Elephant House is a Grade II* listed building in the Central Bedfordshire local planning authority area, England. Zoo exhibition.
Elephant House
- WRENN ID
- vacant-panel-sparrow
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Central Bedfordshire
- Constituency
- Luton South and South Bedfordshire MP: Rachel Hopkins (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Type
- Zoo exhibition
- Address
- Elephant House, Whipsnade
- OS grid reference
- TL 003 177
- Coordinates
- 51.84898, -0.5445
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Elephant House is a building from 1935, designed by Lubetkin and Tecton, located at Whipsnade Zoo. It is constructed from reinforced concrete and is a single-storey structure. The design features a long, low profile with a bowed front and a light cantilevered canopy that extends the full length of the building. The canopy is glazed beneath the center, although this glazing was altered in the late 20th century. The building is supported by pilotis on each side. At the rear, there are four cylindrical cubicles for housing young elephants, each topped with a low-pitched metal-covered roof that has a circular opening at the apex for natural light.
Local climate
Elephant House sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 78% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 77% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 36 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 64% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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