Elephant and Rhinoceros Pavilion, London Zoo

Elephant and Rhinoceros Pavilion, London Zoo

This animal house was designed in 1961 and built between 1962 and 1965 by Sir Hugh Casson, Neville Conder and Partners, with Jenkins and Potter as engineers and Peter Shepheard as landscape architect. F.A.P. Stengelhofen, architect to the Zoological Society of London, was consulted throughout the project.

The building is constructed from reinforced concrete with ribbed walls formed in three main pours. The rubbed texture of the concrete was deliberately designed to prevent the animals from rubbing against the walls and injuring themselves or the structure. An inner skin of brick supports the walls, and the roofs are conical and clad in copper.

The pavilion is set within an enclosure of purple brick walls, a ditch, and a raised paddock surrounded by purple brick paving and plinth. The animal pens inside are lined with mosaic, while the public spaces are spanned by laminated wood beams set in metal shoes. All the finishes are carefully considered, tactile, and finely detailed, forming an essential part of the building's exceptional quality.

The complex adopts a concave form designed to resemble animals drinking at a pool. It was conceived to house four elephants and four rhinoceroses in paired pens, each with access to separate sick-bay pens and moated external paddocks. Heavy double doors lead to the entrance, approached via steps for public access. Staff areas have slit windows; other windows are incorporated as skylights. The animal pens themselves are arranged in a circular arrangement to reflect the turning movements of the animals and to avoid sharp corners or spaces difficult to clean. They are each top-lit, with funnels that combine light provision with extract fans.

Members of the public circulate through a central hall at a slightly lower level, following an S-shaped route with a sunken viewing area and integral fixed benches separating them from the animals. The public spaces are kept dark whilst the pens are lit from above, creating an effect likened to a theatrical cyclorama. The complex also includes an elephant bathing area and a keeper's mess room; the mess room is notably the only area whose form does not directly follow from functional requirements.

The Elephant and Rhinoceros Pavilion was one of the earliest and most significant buildings constructed at London Zoo following the Redevelopment Plan of 1956 devised by Stengelhofen and Casson and commissioned by Lord Zuckermann. The building reflects Casson and Conder's extensive experience in exhibition design, having been deliberately conceived to display these massive animals in the most dramatic way possible. It continues the approach established by the neighbouring Penguin Pool, designed by Lubetkin and Tecton, in which the architecture of the building reflects the character of the animals it houses and encourages them to display themselves naturally.

The design shows a debt to Tecton's circular elephant pens at Whipsnade Zoo, rather than to their unbuilt 1938 scheme for London Zoo. The architectural language employs the building's massive curves, textured surfaces, and distinctive silhouette as analogies for the animals themselves. This stands in notable contrast to the featherweight, soaring form of the nearby Snowdon Aviary.

The Elephant and Rhinoceros Pavilion represents the most mature, carefully considered, and richly detailed example among a succession of British zoo buildings erected between 1931 and 1965, and stands as the finest permanent building by one of the leading architectural practices of its era. The design demonstrates masterful technique through its dependence on lighting, scale, and colour, creating a close and practical relationship between the public and the animals within.