Giraffe House and Hippopotamus House on the Cotton Terraces is a Grade II listed building in the Westminster local planning authority area, England. First listed on 5 February 1970. Zoological pavilion.
Giraffe House and Hippopotamus House on the Cotton Terraces
- WRENN ID
- dim-chancel-briar
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Westminster
- Constituency
- Cities of London and Westminster MP: Rachel Blake (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 5 February 1970
- Type
- Zoological pavilion
- Address
- Giraffe House and Hippopotamus House on the Cotton Terraces, Zoological Gardens Nw1, City of Westminster
- OS grid reference
- TQ 278 834
- Coordinates
- 51.53584, -0.15781
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Giraffe House and Hippopotamus House, located on the Cotton Terraces in Regent's Park, were built around 1836 by Decimus Burton for the Zoological Society and have since been restored. The buildings are constructed of stock brick and feature slate roofs. The central pavilion, designed for giraffes, is accompanied by a lower east wing that originally served as the hippopotamus house, while the west wing is a matching addition, likely by Salvin. Each pavilion is a single storey with three bays. The central pavilion has tall stable doors with semi-circular arches and a linking impost string, while the flanking pavilions also feature similar stable doors. The central pavilion is topped with pediment gable ends and has deep bracketed eaves. The flanking pavilions include a cornice band and a blocking course. Decimus Burton was responsible for landscaping the original gardens and designing the zoo buildings for the Society between 1826 and 1841, drawing influence from the Paris Jardin des Plantes.
Local climate
Giraffe House and Hippopotamus House on the Cotton Terraces sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 700 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 93% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 94% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 51% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 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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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
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