ZSL London Zoo London Zoo and Whipsnade membership and attendances

[Mugcake]

I have been a Fellow of the Zoological Society for forty-seven years and don't recall ever receiving two half-price tickets on joining and renewing my membership.

It’s probably because a Fellowship outranks any form of purely paid membership, so those benefits were possibly exclusive to Lifewatch and similar schemes.

I’m not the one making the claim either way, it comes directly from ZSL: the link in my post is from the Wayback Machine’s archive of the London Zoo site, so they were the ones advertising that benefit. That capture is also from only 24 years ago, so it’s possible they didn’t offer those half-price tickets to Fellows in 1978, or in the subsequent years.

Since you have been a Fellow since the 70s though, can I ask what your path of entry was? At that time was it still something exclusive to active professionals in Zoology, Biology and other Life Sciences, or had they broadened it out to accept people of all husbandry or nature-related backgrounds?

 

[polarbear]

[QUOTE="Tim May, post:
[/I]
I have been a Fellow of the Zoological Society for forty-seven years and don't recall ever receiving two half-price tickets on joining and renewing my membership.[/QUOTE]

Hi Tim, I’ve been a Fellow for probably half your time, well done on your 47 years, and always got the paper half price vouchers sent each year on renewal; until COVID times when they changed the process afterwards to:

How to redeem your discounted tickets
We have changed the process for eligible supporters to redeem their discounted tickets. As a Gold Member, Fellow, or Patron, you can now redeem your half-price tickets simply by logging into your membership account during the booking process. The discount for eligible tickets will be automatically applied at the basket stage.

 

[Lafone]

ZSL actively market that as the primary benefit, and in certain circumstances a membership could generate more income for ZSL than from that same person’s visits as a non-member.

Somebody who’s at either zoo on a regular basis is more likely to recommend it to others, or purchase food and drink, or purchase items at the gift shop.

Some people could argue that the memberships are a bit too generous in regards to the unlimited visits for the year, but all those visits are fresh opportunities for ZSL to profit via the other methods.

Fun Fact: In ZSL Membership’s original iteration, Lifewatch, it only covered London Zoo. That being said, you got two vouchers for half-price entry to Whipsnade/half-price guest entry to London, the latter of which is one of the few benefits no current ZSL Memberships include.

It's also not correct there was no pass for Whipsnade in the same era, that it only covered London in terms of memberships, nor that it wasn't reciprocal; a separate annual pass for Whipsnade was available which covered 2 half price tickets to London or Whipsnade.

You can find the Whipsnade friends scheme referenced on the Whipsnade website on Wayback should you want to.

At the time the two annual passes were separated but they obviously later realised the benefit we see today of offering a ZSL membership as a package covering both zoos (there was no 'ZSL membership' offered at the time you reference, though Fellows covered both zoos indeed you'd be rather hard pushed to find ZSL references on the Whipsnade wild animal park site of the time).

 

[Alwaysevergreen]

I've noticed that recently, when I've gone to Whipsnade in my car, they've only charged £7.50 to drive in, rather than £15 they normally charge gold members. Not sure if it's to ease the car park in muddy conditions, but twice in the last month only been charged £7.50 to go in by car, and also got 20% off in the restaurant last week, rather than 10%.

 

[Lafone]

I've noticed that recently, when I've gone to Whipsnade in my car, they've only charged £7.50 to drive in, rather than £15 they normally charge gold members. Not sure if it's to ease the car park in muddy conditions, but twice in the last month only been charged £7.50 to go in by car, and also got 20% off in the restaurant last week, rather than 10%.

The car park change is the seasonal one, the reduced fee of £7.50 for gold members runs 3 November 2025 - 13 February 2026.

Car Parking and Car Admission | Whipsnade Zoo

 

[Mugcake]

Hi Tim, I’ve been a Fellow for probably half your time, well done on your 47 years, and always got the paper half price vouchers sent each year on renewal; until COVID times when they changed the process afterwards to:

How to redeem your discounted tickets
We have changed the process for eligible supporters to redeem their discounted tickets. As a Gold Member, Fellow, or Patron, you can now redeem your half-price tickets simply by logging into your membership account during the booking process. The discount for eligible tickets will be automatically applied at the basket stage.

@Tim May pinging you just to let you know @polarbear sent this to you earlier, seems like the quoting errored for some reason :/

 

[Tim May]

Since you have been a Fellow since the 70s though, can I ask what your path of entry was?

At time I became a Fellow, you had to be nominated for election by a Fellow who knew you personally and two other Fellows had to second your nomination.

 

[Tim May]

Hi Tim, I’ve been a Fellow for probably half your time, well done on your 47 years, and always got the paper half price vouchers sent each year on renewal; until COVID times when they changed the process afterwards to:

Thank you