‘It’s a sad day’: Bristol zoo welcomes last visitors before closing

theguardian.com:

For 186 years, visitors have flocked to Bristol Zoo Gardens and marvelled at the sights and sounds of the animals that have lived there, including Alfred the gorilla, Roger the rhino and Zebi the Asian elephant – the latter renowned for removing and eating straw hats in Victorian times.

On Saturday afternoon, the final guests will be ushered out of the 12-acre site in Clifton for the last time and the tricky process of closing down the world’s fifth oldest zoo will begin.

Some of the animals will be moved by Bristol Zoological Society to a much larger out-of-town site five miles away, others shipped to zoos across the world. The land will then be developed for housing, and the roar of the lions and chatter of the gibbons will be heard no more.

“I’m devastated, to be honest,” said John Partridge, 68, a recently retired keeper who worked at the zoo for 45 years. “It’s a beautiful site. Everyone loves it.” He began as an ape keeper in 1975 and remembered the orangutans being taken for walks around the terrace. “That was when their new house was being built and there was a bit of a space issue.”

Partridge lives close to the zoo and likes to lie in bed listening to the lions. “People will miss that, I think. It’s been an integral part of Clifton.”

Visitors have arrived in their thousands this week to bid fond farewells. One woman was in tears as she explained how she used to bring her little boy. He is now a six-footer and starting university this autumn. A man said he came to remember his father, who used to bring him here as a boy. “I feel him here when I come,” he said.

Simon Garrett, the head of engagement, who has worked at the zoo for 32 years, was to be found keeping a Madagascan hissing cockroach warm under his fleece as it