The beginning
Chessington Zoo
It’s no secret that Chessington wasn’t always known as a theme park, it’s actually very much the opposite. Starting life as Chessington Zoo, the zoo itself was one of the biggest in the country, and was home to a whole host of animals that when your walking around the park now, you would never thought was there.
As many know, Chessington was all built around the Burnt Stub Mansion, which is now home to Hocus Pocus Hall. What many don’t realise is how it got to the point in the first place, or when the park started to operate as an attraction to the public. Chessington Manor was built in 1348, and became school for the Officers of Archery where Queen Elizabeth 1 visited and gave special permission to even work on Sundays.
Following this during the Civil war the Manor was used as a stronghold for the royalists, however was taken control by Cromwell’s men, and consequently set on fire and “burnt to a stub”. On the back of this after restoration in 1660 it was promptly renamed Burnt Stub Mansion, a name which is still with it to this day.
This wasn’t the end of the matter, with more fire damage in 1919, the mansion was once again restored to it’s former glory, before the thought of Zoological Gardens was to come to light several years after.
Much like the theme park opening, the Zoo also opened in July, 1931 was the year with attendances peaking at 2000 during the busy August period. Shortly after in 1933 the circus was added to the park, before the whole process was interrupted by the World Wars. 54 Bombs were dropped on the Chessington grounds during the war, with many animals being relocated to Paignton Zoo to avoid the animals escaping during attacks. In addition to this problem troops were also stationed at Chessington, with many men and animals falling to the bombs.
However since the war, the zoo was once again ready to thrive, and move forward as one of the biggest zoos in the country.
With the Zoo now out of the wars, restructuring was now complete and the park moved on to once again entertain the guest. With the park growing in popularity, the addition of the Circus was proving very popular, and the zoo was expanding yearly to include more and more animals.
Visitor numbers had increased, and coming out of the war a funfair was also added to the Zoo. although nothing like you’d expect a funfair to be like these days, Carousel, Mini Railway and play areas for children all proved popular as the Zoo continued to grow, and visitor numbers hit half a million a year.
Moving into the 70’s the Zoo was at it’s peak with the park now home to nearly 1000 animals, with over 200 species now present in the park. These included some big animals, Giraffe, Lions, Tigers, Bears of all sorts and Hippos were all at home in the Zoo. With the ever expanding fair and circus at an all time high, the mid 70’s proved to be the high points for the zoo, with only good things on the horizons. Below is an extensive collection of pictures from the 70’s, some exclusive, with the zoo animals at home in their surroundings.
Where did they live? What else was there?
Even for myself who has been visiting Chessington since theme park opening, I can only just remember some of the animals gracing where some big rides now stand. Below is a list of where your favourite animals were located in the hay day of the 70’s, in comparison to today’s top rides.
Lions and Tigers
Amazingly in the same place!
Camels
Located currently where the Gorillas are.
Seals
Had a pool next to the Sea Lions, in its current home.
Polar Bears
Top end of Bubble Works by Wild Woods.
Bird Gardens
At home where the Vampire sits.
Hippos
Where the Squirrel Monkeys now sit.
Bears
The Scorpion Express location
Giraffes
Outside of Tomb Blaster, leading into Jungle Rangers.
Leopards
On the drop to Tiger Rock.
Elephants
The edge of Dragons Fury leading onto World of Jumanji.
Bison
At the North entrance.
Penguins
At the same location.
Zebra
At the Sealife location.
Don’t believe us? Take a look at a selection of maps below. Very different to what you see in modern day Chessington!
To add value to the Zoo, Chessington also had it’s fair share of other attractions. The Circus was popular, the Mini Railway was also very popular and the park was now starting to add new rides to the Zoo, as an alternative for the animals. In addition, the Burnt Stub Mansion felt an exclusive place to eat for all.
OK these rides weren’t anything compared to modern day attractions, they were later joined by Cinema 2001 which lasted only a few years but for the park they were great additions. Below in the Mini Railway picture, you can see the very popular Dinosaur play area which also moved into the Theme Park era. Also take a look at the great Burnt Stub Mansion, not even close to what it looks like with Room on a Broom inside.
