Funny how Colchester cannot seem to make a good map. This one is simple and easy to read, but does not look appealing at all and doesn't make it clear what is a pathway and what is an unused enclosure. The 2009 and 2010 design looks better, but is very busy and would surely make what is already a notoriously hard to navigate zoo even more frustrating. And the current one, although easiest to read, is the most boring, with dull silhouettes for the animals and identical greenhouse-like structures for all the buildings (even those which don't resemble greenhouses in the slightest, something which confuses me a lot).
I suspect this map is from 1999 to summer/autumn 2000. It's certainly interesting to see a map from the time when the zoo was undergoing probably the biggest expansion in its history so far - even though I was visiting at the time it was happening, I was never really aware that the Edge of Africa enclosures actually opened before the second phase of Spirit of Africa.
Also interesting to see that the zoo had some species I never remember seeing at the time - I cannot for the life of me recall the black mangabeys, Amur leopard cats or the anoa.
I had been planning to do a history of the different areas of Colchester Zoo, using the maps as guides, so this series of uploads is incredibly useful. Thank you for taking the time to put them up.
It's weird that Chester and Colchester arguably lead the way in the UK in terms of mammal species and being ABC zoos, but neither of the facilities can create a half-decent zoo map. Chester's maps are basically kiddie cartoons, and Colchester's maps are confusing and the zoo's awkward layout doesn't make things any easier.
I uploaded 17 zoo maps from Colchester and there's a range of styles and designs and none really stand out as memorable. However, as historical zoo documents they are priceless!
I know this is going to be a hot take, but I love Chester’s maps. The childish drawing style and illegible font do look silly, but they add character, and at least their map is actually helpful when it comes to navigation, unlike Colchester’s. It’s not as good as either ZSL map or what Bristol was once producing (I certainly hope which they adopt a similar map style for ‘Bristol Zoo Project,’ as I will reluctantly start calling Wild Place), but I really enjoy it.
