Due to this and perhaps coupled with the urban location, Dudley has always seemed a depressing place to me, ever since I first visited many years ago- it doesn't matter if its rain or shine. I can't imagine ever visiting there again now.
I've a sneaking fondness for the place myself - it certainly has a lot of less-appealing facets but there are some rather nice parts to the place and I have to admire somewhere which has - by and large - done rather well pulling itself out of a rather deep rut.
Dudley's problem is rather that it is stuck in a time-warp. Doesn't matter how much they try to improve and upgrade things on what always seems to be a shoestring budget anyway, they are always still left with all these historic past constructions which pretty much dominate the site.
Due to this and perhaps coupled with the urban location, Dudley has always seemed a depressing place to me, ever since I first visited many years ago- it doesn't matter if its rain or shine. I can't imagine ever visiting there again now.
When was your last visit? Dudley Zoo still has its many problems, but as you know it has improved a lot it the last 5 years. Perhaps a visit this summer is in order to make up your mind (Zoos always look nicer in the summer).
I guess that the first thing ZooChat members think of when they hear about Dudley Zoo is Tectons, Tectons, Tectons, crap area etc. However, I think it should be thought of separately, as an OK little Zoo in its own right.
When was your last visit? Dudley Zoo still has its many problems, but as you know it has improved a lot it the last 5 years. Perhaps a visit this summer is in order to make up your mind (Zoos always look nicer in the summer).
I guess that the first thing ZooChat members think of when they hear about Dudley Zoo is Tectons, Tectons, Tectons, crap area etc. However, I think it should be thought of separately, as an OK little Zoo in its own right.
As I said, rain or shine, I'm afraid it doesn't change my overall concept, gained from many visits to Dudley over a fifty years' span or more(my first visit was in 1963.). I do accept it has improved recently as photos on here demonstrate, but for me it is still fundamentally the same place locked in the same timewarp. Incidentally, two of my more recent visits took place in February, a couple of years apart. And both times there was a snowstorm, a freak coincidence. (I have been in the summer quite often too).
