Tropical Bird House At Dudley Zoo

The Tropical Bird House at Dudley Zoo is a striking, early 20th-century reinforced concrete building designed around two concentric circular plans. The concrete structure features extensive glazing in the roof and sits on a circular platform faced with rubble stone. The building is two storeys high, appearing taller when viewed from the south. The upper level is a drum-shaped structure finished with a moulded grid pattern, topped by a cantilevered balcony with three shelters created from floating slab roofs. A smaller drum sits beneath the balcony, which previously housed a transformer station and heating plant. Access to the upper drum and balcony is via a bridge beneath a roof slab with a deeply convex front edge. The entrance doorway is slightly set back. The reinforced concrete roof, in the form of a partial inverted flat cone supported by plain columns, is structurally separate from the circular outer wall, joined only by a continuous double-glazed roof light. The balcony is characterised by a low parapet wall with elliptical-section steel struts, providing seating and views. Internally, the bird enclosures along the circular wall and the central wire-mesh aviary have been removed, although their structural supports, formerly used to conceal heating pipes, remain. The building demonstrates group value as an exceptional example of modernist design within a zoo setting.