If you look carefully at this photo, you can see on the extreme right a building with a overhanging roof which would have been the Clock Tower, which is still standing, as is the Restaurant to its left.
These Bear Dens also stood until 1970. They were the last remaining element of the Zoo's Carnivore Terrace, which dated from 1843. Again, I can't remember them personally, but I suspect that that they might have been used to create rather good monkey accommodation.
Incidentally, in addition to polar bears, I can recall various other species of bears being kept here at various times including sloth bears, sun bears and spectacled bears; the latter were sent to Whipsnade in 1968.
Incidentally, in addition to polar bears, I can recall various other species of bears being kept here at various times including sloth bears, sun bears and spectacled bears; the latter were sent to Whipsnade in 1968.
Yes, young elephant seals were kept in the old bear dens near the Clock Tower.
The ZSL Annual Report for 1957 records that the Government of the Falkland Islands donated three southern elephant seals to London Zoo that year.
According to “Zoo Life” magazine (Spring 1957) these young elephant seals were housed in the den previously occupied by the famous polar bear “Brumas” (after this bear had returned to the Mappin Terraces).
I was only a very young child at the time and, frustratingly, I have no recollection of ever seeing the elephant seals here (although I do have some very vivid memories of other London Zoo animals from this era).
I do, of course, though have many memories of seeing the famous giant panda “Chi Chi” when she was housed in this part of the zoo.
From memory this enclosure was actually two semi-circular ones, divided by a grotto-style rockwork wall which perhaps contained the indoor dens also. The southward-facing one was surrounded by tall bars( as here) and contained the mixed bears during one of its later stages. The northward facing one was(again from memory) more of a concrete pit-style with a creeper-covered wall, and is where 'Chi Chi' lived- there are several postcards of her in this enclosure. I think it was also in here where the accident where she mauled the young keeper took place.
