Despite their architectural importance, Dudley Zoo’s Tecton buildings are facing ruin, writes Steve Bradley.
While they may have once been dismissed as mere concrete monstrosities, the imposing Tecton buildings at Dudley Zoo appear to have won the heart of local visitors and international experts.
In their glory days of the 1930s, these unusual structures housed a menagerie of animals from polar bears to sea lions, attracting huge crowds in what was then any zoo’s heyday.
This was an age where the only way to see an exotic animal for the first time was to pop along to the local zoo – when the zoo was opened in May 1937, it was so popular that 250,000 people attempted to visit in one single day.
Today, the zoo is lucky to get that many visitors in a year and those once-grand structures which housed the animals in the early days of Dudley Zoo now stand silent, appear forgotten and are slowly crumbling into ruins.
But there is some fresh hope now that the 12-strong collection of 1937 structures have been ranked equal in importance to the breathtaking Machu Picchu site and the Lost City of the Incas, in Peru by the World Monument Fund.
Modernist 20th-century architecture like the Tecton buildings can be regarded by many as drab, a view apparently confirmed in this case by the fact that some of these buildings, cut into the imposing hillside next to the 11th-Century Dudley Castle, have had little work done to look after them.
Sometimes, as dark clouds drift over this Black Country summit, the neglect seems to be starkly emphasised. The crumbling Grade II-listed structures, built on solid limestone, seem to serve as a lingering reminder of the zoo’s past financial crises, as it was abandoned by previous owners Scotia in 1978 and again by co-owners Bristol Zoo 20 years ago.
Since then, the zoo, which is now run by a trust with Dudley Council representation, has been revitalised and is enjoying a six-figure surplus each year, which is ploughed straight back in to making improvements for the public and animals alike.
And, in any case, according to some, the Tectons are a thing of minimalistic beauty – striking, organic structures which were built as animal enclosures for the opening of Dudley’s unique, cage-less zoo.
But the zoo’s generated income only goes so far. This world status conferred by the fund offers a fillip to its persistent efforts, which are frequently knocked back, to secure funding to improve the buildings, plus other parts of the existing tourist attraction, and even to revamp overgrown parts of Castle Hill for which the zoo holds the lease but has yet to touch.
The buildings were constructed by renowned Russian architect Berthold Lubetkin with the help of leading Danish engineer Ove Arup. Lubetkin, who would later win the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, and his team of architects called themselves the Tecton Group and the style of building was named after them.
Dudley Zoo has the world’s largest collection of Tectons, made of concrete and reinforced with steel rods, attracting visits from architects and heritage groups from all over Europe and further afield.
The World Monuments Fund (WMF) announcement coincides with the launch of a book, Towers And Tectons, A View From The Hill, written by Dudley Zoological Gardens (DZG) senior press officer Jill Hitchman, who is pressing the case for the Tectons to be recognised as things of beauty.
She writes: “When viewed from the bottom of the hill, the Tectons show imaginative use of the land.
“They provide a unique development that complements the natural contours and quarried areas of the site.”
She adds in the book that the buildings had long been regarded by funding bodies as a cultural asset but a financial liability, as the cost soared for bringing them up to scratch for modern zoological practices.
Her opinions as to their importance have been shared by the Royal Institute of British Architects which, in 1982, called for the Tectons’ sensitive restoration, and latterly by specialised conservation group the Twentieth Century Society, which helped with the zoo’s lobbying of the WMF. The WMF describes the designs as “unique in the United Kingdom and rare within Europe, consisting of 12 reinforced concrete animal display “houses” and pavilions, juxtaposed against a natural setting.
“It dramatically communicates the inter-relationships of artistic, social, civic, research and natural values which typify the early (British) Modernist movement”.
It adds: “Over time and due to changing zoological practice, the design of the zoo has been adversely affected by disuse of some Tecton structures by newer constructions in other areas and by the alteration of the natural, wooded, setting into a more manicured garden environment. However its uniqueness and integrity warrant inclusion on the Watch.
