‘Virtual zoo would bring magic to city’
ACIRCULAR lido, ‘wild island’ and 100-foot viewing tower would all be part of the “magic” of the world’s first virtual zoo if it is created at the current site of Bristol Zoo.
Members of the Our World Bristol campaign set out the case for their £75million project for the Clifton site – an alternative to the zoo’s plans for housing – at a public meeting last night.
Bristol Zoological Society, which owns Bristol Zoo Gardens, announced last year the Clifton site would be sold and the zoo would move into the Wild Place Project, near junction 17 of the M5 in South Gloucestershire.
It plans to sell the land with planning permission for housing to raise enough money to secure a “long-term sustainable future” for the society and its mission to save wildlife from extinction.
But architect and former city mayor George Ferguson told around 100 members of the public who attended the online meeting hosted by the Bristol Civic Society that the Our World Bristol proposal would bring more benefits to the city.
Mr Ferguson said the “world’s first augmented reality zoo” would be “entertaining but also hugely educational” for children right across the city and beyond.
Bristol Zoo’s plans to sell the land with planning permission for a “posh housing estate”, on the other hand, would make Clifton even less diverse and leave it “a rich person’s residential suburb”, he said.
The zoo will present its case at another online meeting hosted by the Bristol Civic Society on November 10.
Mr Ferguson and Clare Wilks, director at Bristol-based design and planning consultancy LDA Design, fleshed out the Our World proposal, which has had input from the team behind the Eden Project.
The plans would preserve the listed buildings at the 186-year-old zoo, demolish “the crud”, and enhance the landscape while keeping the lake, loop road and dozens of protected trees intact, they said.
A new circular lido and 100-foot viewing tower would sit alongside familiar landmarks such as the zoo entrance, the giraffe house, the lion house and the World of Water building.
A “wild island” that would be a “human no-go zone” would be part of the new landscape enriched with planting for bees and insects.
More entrances would be created so that members of the public would be able to enjoy the gardens for free, and a raised “gallery promenade” for visitors would go around the edge of the site.
Prices would be kept at a level that “doesn’t exclude anyone”, Mr Ferguson said.
Ms Wilks said the gardens would be a “playground for the imagination” and the “technology of tomorrow” proposed would keep the site relevant for the next 100 years.
Mr Ferguson said visitors would also encounter large beasts built by Arcadia, the company behind the giant spider that is a regular feature of Glastonbury music festivals.
Mr Ferguson said: “Regenerating the site is the most important thing to do...and creating magic.
“Augmented reality gives you the experience in the place. You can travel backwards in time, you can travel forwards in time, you can travel in scale. You can become the same size as a mammoth or the same size as other big beasts or insects that are on the site.”
Mr Ferguson said there would be no public parking, apart from some disabled parking spaces and a small number of “operational” car parking spaces. Instead, a shuttle service would connect the visitor attraction to Bristol Temple Meads and Park & Rides.