The primate block nearest the Clock Tower (ie housing the mangabeys) is, more or less, on the site of two bear dens that stood there for some 130 years. They were the last remnant of the Carnivore Terrace built in 1843.
Chi-Chi lived in one den until 1967, when she was moved in preparation for the attempt to mix her with An-An, the Moscow Giant Panda, the following year. I think a pair of Spectacled Bears, later to be kept at Whipsnade in the old pens along Ouseley Way, were kept in the other at this time.
They were listed Grade I, but were demolished in 1970 to facilitate the erection of the Sobells. Allegedly the rationale was "nobody can protest if we just go ahead and demolish them"......
Yes, the spectacled bears were sent to Whipsnade in 1968.
Over the years, as well as the spectacled bears, I saw various different species of bears in that enclosure:-
sloth bears, polar bears, sun bears, Asiatic black bears (and that was in addition to all the bears on Mappin Terraces and the Kodiak bears once housed in the old Lubetkin Gorilla House).
I think even the Spectacled Bears were still sharing with one or two others(e.g. Sun or Himalayan maybe?) until they were moved. The Spectacleds were called 'Spencer' and 'Nina'. After 'Nina' died at Whipsnade, the male 'Spencer' was sent to Jersey.
Thanks for posting this. I have only ever seen it in the postcard picture and on zoo maps. Whilst not suggesting it was a perfect Giant Panda enclosure, it looks much better than I had imagined. Was this actually both sides 'knocked through'?
Again, I am too young to remember these dens. But they certainly look better than the Mappin Terraces.
It's hard to avoid the feeling that there were corners of London Zoo sixty years ago where, either with or without the acquisition of the ten acres, the zoo would have done better to have retained existing structures, and modernised them for suitable occupants.
