ZSL London Zoo The Mappin Terrace bear enclosures

I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were some health and safety / parts of the structure falling down concerns too. I do know that parts of the aquarium were nearly closed down due to structural problems at about this time. There has been a fair amount of remedial work since the mid eighties and it doesn't all appear to be purely cosmetic.

Various plans included the artcic exhibit, Szechuan encounter and a mountian gorilla enclosure before the short lived 'Bear Mountain'.

 

did they actually plan on bringing in mountain gorillas or was it just a mountain themed enclosure?

I'm sure I saw designs for this somewhere, I remember thinking it looked bigger on paper than the actual site was in reality. It might be in a guidebook, I know the arctic exhibit went far enough for it to be announced as future plans in a guidebook too.

 

No, it was a planned exhibit space for their existing group of lowland gorillas.

The gorilla exhibit plans emerged after the 'save our zoo' campaign of the early 90s, possibly due to the departure of the last Panda, I'm not sure.

 

Sorry, that confusion is my fault, 'mountain' gorilla enclosure, not Mountain Gorilla enclosure. I think the plan was in about 1990 and did make it into the frount of one edition of the guidebook, aswell as an article I have by Jo Gipps.

 

It was proudly announced it was going to be 'Europe's largest Gorilla breeding Centre'. I can't imagine a (gorilla keeping) zoo with less qualifications to undertake that role!

The bears on the Mappins did a least have long views in two directions and other animals (the sheep & goats) to see from their enclosures. I think they may have got rid of them because of the unsafe nature of the whole structure, particularly the 'behind the scenes' tunnels and dens underneath.

 

Discussions on the underwater viewing window prompted me to look through my collection of old London Zoo guides.

Although the Mappin Terraces were opened in 1913, the guidebook for 1913 was evidently written before they opened as the text mentions that the Mappin Terraces “will be erected during the summer of 1913”.

When the 1914 guidebook was written, the Mappin Terraces were stocked with bears, although no reference is made to an underwater viewing window.

However, the 1915 guidebook mentions that glass windows have been installed so that the bears “may be seen by visitors as if they were in an aquarium tank”.

Clearly, therefore, even if not an original feature, the underwater viewing window dates from the very early days of the Mappin Terraces.

I would be very interested if anybody knows of earlier underwater viewing for polar bears at any other zoo.

 

I took this photo while visiting London Zoo this week, it was showing you the Aquarium layout, but you can just make out the bear pits ..