London Zoo 1985

[ZSHplays]

I've spent the last couple of months re-creating my favourite childhood zoo - London Zoo as it was back in the 80s. It's been a challenge as I've built it in franchise mode and getting the look right whilst keeping the animals happy has been tough! The zoo looks very different these days IRL for the same reason I struggled with the enclosure sizes - animal welfare.

I've completed the North Bank & Central part of the zoo and am about 1/3 of the way through the Southern part of the zoo so I thought I'd share a few screenshots, if you enjoy them let me know!

Update: Now on the Workshop! Click here to download

The Reptile House

The Aquarium

The Round House

Arabian Oryx

 

[Urufu1997]

I do absolutely love these Buildings. Especially the Reptile House and the Aquarium.
I really need to get better with Building Sets. I think even if I would try as hard as I can, I wouldn't be able to build them. But I've also got way better at designing Roofs, so maybe I will also get good at using Building Sets.

I hope we will see more soon.

Wasn't the London Zoo the Zoo where the last Quagga lived? (ok, just looked it up. It went extinct before 1985)
I think if I'll ever build a historic Zoo, I will include a Thylacine Enclosure

 

[ZSHplays]

Thanks @Urufu1997 yes they had a quagga, the only photo of one alive was taken there, not sure if it was the last one alive or not? They had Thylacine as well.

Building is tough! This is my second attempt at the zoo, there is so much to learn!

 

[FoxyDee]

Wow, very impressive, cannot wait for more shots!

 

[random goat]

Wait...is the aquarium's roof made out of terrain? I would have never thought of doing something like that. Clever.

Everything else looks fantastic too!

 

[Cool Cats and Kittens]

Beautiful! My franchise zoo is heavily inspired for the historical cologne zoo, so I feel your struggle with the enclosure size

The least quagga in captivity died in 1883 in Amsterdam. Berlin was second to last and London third.

 

[ZSHplays]

Wait...is the aquarium's roof made out of terrain?

IRL it’s a man-made concrete mountain that the aquarium is built under, so I used terrain to get a smoother look than I could get with rocks.

 

[wowman]

Nice - very classic style looking zoo.

 

[ZSHplays]

The entrance to London Zoo is actually in the middle of the zoo due to the road that runs through it. As Planet Zoo puts the entrance at the North of the map I've had to put a fake entrance there, the 'real' entrance here is used for information and shops.

 

[Urufu1997]

It's weird that you've put 1985 on the Entrance. Does that mean it isn't supposed to be the real Zoo but a Zoo in modern Times that tries to copy the Look of it?
The Entrance looks great. I still need to learn to build better Entrances (and still wish they would let us delete the original Entrance Building completely and move the Parts that are necessary for it to work. Being able to move them would make it so much easier to build good Entrance Buildings. It's unfair that we can only delete the complete Building in Sandbox-Mode even though it's technically a Part of the Zoo)

 

[ZSHplays]

Hah, definitely not. Although now you’ve said that maybe I’ll remove it

 

[TheYeti]

These buildings are absolutely amazing!! I'd love to see more of it!

 

[ZSHplays]

The North Bank
London Zoo is split into 3 areas by the Regents Canal & a road that both run through it. The North Bank is the farthest part of the zoo from the entrance and, as the name suggests, sits on the north bank of the Regents Canal. It is entirely composed of aviaries which makes it deeply unsuitable for recreating in Planet Zoo I went ahead and did it anyway as I wanted the whole of the zoo to be done. Here are some of the enclosures:

Snowdon Aviary
This is the largest aviary in the zoo and housed numerous perching & wading birds and a pair of raptors. In my zoo it holds a group of white Peacocks and Gharials (as there was no room for them in the reptile house). You can see flamingos in the screenshots but I replaced them with the Gharials as the walkthrough stressed them out too much.

Owls
This is a row of aviaries for Owls, sadly empty.

North Bank Kiosk & British Owls
This is a kiosk & further aviaries at the exit from the zoo, again sadly empty unless we get an aviary DLC.

East Bridge
This is one of the bridges that connect the North Bank to the central part of the zoo (with a final, empty aviary in the distance).

 

[markun]

Looks great and you responded well to the challenge of building aviaries which will always involve compromises that can be unsatisfactory to some degree - until we get (hopefully) aviary building pieces anyway...

 

[ZSHplays]

Seeing as my game has been crashing every 3 minutes since last night I thought I'd post some more shots instead of screaming at my PC... this is the central part of the zoo.

Cotton Terraces
The zoo had an enormous collection of hoofstock here in the 80's, it's still there now but re-landscaped & with significantly less species so that they each have more room. Mine holds Giraffe, Okapi, Camels, Bongo, Gemsbok & Nyala.

Giraffe House
Built in 1837 and still used for its original purpose.

Canadian Beavers
An implied habitat at the moment

Clore Pavillion for small mammals
This held about 30 species I think! I have Pangolins, Aadvarks & both the Lemurs.

Round House
Originally built in the early 20th Century for Gorillas, mine has the Koala that were kept there in the early 90s.

West Tunnel
This is one of the tunnels that connects the central part of the zoo to the southern part.

 

[Spartan_Squat]

Love how you added the grain and details to fit in the 80s aesthethic!

 

[ZSHplays]

Quick photoshop filter before it’s uploaded for the vibe

 

[Spartan_Squat]

One question, you will upload the zoo to the workshop¿

 

[ZSHplays]

Yeh sure, Will be a few weeks at least before it’s finished though

 

[ZSHplays]

The South
The Southern part of the zoo is the largest part and where most of the big-name animals are kept. I'm about 3/4 of the way building this now.

The Entrance
Re-done per @Urufu1997

Sobell Pavillions for apes & monkeys
This is the first area you arrived at in the zoo. It held all the great apes save Bonobos plus giant pandas and A LOT of monkeys. Mine has Giant Pandas, Gorillas, Orangs, Mandrills, Macaques & Capuchins. The area has mostly been replaced by Gorilla Kingdom now which is much more attractive and gives them a load more space.

African Aviary & Clocktower
There is a path North-East of the Sobell Pavillions with a large aviary and the Clocktower. The clocktower was built in 1828 & originally housed camels (I don't know how they squeezed them in), by the 80's it was a shop.

Barclay Court
This is the main food & drink section of the zoo, it also had flamingos, parrots & gibbons.