LIONS and tigers, giraffes and rhinos, an elephant called Mary, and a chimpanzee with a smoking habit all used to be familiar sights in Southampton, when the city used to have its own zoo on Southampton Common. A trip to Southampton Zoo was once a favourite day out for many local families back in the 1960s until opinions started to change towards the menagerie type of zoo.

Now, over half a century later, Southampton Zoo has long gone and the land where it once stood is now used by a wildlife study centre. But there are many local people who will remember the big cats, monkeys, penguins and camels that once lived on the Common.

When the gates to Southampton Zoological Pets Garden, to give it the full title, were officially unlocked for the first time by the then Mayor, Councillor Walter Greenaway, there was a great excitement amongst those who had gathered to be the first to glimpse the city’s new attraction. The mayor was handed the key to the zoo by Ben, a four-and-a-half year old chimpanzee, who went on to become a great star at the zoo, to be followed later by another chimp, James.

"Immediately an eager crowd of youngsters presented themselves and the zoo was soon well and truly open to the public," said the Daily Echo at the time. "Ben, even if he did want to hold on to the key as long as possible, behaved with commendable decorum."

“Just how much interest has been created by this little zoo may be gauged from the fact that some of the boys waited outside the gates for hours."

It cost just one shilling (5p) for a ticket to see the collection of animals, which included a tiger, zebra, three brown bears, a llama, snakes and a kangaroo that were housed on the one-and-a-quarter acre site. Later in the year Happy the giraffe, who became the proud mother of baby Edna in 1962, arrived at the zoo, and then Albert the 4001b alligator sailed to Southampton from the Bronx Zoo in New York on board the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth.

Conrad the condor was next and then came Flipper, Dipper and Dixie, three young Californian sealions who made their home in the round pond in the centre of the zoo. One of the zoo's characters was keeper Bill Stokes who was always about feeding and caring for the animals, including Janet the baby elephant, Douglas the hippo and with Roger the rhino.

The zoo was situated on land which, according to record books, was once home to a brickmaker back in 1697. The house and the business stayed in the family, passed from generation to generation, until 1814 when Southampton town clerk Thomas Ridding acquired the land for ten shillings (50p) and two capons. By 1945 bomb damage and military occupation turned the house built at Hawthorne into an anonymous and derelict building.

The zoo, which was operated by the Chipperfield family throughout its existence, remained a popular attraction in Southampton until the early 1980’s when sensitivities about the welfare of the animals kept in Southampton’s cramped zoo were highlighted by the Born Free actress Virginia McKenna. Actress McKenna spearheaded a campaign that culminated in a protest march on Hoglands Park demanding that Southampton’s zoo should be shut. McKenna had condemned conditions at Southampton Zoo and branded them “so poor one’s heart sinks”.

With so much public support for McKenna’s cause, it was only a matter of time before Southampton Zoo, which was already beginning to look unkempt and run-down, would have to bow to public pressure. Almost a year after Virginia McKenna’s demo, the animals were rounded up and taken away and the zoo closed its doors for good in 1985.