More Bristol figures have joined a campaign calling for “the world’s first augmented reality zoo” to open in the city.
Bristol Zoological Society, which owns Bristol Zoo Gardens, announced last year that the Clifton site would be sold and the zoo would move into the Wild Place Project, near junction 17 of the M5 in South Gloucestershire.
The society plans to get permission for housing on the Clifton land before selling it — but there is an alternative proposal from the OurWorld Bristol group, which includes former Bristol mayor George Ferguson and broadcaster Prof Alice Roberts.
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OurWorld Bristol announced in May its plans for “a fully immersive” zoo experience in Clifton with technology like digital headsets and “an enriched and more accessible city garden” filled with bugs, bees, birds and butterflies.
Now Marti Burgess — a Merchant Venturer, lawyer and the owner of St Pauls nightclub Lakota — has added her name to the campaign.
Environmental consultancy Eunomia’s founder Dominic Hogg, Cabot Learning Federation CEO Steve Taylor and Ms Burgess are the three latest names to get behind the scheme.
They and 17 others — including Billy Elliot film director Stephen Daldry and Bristol Old Vic artistic director Tom Morris — have signed an open letter to Bristol Live readers, expressing a wish to “collaborate” with the Zoological Society on its plans.
Our World Bristol: artist’s impression of the ‘augmented reality zoo’
(Image: LDA Design)
OurWorld Bristol’s project would see visitors “travel in space, time and scale to experience animals in their natural habitat, enter the world of insects or go back millions of years to when dinosaurs roamed the adjacent Downs”.
The Zoological Society says its recent review of the site found a new attraction would not be “viable financially or operationally sustainable”.
It described the OurWorld proposals as “very ambitious” but questioned whether they could “safeguard the future of Bristol Zoological Society”. It says it remains confident its Wild Place plans “should continue to be the focus” for the society.
Here is the open letter from OurWorld Bristol in full:
If the last 18 months have taught us anything, it’s that places are precious. When they are connected, welcoming and inclusive, they can represent the best of us.
This should not be overlooked as we face the future. It is partly what motivated us to work together on an alternative vision for the historic Bristol Zoo Gardens site.
OurWorld Bristol’s prospectus describes an inspiring vision for an urban zoo of the future, free of captive animals and set within a restored and revitalised garden in the heart of a remarkable city.
It’s an opportunity to build on Bristol Zoo’s legacy, keeping it at the heart of our efforts to tackle the ecological emergencies by teaching us about our planet.
We understand that selling the site for housing is seen by Bristol Zoological Society as necessary to unlock the funds needed to safeguard the zoo’s long-term future.
We are fully aware of the pressures that visitor attractions face and of how Covid-19 has made these worse.
However, we strongly believe there is a far better way forward than a private housing development. A way that safeguards the zoo and creates a legacy for Bristol.
OurWorld sponsors have been in communication with Bristol Zoological Society since December last year and met representatives recently to explain how we continue to support their aims as an organisation committed to global conservation.
How these objectives are met is a crucial part of that discussion. We are keen to collaborate with the Bristol Zoological Society on its plans for the future.
We hope to have the opportunity to build on our ideas with the zoo and the city.
We propose harnessing a new resource for discovery, including immersive experiences travelling in time, place and scale which connect to animals and their habitats across the planet.
OurWorld Bristol will be important culturally and economically, keeping the zoological gardens open for individuals, families and schools to visit.
We want to retain and enrich these wonderful gardens that families have visited and enjoyed for generations and create a new experience which use digital technology to immerse the visitor in global natural world experiences.
This vision is ambitious, and a potential world first for Bristol, building on the city’s great strengths in natural history and new media.
Delivering it is not without its challenges, but it is possible and we are building support with every passing day. In the short time since it launched hundreds of people have expressed an interest in our plans. Many more will do so as we continue to make our case.
We have the expertise and experience to make this happen. OurWorld Bristol brings together a great South West research partnership, including The MyWorld project at University of Bristol, BBC Natural History Unit, the storytelling skills of Bristol’s theatre and film-makers, the global pioneer stature of Eden Project and academic expertise from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter.
Since the zoo first opened as an attraction 185 years ago, it has been a source of wonder and a force for good. We offer an opportunity to safeguard the zoo’s future and secure a lasting, inclusive legacy for the whole of our city
OurWorld Bristol is a concept that seizes the moment in a way that a private housing development never could. We hope you will join us and many thousands of others as we look to an enlightened future for this very special site.
Visit www.ourworldbristol.com to download our prospectus and sign up for updates if you are interested in supporting us.
