Hi all. I'm looking for information on the short-lived Oxford Zoo (1931-1937). I know the outgoing animal collection nucleated Dudley, but I can't find why closure was announced just five years after opening. Initial attendance was high, there were some major crowd-pullers, and the contemporary zoo establishment seemed supportive. Do any history buffs know why it closed? Thanks.
Sorry, was poor attempt at humour. The old Oxford Zoo in St Aldates, is now the home of Thames Valley Police Headquarters.
There is a brief chapter on the Oxford Zoological Garden in Clinton Keeling's book “Where the Lion Trod” (1984) but, unfortunately, this work provides very little information about the place. According to Clin, based on an article in “The Oxford Monthly”, a Captain F. W. Cooper took control of the zoo to avert “some kind of crisis” and he goes on to add “it rather implies there had been that old bugbear, financial trouble”. Frustratingly, no further details about the crisis or the financial problems are supplied. It would appear that the efforts of Captain Cooper were unsuccessful, though, as next we learn is that the animals are being sent to Dudley.
Some years ago I examined some papers* from the Oxford Zoo which are now held in the Dudley Council Archives and I wrote up an article for the Bartlett Society Journal#. Can't put my hands on it currently but maybe someone on here can. Whether it shed any light on reasons for closure I can't recall. Have had several sleeps since then. * "Some" papers because they were held in a damp location at Dudley Zoo and some (which I wasn't allowed to access) are now so mouldy that they constitute a health risk! # My article was in Journal 12 (2001). I note also that Journal 23 (2012) includes an article on Oxford Zoo by Jim Clubb.
In addition to the two articles in the Bartlett Society's Journals and Clinton Keeling's "Where the Lion Trod" the only other published account I am aware of is a booklet "Gosford Hill & Oxford Zoo" by John Amor and published by the Kidlington & District History Society in 2008. I must say that Shavington Zoo's article in the BS Journal 12 is the most informative in providing clues to the closure of the Oxford Zoo. Indeed in this article he revealed that invoices for the Oxford Zoo were being paid by the Dudley Zoological Society as early as February 1936 (Dudley Zoo did not open until 1937), and there is evidence that the Oxford Zoo site was owned by a third party, perhaps by a receiver. It does. therefore, seem likely that the Oxford Zoo had been in financial difficulties. Perhaps the newly-formed Dudley Zoological Society had been in a position to support Oxford Zoo, allowing it to remain open until much of the animal collection could be transferred for the opening of the new Dudley Zoo? Certainly obtaining animals already established in a UK zoo would have advantages over sourcing recently wild-caught animals from animal dealers.
