Planet Zoo London Zoo 1985

I've spent the last couple of months re-creating my favourite childhood zoo - London Zoo, as it was back in the 80s. The majority of the zoo is based on as it was in 1980 but various parts go up to the early 90s depending on the available animals. It's been a challenge as I've built it in franchise mode and getting the look right whilst keeping the animals happy has been tough!

I've completed the North Bank & Central part of the zoo and am about 2/3rds of the way through the Southern part of the zoo so I thought I'd share a few screenshots, if you enjoy them let me know!

 

The North Bank
London Zoo is split into 3 areas by the Regents Canal & a road that both run through it. The North Bank is the farthest part of the zoo from the entrance and, as the name suggests, sits on the north bank of the Regents Canal. It is entirely composed of aviaries which makes it deeply unsuitable for recreating in Planet Zoo! I went ahead and did it anyway as I wanted the whole of the zoo to be done.

Snowdon Aviary
This is the largest aviary in the zoo and housed numerous perching & wading birds and a pair of raptors. In my zoo it holds a group of white Peacocks and Gharials (as there was no room for them in the reptile house). You can see flamingos in the screenshots but I replaced them with the Gharials as the walkthrough stressed them out too much.


Owls
This is a row of aviaries for Owls, sadly empty.


North Bank Kiosk & British Owls
This is a kiosk & further aviaries at the exit from the zoo, again sadly empty unless we get an aviary DLC.


East Bridge
This is one of the bridges that connect the North Bank to the central part of the zoo (with a final, empty aviary in the distance).

 

The media gallery on this site has had a serious hammering from me researching this so thank you to everyone whose uploaded old photos of the zoo, I love them!

 

This looks amazing so far!

 

I loved the North Bank — Goose and Crane Paddocks, Owl Aviaries, Pheasantry — all ruined now of course

 

I kind of hate computer games and zoo tycoon etc.

But this seems like quite an interesting project, how do you do this ? from memory ? photos / old guidebooks ? youtube / video footage?

 

Thanks!

 

Google street view is really helpful for the parts of the zoo that remain. The rest is a mixture of childhood memories, old guide books & the media gallery here which has been a massive help.

 

The central Area

Cotton Terraces
The zoo had an enormous collection of hoofstock here in the 80's, it's still there now but re-landscaped & with significantly less species so that they each have more room. Mine holds Giraffe, Okapi, Camels, Bongo, Gemsbok & Nyala. I had to resize some of the buildings to give the animals more room.



Canadian Beavers
An implied habitat at the moment. I may have got this enclosure confused with another one, would appreciate any feedback on it.


Clore Pavillion for small mammals
This held about 30 species I think! I have Pangolins, Aadvarks & both the Lemurs.



Round House
Originally built in the early 20th Century for Gorillas, mine has the Koala that were kept there in the early 90s.



Insect House
I really struggled with this one as I can't really remember it and I've only seen 1 photo of the inside and a floorplan.


West Tunnel
This is one of the tunnels that connects the central part of the zoo to the southern part.

 

Really interesting idea!

 

The South
The Southern part of the zoo is the largest part and where most of the big-name animals are kept. I'm about 3/4 of the way through building this now.

The Entrance
Much the same as today but without the ZSL branding


Sobell Pavillions for apes & monkeys
This is the first area you arrived at in the zoo. I believe it held all the great apes save Bonobos plus giant pandas and A LOT of monkeys. Mine has Giant Pandas, Gorillas, Orangs, Mandrills, Macaques & Capuchins. The area has mostly been replaced by Gorilla Kingdom now which is much more attractive and gives them more space.




African Aviary
There is a path North-East of the Sobell Pavillions with a large aviary. It's still there, I'd be interested to know what they kept here in the 80s?

 

Why?

 

I think its just a personal dislike of mine, I just prefer the real world to simulations but each to their own and this London zoo in the 80's thing is quite interesting.

 

I think I’m the other way round as you can control simulations easier than real life

 

Yeah, I can definitely see why people find them therapeutic as a way of being in control.

But I just prefer real life and the cut and thrust of things.

 

The Reptile House
Built in 1927 and still used for its original purpose, I love this building.


The Mappin Terraces
This artificial mountain was built in the early 20th century to house pelicans, pigs, bears & mountain goats across 3 levels. I love the concept of this and I think it was revolutionary for its time but in my opinion the reality was a pretty horrible enclosure for the bears. I've built mine about twice the size with 2 species of bear, I believe the original had about 6 species in half the space? The bears were moved out in the early 80s. Now the lower level holds emus I think. The top levels have been closed for years.





The Aquarium
Underneath the mountain is the aquarium. It closed a couple of years ago which is a shame as I loved it.


The Southern Aviary
Behind the Reptile House was an aviary for waterfowl. Mine has yet more flamingos in it of course.

 

The Casson Pavilion
This is where Elephants, Rhinos & Pygmy Hippos were kept until a few years ago when they were moved to Whipsnade. I think it would be fair to say that opinions on this building are mixed... I'm not an expert on animal husbandry but I can say with some authority that it is an absolute bugger to build in Planet Zoo

 

This looks amazing! You’ve really captured it. While unsuitable for elephants (or any large animal); this remains an impressive piece of architecture and one I’m glad to see London Zoo retain. The curved walls were apparently designed to distribute the force of the elephants head butting it etc. over a larger surface area to minimise the impact.

The Asian elephants were sent to Whipsnade Zoo in 2001, ending a 170 year tradition of keeping elephants at London Zoo; the last rhinoceros, a male black rhinoceros named Jos, left in 2002.

They’ve struggled to do anything meaningful with it in recent years. One of the more inventive suggestions I’ve heard (on ZooChat) was to turn it into a bat cave!

 

Thanks @Zoofan15 !

The roof is a mess when seen from above as I really struggled but I'm pleased with how the rest of it turned out. I loved seeing the elephants at the zoo when I was a kid but you're right, it's best that they've gone. I'm posting more shots on my twitter https://twitter.com/ZSHdesign to avoid spamming the forum. I will share a few more here when the zoo is finished though.

 

Almost done... Just working on the New Lion Terraces, then it's the aviaries, bird house, children's zoo & Wolf Wood and it's done. I thought I'd post this though as it's my favourite!

The Penguin Pool
A Planet Zoo version of the famous Penguin Pool designed by Berthold Lubetkin. Beautiful, but not very good for keeping Penguins in! They were moved to a massive new pool & beach eventually and this is now used as a fountain. I decided against using millions of plaster panels to create the elliptical shape of the original as I loved the more rounded, traditional Planet Zoo shape I got when I was experimenting with the standard wall pieces. It should have Humboldt Penguins in but I've made do with King Penguins for now.