears that the animals were on display in the upper cages during the day and were moved to the lower ones at night. During the 18th century, the price of admission was three half-pence or the supply of a cat or dog for feeding to the beasts. By the Victorian era the menagerie was overcrowded, with sixty species of animal housed in the medieval cages. There were constant escapes and after several people were attacked the Duke of Wellington ordered the menagerie to be closed to the public.

Ravens' Cage by Decimus Burton, photo C1930

Many of the Tower’s animals, including lions, tigers, hyenas and bears were transferred in 1831 to the newly-opened Royal Zoological Society’s Zoo, in Regent's Park. Only the ravens remained, though one of the first buildings designed for the new London Zoo was Decimus Burton’s 1829 Ravens’ Cage, an elegant gazebo type enclosure if undersized for its purpose. The Raven’s cage is now one of the Zoo’s Grade II listed structures.

Displaying birds in zoos has always been problematic. The hunched form of an Andean Condor on a tall tree-stump has always been a sorry sight, in a cage where even if it could open its twelve foot wingspan, actual flight was quite impossible for such a large bird. The Snowdon Aviary, opened in 1960, shows a more modern and environmentally aware approach to the housing and display of birds, though there are no condors.

Snowdon Aviary with GPO Tower in the background, 1972

London Zoo contains ten listed structures, the most famous being the Berthold Lubetkin/ Tecton Practice designed penguin pool. The elegant modernist design earned it a Grade I status, one of only two at the zoo. This status must have angered the Zoological Society, as while Lubetkin’s graceful design displayed the penguins to wonderful effect and gave them great opportunities for swimming, it proved too shallow for the birds to dive and fell short in other ways, causing their health to suffer. A new penguin beach is now open, where they can nest and burrow and the Lubetkin pool has been relegated to a water feature.

Other listed buildings have presented problems for the Zoological Society.  Lubetkin’s other modernist marvel, the Round House also carries Grade I listing. It was designed to house gorillas, but was recognised as too small and today is occupied by less demanding ring-tailed-lemurs. The gorillas now live in recently built Gorilla Kingdom which has been created from the unlisted Sobell primate house. The elephant and rhino pavilion designed in 1960 by Hugh Casson lies empty apart from the occasional visiting camel, though when constructed it was intended to pay close regard to what were understood to be the best interests of the building's intended occupants. Nonetheless it has been listed as a Brutalist masterpiece.



Lubetkin/Tecton Penguin Pool, photo C1936

However not every listed building in the Zoo has proved a failure by modern standards. Decimus Burton, creator of the Ravens' Cage, was the zoo's official architect from 1826 to 1841 and he designed many of the zoo's earliest structures, including the clock tower, which though now considered too small to house llamas (its original occupants) provides a nesting site for many house sparrows in the roof above the first aid post.

Burton's East Tunnel is still in use, providing a vital link between the the two halves of the zoo on either side of the road.  The handsome Italianate giraffe house was also designed by Burton, in 1836 and is still in use as practical housing for these elegant mammals.