Our World Bristol: artist’s impression of the ‘augmented reality zoo’
(Image: LDA Design)
Dr Justin Morris, chief executive of Bristol Zoological Society, said the 185-year-old charity’s decision to move Bristol Zoo followed “an extensive process” to explore options and take independent professional advice.
He said: “We endorse many of the values set out in the letter to Bristol Live — a ‘connected, welcoming and inclusive place that represents the best of us’. We too want to ‘safeguard the zoo’s future and secure a lasting, inclusive legacy for the whole of our city’.
“Our plan will ensure that Bristol Zoo continues to offer millions more people the opportunity to experience the magic of a new Bristol Zoo, in its new home at the Wild Place Project site.”
He denied the site will become a “private residential development”, pledging its green space will be enhanced for “greater biodiversity” and public access to the gardens will be considered beyond the existing plans for the Clifton Conservation Hub.
Dr Morris added the 12-acre Bristol Zoo Gardens has been struggling “for many years” with a lack of space, declining visitor numbers and restricted parking.
“On a site of 136 acres the new Bristol Zoo will offer an extraordinary opportunity,” he said. “Visitors and animals will be immersed in the natural landscape – the zoo in nature and nature in the zoo.
Our World Bristol: an artist’s impression
(Image: LDA Design)
“However, the new Bristol Zoo will be much more than an exciting visitor destination. Animals will be chosen to ensure that we can achieve the greatest conservation impact.
“Our education and scientific research programmes will grow significantly to form a new conservation campus; and our conservation action in the field, saving wildlife from extinction, will increase at the zoo, in the South West and around the world.
“All of this will build on the existing strength of our network of partners and collaborators, locally and internationally, to deliver our mission of saving wildlife together.
“In order to realise this exciting new vision, we must sell the Clifton site. This decision has not been taken lightly. However, it is vital to safeguard the future of Bristol Zoological Society, and ensure an exciting new beginning for Bristol Zoo.
“Our vision for the Clifton site is very ambitious – to create an exemplar of how much needed homes and public places can be designed to be fit for the future we face. That future requires us to find new and profound relationship with nature.
“We will lead a planning application for a residential-led scheme to redevelop the Bristol Zoo Gardens site given its central and sustainable location in Bristol. Fundamental to the development of a scheme for the site will be the importance of good quality, eco-friendly low-carbon homes, largely in areas where there are already built structures on the site.”
He promised the site will be “a remarkable place for a variety of people to live, for nature to thrive, and for Bristolians to continue to enjoy”.
Public consultation will start this summer and the society will meet and listen to interested groups including “near neighbours and Clifton residents”.
Our World Bristol: artist’s impression of the ‘augmented reality zoo’
(Image: LDA Design)
Dr Morris said: “We have received a range of proposals for the site from interested parties. We remain committed to our exciting new strategy and our thoroughly considered plans which have come about following an extensive strategic review last year. It is not clear how the OurWorld proposal will safeguard the future of Bristol Zoological Society.
“The recent appointment of a team of leading architects, designers and heritage experts, led by award-winning Penoyre & Prasad architects, represents the beginning of a conversation to ensure that the future redevelopment of the site is the best it can possibly be for Bristol.
“Bristol Zoo Gardens will remain open until late 2022 and visitors will not see an immediate change while plans are developed further. Wild Place Project will remain open throughout this time, until it becomes the new Bristol Zoo from early 2024.”
The names behind the OurWorld Bristol letter
Our World Bristol: artist’s impression of the ‘augmented reality zoo’
(Image: LDA Design)
- Prof David Bull – Director, Bristol Vision Institute and Director MyWorld, University of Bristol
- Marti Burgess – corporate lawyer at Bevan Brittan, Black South West Network chair and Lakota owner
- Stephen Daldry CBE – Film Producer & Director
- Prof Michael Depledge CBE – University of Exeter
- George Ferguson CBE – Architect and Founder, Tobacco Factory
- Dr Dominic Hogg – Founder, Eunomia Research & Consulting
- Pip Rush Jansen – Creative Director, Arcadia
- Lorna Knapman – Founder, Love Food Festival
- Sue Lipscombe – MD, Cod Steaks
- Peter Lord CBE – Co-Founder, Aardman
- Laura Marshall – Director, Icon Films
- Tom Morris OBE – Artistic Director, Bristol Old Vic
- Prof Alice Roberts – Broadcaster and author
- Alastair Sawday – Founder, Sawday’s Publishing
- Sir Tim Smit – Co-Founder, Eden Project
- David Sproxton CBE – Co-founder/Trustee of Aardman
- Steve Taylor – Chief Executive Officer, Cabot Learning Federation
- Clare Wilks – Director, LDA Design
- Stuart Wood – Executive Director, boomsatsuma
- Kalpna Woolf – CEO, BeOnBoard & 91Ways
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