London Zoo was built for scientists and let the public in only later
When London Zoo opened in Regent's Park on 27 April 1828, ordinary Londoners were not invited. It was a research collection for fellows of a learned society, the world's first scientific zoo. Money troubles opened the gates to paying visitors in 1847, and it went on to pioneer the public aquarium.
Sir Stamford Raffles and the chemist Sir Humphry Davy founded the Zoological Society of London in 1826. Raffles secured the land and approved the plans, then died that July on his birthday, leaving the Marquess of Lansdowne to oversee the first buildings. Early fellows could see orangutans, greater kudus and animals now gone forever, including quaggas and thylacines. Animals from the Tower of London menagerie arrived in 1831, and George IV granted a royal charter in 1829. The society still takes no state money, living on memberships, tickets, venue hire and sponsors.
Innovation followed. The zoo opened the first reptile house in 1849, the first public aquarium in 1853, filled with creatures by Philip Henry Gosse, the naturalist who invented that very word, the first insect house in 1881 and the first children's zoo in 1938. The Giraffe House of 1837 remains the oldest zoo building anywhere still serving its original purpose. Believing tropical animals would die in London's chill, keepers kept them indoors until Peter Chalmers Mitchell took charge in 1902 and moved many outside, where they flourished. Mitchell also pushed for a country park, and Whipsnade opened in 1931 as the first open zoological park.
During the Second World War bombs struck several animal houses, and valuable animals were evacuated to Whipsnade. In 1962 an Arabian oryx named Caroline went on loan to Phoenix, Arizona, in the first international cooperative breeding scheme; the zoo now joins such programmes for over 130 species.
Its sprawling collection eventually became a financial burden, and a planned closure was announced for 1991. Public donations and visitors rescued it, a struggle chronicled in Molly Dineen's documentary The Ark. Today the zoo keeps more than 8,000 animals, with newer spaces such as an Asiatic lion enclosure styled as an Indian town.
Source: London Zoo
