I think it was, I cannot think of any other very early exhibits that still house animals - most are used for other purposes, although I think there is still off-show accommodation in the rear of the old Ape House (there was the last time I was in it, but that is a few years ago now). Casting my mind around the park I should say the Meerkat house with the glass-fronted viewing area is now the oldest part of the zoo still housing animals on show to the public. From memory it dates from the mid-1960s when it was constructed as the housing for the cat cages. I suppose "The Stables" does incorporate walls of earlier exhibits, but as the building occupies the site of the original Dolphin House it is in nothing like its original form.
I think it was, I cannot think of any other very early exhibits that still house animals - most are used for other purposes, although I think there is still off-show accommodation in the rear of the old Ape House (there was the last time I was in it, but that is a few years ago now). Casting my mind around the park I should say the Meerkat house with the glass-fronted viewing area is now the oldest part of the zoo still housing animals on show to the public. From memory it dates from the mid-1960s when it was constructed as the housing for the cat cages. I suppose "The Stables" does incorporate walls of earlier exhibits, but as the building occupies the site of the original Dolphin House it is in nothing like its original form.
I think what is now the Sealion Centre was opened in 1967 so that would have been a little after the cat cages (Bubbles of this site unearthed a few press cuttings about Dolphins arriving for the new building and they were from 1967). The original Dolphin House was still in use in 1966 as that is when Winnie the Pilot Whale had her brief Flamingo Park career. The Lions had originally been on what became the Bird Walk and I have early memories of seeing them there, but then the cat cages were built followed by the Lion and Tiger House in the later 1960s That house was one of the major developments of those years along with Ocean World and the new Elephant House.
