South entrance gates and flanking walls to Bristol Zoo

The south entrance gates and flanking walls to Bristol Zoo were built in the mid-19th century. The gates are made of limestone ashlar and feature cast-iron gates.

The entrance includes a central two-leaf gate flanked by single pedestrian gates. Each gate has upper and lower panels made of vertically set rectangles with trefoil-shaped ends, and they are adorned with a bottom, middle, and top rail that showcases a quatrefoil motif. Above the top rail, there is a decorative feature known as brattishing. The four octagonal gate piers are topped with octagonal caps and ball finials.

In the mid-20th century, heraldic painted tile plaques were added to the central two-leaf gate. These plaques display a shield with two elephant heads above a bottonee cross, along with a scroll featuring the biblical quotation from Job 12:7: “ASK OF THE BEASTS & THEY SHALL TEACH THEE”.

The curved flanking walls are constructed of coursed carboniferous limestone and topped with ashlar coping stones. The iron railings consist of cylindrical verticals with brattishing above the top rail, and the walls gracefully rise to the terminating piers, which are faced in ashlar block.