Bristol Zoo Zoo

Admission: Varies; Bristol Zoo Gardens permanently closed its Clifton Hill site in 2022 - check current status for any successor projects or relocated collections

Bristol Zoo (originally Bristol Zoo Gardens) was established in 1836 and for many years operated a city-centre site in Clifton, Bristol. The institution combined animal display with botanic collections and public education for well over a century.

In 2022 the long-running Clifton site closed and many of the zoo’s animals and conservation programmes were transferred to the Wild Place Project, a larger wildlife and conservation park. The organisation now concentrates public-facing animal displays, larger enclosures and breeding programmes at the Wild Place Project while the Clifton site has been decommissioned as a zoological display site.

Historically the zoo was an important local attraction and part of regional conservation and education efforts; the current focus is on landscape-scale conservation, breeding programmes and outreach from the Wild Place Project.

• Founding year: Founded in 1836, it was one of the oldest provincial zoological gardens in the world before the closure of the long-standing Clifton site in 2022.
• Collection relocation: The zoo’s living collections and many conservation and education activities have been transferred to the Wild Place Project, which continues the institution’s modern conservation work outside the city centre.

What to See#

• Clifton site: The historic Clifton gardens site in central Bristol contained animal enclosures, glasshouses and display gardens and was the public-facing location for the institution for many decades before closure of that site.
• Wild Place Project: The Wild Place Project is a larger wildlife and conservation park to which the zoo’s living collections and many conservation activities were relocated; it focuses on larger enclosures and landscape-scale conservation work.

Bristol’s historic zoo site was in Clifton, north of the city centre; with the site’s closure consult Bristol City Council and conservation partners for current programming and locations of relocated collections.

• Check current information: the historic Bristol Zoo site in Clifton is closed and heritage components have been repurposed; local updates explain where collections moved.
• Visit local conservation projects in Bristol for related programming if interested in wildlife work.