African elephant at Southampton Zoo in 1981

This was a terrible place by all accounts!

It was a circus 'trading depot' run by none other than Jimmy Chipperfield, so what do you expect?

That's a bit unfair as Heythrop zoo is pretty much a trading depot, and the conditions there are perfectly acceptable.

I was reffering to the points:

a. They were traded to circuses, renowned for unsuitable conditions.
b. It was operated by Jimmy Chipperfield, a man seemingly more interested in his paying public then his animal's welfare.

So you just meant it looks bad because it was run by Chipperfield? Fair enough I guess due to the cruelty charges and that.

All the safari parks except Windsor were Chipperfield-operated but they get plenty of praise on this forum.

Southampton Zoo

It wasn't that good. I have uploaded a picture of the entrance.

Two photos of chimpanzees at southampton zoo

Two more photos.

I wasn't there myself, but someone I know who was at the unveiling of Marwell's ice rink in 2007 said Chris Packham, who was there to open it, recalled childhood memories of visiting Southampton as a child being completely unaware of just how bad the conditions were as he hadn't grasped the concept at that age. Likewise, the person who told me about this had exactly the same thoughts as a child.

Ohh, I've heard loads of awful stuff about this place? Was this the place with the smoking gorilla?