Whipsnade Zoo

4 week old elephant

The only reason that I know that I've been here, is that we have some old sepia Polaroids taken in the zoo, and I don't know whether we visited from Oxford or from London. Back in 1950 when we visited (right after WWII) I think the zoo was very different than it is today. The zoo was started in the early 30s and took inspiration from the Bronx Zoo. In January 1932 the Glasgow based ‘Bostock & Wombwells Travelling Menagerie’ closed after 160 years on the road, and the animals came to Whipsnade. For the journey from Glasgow to Dunstable the wagons were carried by rail and then towed up to the Zoo. However, the elephants and camels were transported in railway horse boxes to Dunstable but then had to walk the last few miles over the Downs to the Zoo.

I think some of those animals were the ones that we rode on - I see no evidence that animal rides are offered now.

Me and my sister on a camel at Whipsnade Zoo 1950

My mother on the camel

One of the Polaroids that didn't finish

So we took another one of the same

Riding an elephant