The goose & crane enclosures have not been replaced by anything. If you follow BillyT's argument we would have no zoos, just in situ conservation. Shifting elephants out of the Casson was a good idea; it was a bad elephant house. The goose & crane paddocks were suitable for purpose and are a loss to the zoo.
On a slightly different note, does anybody know of any indoor photos of the old 19th century elephant house that was demolished between the wars?
Now that it seems to be planned to mix with the new tiger enclosure (malayan tapirs in the camel yard etc), I thought it'd be great if they set up some 'mini clore rainforests' in the animal houses where the light shines through; the height in those would be great for free-flying birds and livingstone's flying foxes.
Actually the tiger developments are a good opportunity for a rebirth of this building - I'm (cautiously) optimistic it'll be a lot better utilised if/when these works are completed.
I love this building, probably more than any other building in London Zoo. As the sign says, it is incredibly iconic, and almost as a result of that isn't suitable for a cosmetic 'makeover' in my opinion. Many suggestions have been made on this site, often for rainforest-themed indoor exhibits, or indoor holdings for primates, however I think to see such a concrete monolith sprinkled with sickly tropical plants and some bats/monkeys/birds would, after a short time, look ridiculous.
I would love to see it become a museum with a life-sized sculpture of every elephant that has lived there and since died, in the public area, so that visitors can walk among them, read their stories, and understand, in a very dramatic and poigniant way, the distance we have travelled as a society in the way we present and hold animals in captivity.
Outside, I think the building needs to be allowed to stay the monstrosity that it is, no lick of paint or wood cladding, but for dense shrubs and treess to be growing up around its edge. It needs to represent a forgotten era of zoo exhibition. I am hopeful more planting will happen as part of the tiger exhibit.
After browsing their plans for the tiger exhibit, I do think that the tapirs, if moved to the casson, would be one of the most suitable species to use the indoor elephant grottoes and the hippo indoor pool on that side of the house. I don't think the Casson needs to be either a museum piece or an animal house, I think there can be elements of both.
I don't think they should knock it down-it may be as ugly as sin but it's an important part of London zoo's history however it's wasted inside at the moment although hopefully the tiger developments might help this.
During my work experience with an archaeology company I can say EH (english heritage) are very stubborn over changing grade listings-an example is Park Hill flats which are a hideous blot on the landscape and falling apart but have been preserved by EH for no reason despite many peoples objections -in short the casson won't go in the forseeable future!
John Edwards has obtained a photograph of the interior of this building; it will be included in the next edition of his book “London Zoo from Old Photographs”.
Is this going to be a wholly new book, or an expanded version of John's previous volume? if the latter, then that is good; if the former, then that is excellent.
