Chester Zoo Chester Zoo and the surrounding area

bongorob

bongorob

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15+ year member
In new species at Chester Zoo grantsmb asked

Do you know what percentage(approximately) of the land owned by Chester Zoo is used up by the existing zoo, and how much is currently undeveloped?

Does the additional undeveloped land surround the zoo on all sides?

I have now found a way to show the extent of the zoo's land.

The first picture is an ariel view of the zoo and the second shows the land owned by the North of England Zoological Society.

The present zoo occupies about 25% of the total land.

If you look for Caughall and follw the lane (Caughall Road) north as far as the canal (the dark line), the zoo owns the field east of Caughall Road bounded to the north by the canal. The hedgerow on the eastern side is the zoo's boundary. Below this large field is a dark green field owned by the zoo, as is the smaller field below it.

Where it says Chester, CH2 1LH the hedge is the southern boundary of the zoo's land.

The canal is the northern boundary of the zoo and if you follow this westward as far as the A41 overbridge and then go south east as far as the copyright information, then that is all the zoo's land.

To the left of the copyright notice are two small green fields to the left of the A41 and opposite the ploughed field. These are owned by the zoo.

The white building to the west of the car parks is Green End and this field is not owned by the zoo. The small group of houses where it says Caughall are also not owned by the zoo.

I hope this is easy to follow.
 

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Bongorob- That's very interesting. From looking at this plan and your description, it seems the Zoo owns most of the land on the three sides(north, east and west) of the existing zoo. Plenty of scope for major development then...

I can also see how a new, much larger elephant paddock could be created from the field(s) just east of the carpark, which though currently outside the existing zoo, adjoins the location of the elephant house. Do you think the location/siting of the new House took this into account?
 
I would think not. The elephant house was constructed in 1961 to replace the original one sited where the Jubilee Square toilet block now is. I have a vague memory of seeing Malayan Tapir in there, and of a terrible smell. I would be about 3 years old at the time. I hope the zoo does expand its elephant paddock, they look so much better on grass.

The 1961 house was named Pachyderm House, (an early attempt to educate visitors perhaps) and was home to African and Asian elephants, Common Hippos and Black Rhinos. With the arrival of a pair of Southern White Rhinos a new Rhino House was built in just three weeks and the black rhinos were transferred. Somewhere I have a picture of a rhino in what was to become the tapir paddock.
 
Actually I meant the brand new elephant house- but I'm still not clear if this replaces the old(1961) house, or part of it, or is on an adjacent site. Anyway, I can see how the elephants could access a paddock to the North of the house- if one was created.

I remember the Hippos in the elephant house,(have a postcard too) and both Brazilian and malayan tapirs in that house too. The rhinos were already in the 'rhino' house by the time of my first visit. It was quite a long time before I managed to visit Chester as I live(d) in Southern England. I went principally to see the Mountain(eastern Lowland) gorillas on that first occassion but even then I was impressed by the whole zoo really. On subsequent visits I got to know more animals, such as the two chimpanzeee groups, the male Orangutans and the monkey house and baboon cages(remember them- like big litter baskets...) the big Wapiti stag 'Paul' with his hinds in the enclosure by the small entrance gate etc etc I can't remember seeing the female African elephants before the Anthrax outbreak killed them, though I have an old postcard that shows them- I do remember the bull African though as I saw him a number of times.
 
The current elephant house utilises part of the 1961 house, but most of it stands to the rear of the previous building. I would expect the zoo designed this building with expansion in mind, I think it was advertised as phase 1. The main enclosure is of course, the 1961 paddock and the extension of a few years ago. The bull elephant paddock is the former hippo enclosure. Part of the main entrance shop is where the tapirs used to be kept.

I remember the old baboon pens, when my brother was a toddler he thought it would be a great idea to climb through the barrier hedge and play with the monkeys. Luckily my parents put a stop to his ambition.
 
In that case I feel sure eventually the field North of the ele. house will be used for a big paddock for them- I've heard this mentioned a number of times, though perhaps it may not be for some while yet.

What other monkeys did the Baboon cages hold? I remember Mandrills and Hamadryas, was that all? In those days the Monkey House proper had only indoor cages, with pairs of a wide range of species. Later they built on small outside cages( on one side only)- the building is the same one in use today, but not recognisable...
 
I can see this thread rapidly deviating, but it is interesting what Chester used to be like. My very first visit was only say 5 years ago, maybe after (It was soon after the opening of Tsavo) so I have no experience of what the zoo was like in the 70s and 80s. (in fact I have no experience of the 70s at all! I was born way too late for my liking)

I was wondering, where did the zoo used to hold cats? I once found an old species list that had about 20 cat species on it I was wondering where they once were. I remember there used to be cheetahs in where the Pudu are, and Servals in where the cassowaries currently are. I'd never seen a Cheetah (in fact still haven't I don't think!) because my first visit was quite soon after the last Cheetah (jambo?) had died and they'd moved the servals across into their exhibit. Didn't Chester keep leopards and loads of small cats like ocelot and jaguarundi?

Also, is it true that the zoo used to keep sun bears in the small round enclosure near the pedestrian entrance which held bushdogs for a long while and since has had otters and mongoose in?

Where were the old baboon cages you're mentioning?

Thanks for in advance for letting me pick your brains!
 
Bongorob can probably answer these questions more fully. I do remember the Cat collection, it was in a large prefrabricated structure containing two rows of gravel-floored outdoor cages, about eight per row, with the indoor dens(offshow) forming a central spine which provided a rockwork backdrop to each cage. It had most species of medium and smaller cats, from Jaguars downward, though eprobably Cheetahs would have been given an open paddock somewhere. I remember the building clearly but not its exact location in the zoo, ditto the baboon exhibits though I think the two were fairly close to each other and may have been not too far from the Pedestrian entrance(?).

I used to visit Chester zoo quite frequently many years ago, but nowadays my visits are much further apart- I once went 16 years without a visit- but now average one once every two or three years.(hoping to visit shortly)
 
Great description of the zoo's property, bongorob.

It appears that the zoo's carpark is in the middle of the zoo's property. Might the zoo move its entrance and carpark or would the zoo develop around the existing carpark and zoo entrance?
 
The plan is to leave the car park and entrance where they are now and a new area of the zoo will be built north of the car park, but this could be at least 20 years away.

The new entrance was purposely situated on its current site with the zoo's expansion in mind.
 
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