What’s Happening Now
Scandal in Plain Sight
The Cambridge Online Dictionary defines a scandal as:
‘An action or event that causes a public feeling of shock and strong moral disapproval.’
It defines a tragedy as:
‘A very sad event or situation.’
By those definitions, it can certainly be argued that the imminent sale of Bristol Zoo Gardens, the world’s 5th oldest zoo and one of Bristol’s three crown jewels - to a housing developer that until very recently was listed on the Financial Conduct Authority website with a warning that said, ‘You should avoid dealing with this firm and beware of scams’ - is both a scandal and tragedy, happening in plain sight and playing out in real time, before all of our eyes.
SBZG understands that all twelve of Bristol Zoological Society’s Trustees are aware of the FCA warning, and yet still intend to proceed with the sale of Bristol Zoo Gardens to Acorn Property Group. What they are thinking is anyone’s guess, but if the sale does go ahead, it will be those twelve Trustees who bear ultimate responsibility for permanently destroying a large part of our city’s heritage and culture.
Taken in April 2025: Behind closed doors whilst they thought no one could see, Bristol Zoo's current leadership have allowed Bristol Zoo Gardens to fall into a terrible state.
Everyone is Entitled to Their Opinion but Please, LOOK AT THE FACTS
Bristol Zoological Society recently declared a financial crisis, attributing these issues to £300,000 of legal costs while defending a Judicial Review case. However, £300,000 is just 2.38% of the £12.589 million that the Society spent on governance and capital expenditure between 2019 and 2022 and is approximately 3% of the cost of the new gorilla enclosure. The claim that £300,000 has precipitated a financial crisis does not stand up to serious scrutiny.
A more plausible and fact-based cause of the crisis would appear to be the loss of almost half a million annual visitors for the Society, following the closure of Bristol Zoo in September 2022. Whilst visitor numbers will undoubtedly rise at Bristol Zoo Project when the new gorilla exhibit opens, and throughout its first year of opening, there is no evidence to suggest visitor numbers will come close to the Society’s projections or be sustainable in the long-term. Therefore, the ‘crisis’ may endure and if it does, it will be largely self-inflicted.
Evidence Based Research
This website showcases several year’s work and an unprecedented amount of research, with data mostly taken from Bristol Zoological Society’s own accounts which:
a) Strongly challenges the original reasons Bristol Zoo closed, and:
b) Demonstrates that based on all available evidence, the Society’s visitor number and financial projections upon which its future success is based, are very likely never to happen.
Vision for a Reimagined Bristol Zoo Gardens
There is a huge amount of evidence to suggest that reopening Bristol Zoo would be the best option for Bristol Zoological Society and for conservation - see Section 7 of the report. The fully costed vision for a reimagined Bristol Zoo Gardens has been developed and supported by industry experts and many former Bristol Zoo staff. It was publicly launched at an event on 21st January and is now available for anyone to view on this website. Bristol Zoological Society’s current leadership have made it crystal clear they will never reopen Bristol Zoo Gardens. This plan therefore, comes hand in hand with a call for new leadership of Bristol Zoological Society, to take the charity back in a more positive direction, where Bristol Zoo Gardens once again serves the community, the people and the city of Bristol. The vision can be very briefly summarised in two bullet points:
A future for Bristol Zoo Gardens we could all be proud of.
- Amazing and endangered animals from around the world, hand-picked to match Bristol Zoo’s size & scale
- Fabulous Gardens
Legacy
Pre-Covid, it would have been unthinkable that the world’s 5th oldest zoo, this living, breathing institution, a botanical garden in the heart of Bristol, part of the fabric of the city, welcoming over 90 million visitors in its illustrious history and surviving two World Wars in the process, would be sold off to become a private housing estate and it is shocking that as a city, we have let this get as far as it has. There are, however, many examples of Bristol doing the right thing on the eve of doing the wrong thing, and it this hope that we must hold onto.
Bristol Zoo Gardens must be the latest in a long line of institutions in our city that have been saved at the eleventh hour.