London Zoo War Memorial

Summary

War Memorial. Unveiled 1919, with Second World War tablet added later. Moved c.1952 from near the main entrance to this site to the east of Decimus Burton’s Three Island Pond. Erected to the employees of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) killed on active service in the First and Second World Wars. John James Joass (1868-1952). Portland stone.

Reasons for Designation

The war memorial at London Zoo is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: an elegant and unusual monument, modelled on a French Lanterne des Morts, also somewhat reminiscent of a dovecote, which is appropriate in its zoological setting;
* Historical interest: erected in memory of the fallen employees of the nation’s main zoo, and the world’s oldest zoo, and through its presence in a much-visited location it marks the local impact of world events;
* Group value: London Zoo is included within the Grade I registered landscape of the Regent's Park, and is an architecturally significant landscape in its own right with 14 other listed buildings including some of the earliest structures at the zoo, by Decimus Burton, inter-war landmarks by Tecton, and post-war buildings by Casson Conder and Lord Snowdon.

History

At the beginning of the First World War, the ZSL employed about 150 male staff, 92 of whom volunteered or were called up, which had a major impact on staffing at the zoo. Twelve of these men who fought were killed and their names are recorded on the memorial plaque: Henry D. Munro, Keeper; William Bodman, Helper; Albert A Dermott, Messenger; Arthur G. Whybrow, Helper; Gerald P. Patterson, Helper; William Dexter, Keeper; Robert Jones, Gardener; Henry G.J. Peavot, Librarian; Albert Staniford, Gardener; William Perkins, Keeper; Alfred I. Day, Helper; and Charles W. Dare, Helper.

After the war, the ZSL Council decided to place a permanent war memorial at London Zoo in their memory. The memorial was unveiled near the entrance gates in front of the Aquarium in 1919 and set in a small hexagonal kerbed garden. After the Second World War, a second bronze plaque was added with the names of the five ZSL men who died in that conflict. The memorial was moved around 1952 and set on a plinth of three stone steps where it currently stands, overlooking the Three Island Pond. An inscription on the memorial is taken from the poem The Burial in England by James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915) and reads:

Till the red war gleam like a dim red rose
lost in the garden of the sons of time

The memorial’s design is taken from a medieval French Lanterne des Morts (‘Lantern of the Dead’) at La Souterraine in the Creuse Valley. The Scottish architect, John James Joass, was ZSL architect in the inter-war period, responsible for a number of buildings in the Italianate style, including the Aquarium, Mappin Café, Mappin Terraces, Pavilion Building, Regent Building and ZSL Offices and Library.

In 1914 the Zoo Council made special arrangements for the families of soldiers and sailors on active service to be freely admitted to the zoo, wounded soldiers and sailors to be admitted free on Sundays and British and Colonial troops of sailors, and Belgian refugees, were allowed half price tickets.

Details

A slender, octagonal turret 5m tall and 1m across on a three-step, post-war plinth. There are attached shafts at the angles and tall round-headed openings on each face, below a steep pyramidal cap surmounted by a cross.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 10 February 2017.

Sources

Books and journals
Guillery, P, The Buildings of London Zoo. Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, (1993), pp. 124-125
Chalmers Mitchell, P, Centenary History of the Zoological Society of London, (), (1929) pp. 161-62

Websites
War Memorials Register, accessed 10 February 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/11074
War Memorials Online, accessed 10 February 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/168967

Other
Information plaque at ZSL

End of official list entry

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