Preserving some animal magic at Dudley Zoo

Nov 25 2009 By Steve Bradley

Despite their architectural importance, Dudley Zoo’s Tecton buildings are facing ruin, writes Steve Bradley.

While they may have once been dismissed as mere concrete monstrosities, the imposing Tecton buildings at Dudley Zoo appear to have won the heart of local visitors and international experts.

In their glory days of the 1930s, these unusual structures housed a menagerie of animals from polar bears to sea lions, attracting huge crowds in what was then any zoo’s heyday.

This was an age where the only way to see an exotic animal for the first time was to pop along to the local zoo – when the zoo was opened in May 1937, it was so popular that 250,000 people attempted to visit in one single day.

Today, the zoo is lucky to get that many visitors in a year and those once-grand structures which housed the animals in the early days of Dudley Zoo now stand silent, appear forgotten and are slowly crumbling into ruins.

But there is some fresh hope now that the 12-strong collection of 1937 structures have been ranked equal in importance to the breathtaking Machu Picchu site and the Lost City of the Incas, in Peru by the World Monument Fund.

Modernist 20th-century architecture like the Tecton buildings can be regarded by many as drab, a view apparently confirmed in this case by the fact that some of these buildings, cut into the imposing hillside next to the 11th-Century Dudley Castle, have had little work done to look after them.

Sometimes, as dark clouds drift over this Black Country summit, the neglect seems to be starkly emphasised. The crumbling Grade II-listed structures, built on solid limestone, seem to serve as a lingering reminder of the zoo’s past financial crises, as it was abandoned by previous owners Scotia in 1978 and again by co-owners Bristol Zoo 20 years ago.

Since then, the zoo, which is now run by a trust with Dudley Council representation, has been revitalised and is enjoying a six-figure surplus each year, which is ploughed straight back in to making improvements for the public and animals alike.

And, in any case, according to some, the Tectons are a thing of minimalistic beauty – striking, organic structures which were built as animal enclosures for the opening of Dudley’s unique, cage-less zoo.

But the zoo’s generated income only goes so far. This world status conferred by the fund offers a fillip to its persistent efforts, which are frequently knocked back, to secure funding to improve the buildings, plus other parts of the existing tourist attraction, and even to revamp overgrown parts of Castle Hill for which the zoo holds the lease but has yet to touch.

The buildings were constructed by renowned Russian architect Berthold Lubetkin with the help of leading Danish engineer Ove Arup. Lubetkin, who would later win the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, and his team of architects called themselves the Tecton Group and the style of building was named after them.

Dudley Zoo has the world’s largest collection of Tectons, made of concrete and reinforced with steel rods, attracting visits from architects and heritage groups from all over Europe and further afield.

The World Monuments Fund (WMF) announcement coincides with the launch of a book, Towers And Tectons, A View From The Hill, written by Dudley Zoological Gardens (DZG) senior press officer Jill Hitchman, who is pressing the case for the Tectons to be recognised as things of beauty.

She writes: “When viewed from the bottom of the hill, the Tectons show imaginative use of the land.

“They provide a unique development that complements the natural contours and quarried areas of the site.”

She adds in the book that the buildings had long been regarded by funding bodies as a cultural asset but a financial liability, as the cost soared for bringing them up to scratch for modern zoological practices.

Her opinions as to their importance have been shared by the Royal Institute of British Architects which, in 1982, called for the Tectons’ sensitive restoration, and latterly by specialised conservation group the Twentieth Century Society, which helped with the zoo’s lobbying of the WMF. The WMF describes the designs as “unique in the United Kingdom and rare within Europe, consisting of 12 reinforced concrete animal display “houses” and pavilions, juxtaposed against a natural setting.