Poole Aquarium and Serpentarium

One day in 1988 I set out to visit Poole Aquarium. When I arrived at the site I found out that ut had closed a few weeks earlier. Right place, wrong time.
 
I have fond memories visiting here as a child with my nan and grandad! Can't believe it shut down in 2002. I was just reminiscing about my childhood holidays at my grandparents who lived in Poole and found this thread. The aquarium is a prominent memory of mine! I remember ever so clearly the massive nursing shark. I was very young and small so it seemed HUGE to me. I was sad to read it shut down but very happy to read so many lovely memories :) that's all I came to say! Couldn't leave this thread without carrying it on years and years after it started. Kinda heartwarming and i don't know why, but feel a little closer to my grandparents again hearing others memories too.
 
Somewhere I never got around to visiting due to the challenging design for someone who has stairs as a nemesis!
 
Inspired by the new posts here, I was looking around for more information on the place and found a few interesting snippets that I will post here.

First of all I have found several photographs from the place uploaded onto Flickr by David Bird, a former curator. The species shown include:
  • Malayan pit viper, Calloselasma rhodostoma - this species successfully bred here
  • Bull snake, Pituophis catenifer sayi - another successful breeding species
  • Haitian boa, Chilabothrus striatus
  • Ocellaris clownfish, Amphiprion ocellaris - this species successfully laid eggs
  • Macleay's spectre stick insect, Extatosoma tiaratum
  • Unidentified species of tarantula and leaf-cutting ant
These images can be seen here:
pooleaquarium photos on Flickr

The March 2022 edition of The Herptile, the journal of the International Herpetological Society, includes an obituary of Tony Phelps who established the place (known just as Poole Serpentarium at the time). When it opened, it had the largest collection of venomous snakes on-show in Britain. The species mentioned in this article were:
  • Ottoman viper, Montivipera xanthina
  • King cobra, Ophiophagus hannah
  • An unidentified species of rattlesnake - a deceased rattlesnake was fed to a king cobra
  • Although the article doesn't make it clear that they were kept at the Serpentarium, the relevant section also mentions the canebrake rattlesnake, Crotalus horridus.
Some further history from this article - Tony Phelps left the Serpentarium in the early 1980s after many of his snake specimens were killed by gases carried from the ventilation system of a pottery manufacturer in the basement of the building. Tony Phelps was replaced as curator by Gary Lilley, followed by David Bird in 1986.

The article can be read here (the Serpentarium section is on page 7):
https://wlv.openrepository.com/bits...Edison_Phelps_2022.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

Finally, perhaps also of interest, I found out that the place had a third name - as well as being called Poole Serpentarium and Poole Aquarium and Serpentarium, it was also called Natural World for a time. There is a guidebook from around 1990 from this iteration - the cover can be seen here:
https://www.leszoosdanslemonde.com/...uidebooks/poole_aquarium_guidebook_1990ca.jpg
 
Omg i think i have that guide book on my bookshelf! I'll have to go and dig it out. I love to go back in time and visit that place again, i have so may great menories of family holidays in Dorset when i was a kid in the late 80s and 90s and i have photos of me holding a python there!
 
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