Dont remember much about the zoo itstelf, but I do recall that as soon as you passed under the railway bridge, your nose was immediately invaded by that distinctive smell of animals.

I was taken to the zoo by my parents when I was small. I believe there was a mechanical elephant that ran on a track, or am I imagining it?

I am a carer within the Patcham area and one of my clients was telling me about the Brighton Zoo and he went there many times. I can't imagine Withdean being a zoo. My client thinks it shut about 1952 if that's any help.

As a child of 10 or11 and born in1940, I remember the zoo well as I was taken there by my parents quite often. In reply to a previous post, yes there was an elephant ride on rails. The small hut in the picture was a parrot house, this I remember well because a parrot was kept outside on a perch and obviously took a dislike to me as when I walked past him he decided that my right ear would make a tasty meal (ouch).

The Brighton and Hove Society of Miniature Locomotive Engineers owns and operates the miniature railway at the north end of Hove Park. This year in August, 2009, we are planning a celebration of 100 years of model engineering in the Brighton and Hove area. As chairman of the society, I am researching the origins and history of our and kindred societies since 1909.
In the early spring or summer of 1949, the management of Brighton Zoo at Withdean allowed the then Brighton & Hove Society of Model Engineers, (from which our society split in 1962), to erect a small passenger carrying railway within the zoo area. It was only about 250 ft long, raised off the ground and catered for 2.5inch, 3.5inch and 5inch track gauges. It was operated with steam locomtives built by the club members, as is the Hove Park railway today. The track only existed for a year or two as by 1951, it was re-erected on the present site at Hove Park. Has anybody got any memories, or perhaps even photographs, of the track at the zoo. I would be very interested for our archive records.

Has anybody got any pictures of either Brighton Zoo or of the big stand that used to be at the East end of the ground?

We lived in Kings Mews Hove, and made one family trip to the zoo in the late forties. Memories are vague, but I do remember it was a nice place to visit, although the animal displays were a bit sparce like everything else after the war. The main thing I recall is munching on a bag of Smith's Crisps, and sucking on that blue salty one for ages.

The zoo was still running in the early 60s (1965'ish) as my cousin took me there by bus and I wasn't born until Dec 1960.

I remember the zoo very well. By today's standards it would have been shut down. There was a black panther in a tiny cage as was the hyena. Most of the other animals that were there, especially the ones bordering Cherry Wood, were domestic; sheep, goats etc. There weren't many wild animals.

I remember there was a Zoo at the Withdean Stadium when I was a child, probably early 1950s. Being horse mad the only thing I remember was having my first pony ride there. I just loved it.

I started work at Withdean Stadium in 1960 and was made Head Groundsman in 1967. I left the Stadium in 1988. The Zoo was finished by 1955/6 when the Brighton Corporation took it over and made a cinder running track and laying an all weather track called "Tartan". The original half of the tennis court grandstand was used for the changing rooms.

Well, well! I never knew there was a zoo at what became Withdean Stadium, despite being born in Brighton in 1949 and living there till 1968. The nearest I'd ever have got to seeing a zoo there was a visit to the Horse Show held there in 1961, when the central grass oval was set up with fences for jumping. I love this site - every time I visit I discover something new about my old home town.

Apropos the mechanical elephant at Withdean Zoo. We lived in Preston Drove and I can remember being taken there by my Mother on one of our afternoon walks when I was about four in 1952 and having a ride on the thing. I seem to recall that there were seats either side of its back for children as I can remember looking down at my mother from there. The elephant had a male attendant I believe. I do remember wishing at the time that it had been a real elephant like at London Zoo. I don't recall anything else about the zoo and suspect it closed shortly afterwards

Concerning the mechanical elephant again, it seems that there was a craze for mechanical walking "robot" elephants in the late 1940s and several were made for zoos and seaside resorts by Maurice Radburn and Frank Stuart. I could not recall the Withdean version being on rails as one of the above correspondents but expect that it was actually one of these walking ones. there is an excellent website that features two Blue Peter programmes showing these mechanical elephants and they tally with my memories. http://cyberneticzoo.com/?tag=mechanical-elephant

Yes, I remember Brighton Zoo at Withdean, as kids we used to go there quite often. Great memories. I went to Brighton recently and went to lunch at the pub there - some of the people could not believe there was a zoo there!

It seems that people think that the Zoo predated the stadium. It was there before the Zoo and was probably built in the 30s.