Sure it's old but not particularly attractive or significant. I value London Zoo's history and heritage but I'm not especially bothered about the loss of this building.
Does anyone know where the birds have been moved to?
Why does every thread about a building at London turn into a bash-the-Casson session?!
It's a fine building (albeit not for elephant and rhino housing!), it's just unfortunate enough to be in a style of architecture out of fashion at the moment. Think how many Victorian terraces were demolished in the mid-20th C., and what all those original Victorian features would command on the property market today. Architectural fashion, like all fashion, is transient.
To pick up on a couple of the comments above:
This was originally a refreshment building
The birds from this house had the same fate as most of London Zoo's bird collection; they just are not kept at the zoo any more. While one could argue all day about the balance between displaying a selection of the diversity of life versus keeping a smaller collection with more attention to individual species and better breeding results, I really miss certain groups that the zoo used to display well, and have now gone from the site, particularly geese and cranes. Getting rid of the long established goose and crane paddocks on the North Bank in favour of a mini nature reserve may not have been the best bit of zoo design ever...
Sorry about the Casson, and I'm sure it's an interesting bit of architecture, but it was possibly a worse elephant house than the old Victorian one that was knocked down pre-war. Certainly I never saw an elephant malking use of all the overhead perching space.
And yes, there were far too many parrots in this building for comfort, 'back in thday, many in small cages [although there were some quite acceptable indoor aviaries] and some even chained as recently as the 60s [early 70s?].
Yes, although I said a 'slice of history' I didn't mean to imply its not a good thing it was demolished. I hadn't realised it wasn't a bird house throughout its history though.
Re the Parrot collection it once housed; it was pretty much a postage stamp collection and like any Parrot House a very noisy place at times. I don't remember specific species held in it but I'll bet there were some rarities too.
The birds in here would have gradually died off and not been replaced I think. I have a feeling it still held some Parrots- even inside- after being closed to the public as I have memories of looking in the windows of the locked door and seeing birds inside.
The last birds I remember, much more recently, still in the outside aviaries in this photo were a pair of South African Cape Parrots and a pair of Ground Hornbills. Others?
I found out quite recently that John Gould displayed his magnificent stuffed hummingbirds in this building (before the parrots came) in 1851 - the year of the Great Exhibition - and they became one of London's top attractions, with everyone flocking to see the display. Even Queen Victoria spent quite a bit of time 'inspecting' the birds on a visit in 1857.
I found out quite recently that John Gould displayed his magnificent stuffed hummingbirds in this building (before the parrots came) in 1851 - the year of the Great Exhibition - and they became one of London's top attractions, with everyone flocking to see the display. Even Queen Victoria spent quite a bit of time 'inspecting' the birds on a visit in 1857.
I’m sorry to contradict you but John Gould’s stuffed humming-birds were displayed in an earlier Parrot House; John Gould’s impressive humming-bird exhibition was in 1851; this house was not built until 1869.
