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sooty mangabey

The River Hall, April 2014

In a wonderful zoo, this building is now thoroughly depressing. There was a time when it was one of the greatest zoo buildings in Europe. Now it is just a mess.

The River Hall, April 2014
sooty mangabey, 4 May 2014
    • sooty mangabey
      In a wonderful zoo, this building is now thoroughly depressing. There was a time when it was one of the greatest zoo buildings in Europe. Now it is just a mess.
    • dean
      what was in here SM? I don't recall it from my only visit some 20 plus years ago.
    • sooty mangabey
      This central area was once host to the zoo's reptile collection (and possibly its fish as well - I'm not sure). There are now just a very few displays on the periphery. To the left were various aviaries, some of which were walk-throughs. These are still there, but looking pretty shabby. To the right was the ape accommodation (now just the gorillas - which is for the best, probably), as well as giraffes, elephants and probably others too. This bit has recently been refurbished, for rhinos and pygmy hippos, although I did think it was looking pretty bland.

      Behind the position from which this picture was taken is the zoo's cafe (not the best, but not the worst), a funny little shop with almost no stock at all, and some of the most malodorous toilets in the Netherlands.
    • lintworm
      They also had a nice array of fish species in here, but due to necessary budget cuts, the house has been thoroughly emptied...

      btw. the name is rivierahal.
    • PeGe
      It's a playground now. the toilets are still horrible, some bird cages and marmosets are still in the aviary-greenhouse, but more mice than wanted inhabitants,..i was really disappointed to see "the legend" that way looking. I really like reptiles and amphibians, and the collections and succeeded breeding results were absolutely stunning there. But the house also aged, i don't want to know what it costs to heat it up. Either or, the magnifiicent glory days of this amazing zoo-building are...over
    • lintworm
      The cost to keep it heated with all the enclosures was enormous and due to huge budget cuts (because municipal subsidies were minimized), they closed it down as a reptile house, just to save budget...
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  • Category:
    Rotterdam Zoo
    Uploaded By:
    sooty mangabey
    Date:
    4 May 2014
    View Count:
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    Comment Count:
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