“Berthold Lubetkin’s work at Dudley Zoo is currently under appreciated; we hope that any proposal will consider the 12 Tecton structures as a single piece of work rather than as individual buildings.”
John Wright, from the Twentieth Century Society who made the case to the WMF, said: “The Society has been involved at the zoo since the late 80s, however there’s no question that we were in a minority for a long time in claiming that the buildings were important.
“A lot of people, not necessarily local people but the wider public, have not necessarily warmed to them and that’s understandable in terms of taste – because taste does take a long time to come round.
“Buildings from the period take a long time to be accepted, but Lubetkin’s vision has finally shone through. What’s really important is that it may well improve the prospect of a series of funding streams coming the zoo’s way to help the buildings look their best again.”
He is delighted that the zoo had come to recognise the Tectons, which were “playful, very innovative and experimental”, as a genuine asset rather than as a liability, he adds.
Zoo chief executive Peter Suddock said funding bids were now being drawn up in light of the announcement from the WMF. “There are three potential streams of money,” he says.
“There’s the Heritage Lottery Fund, which we are talking to, which has gone from [adopts a dry, colourless tone] “yes, there’s some buildings there” to [in a lively, enthusiastic voice] “yeah, there’s some buildings there!” It’s going to be easier to get that funding now.
“Under their competitive bidding process, you have to justify having the money, and having international recognition makes that easier.
“There are other aspects like community involvement and education, but we work in those sorts of areas all the time.They look at whether we have schemes for disadvantaged kids. Well, we’ve sent out probably 10,000 tickets to clubs, schools and other organisations, sometimes for raffles for them to make money on.
“We could bid for a couple of buildings which would be £250,000 or we could bid for improvements to all of them, which would come to £2 million or £3m – or maybe even £5m depending on what we want to do with them. We are still having discussions about this.”
A second source of cash could come from the regional development agency Advantage West Midlands, Mr Suddock says.
AWM pledged £5.6m towards an ambitious scheme dreamt up with developer St Modwen to create an Eden Project-style rainforest dome for the zoo on Castle Hill, plus homes, shops, pubs, restaurants and a hotel.
The project foundered earlier this year when St Modwen pulled out due to the credit crunch, but the cash remains on the table and the zoo now has a 70-year lease on the 25 acres of council-owned land stretching all the way down the hill towards the Black Country Living Museum.
The third possible source is English Heritage, which has already placed the Bear Ravine, the most dilapidated of the zoo’s Tectons, on its Buildings At Risk Register but had so far been reluctant to pledge money, he says
“We probably know more about these concrete buildings than most people,” Mr Suddock sighs.
“English Heritage have a wonderful knowledge of castles and older history, but when it comes to these buildings, they have very little expertise.
“That doesn’t mean to say they are not willing to learn but their structural engineer looked at the Tectons and said they were structurally sound.
“If you look at the Bear Ravine, it’s shaped like a trough. Water gets into it and when it gets frosty, it cracks the concrete. If you can stop water getting in, it’s going to be fine.”
The other 11 Tectons are the Queen Mary Restaurant, Elephant House, Kiosks 1 and 2, the Sealion Pool, Safari Cafe, Reptiliary, Birdhouse, Moat Cafe, Zoo Entrance and the Polar Bear Triple Complex. Another has already been a casualty of the ravages of time, coupled with neglect – the Penguin Pool, which had to be demolished in 1979 due to its poor condition.
The zoo spent £500,000 of its own money on Lion Ridge, a wrap-around enclosure and paddocks for highly endangered Asian lions.
This incorporates the ground beneath the cantilevered Birdhouse as shelter in its innovative design and opened to the public at Easter.
Mr Suddock, who has been at the zoo since 1993, says: “Lion Ridge has proved the Tectons can be adapted and used for their original purposes; as enclosures and housing for some of the world’s rarest animals.”
He said that decaying Tecton roofs in the years before his arrival in Dudley had just been patched rather than replaced, and that repairing thus became a yearly exercise.
“Now if we do something like that, we put a proper coating on it, we seal it properly and we have a guarantee on it. The Safari building is just being done as we speak and the Discovery Centre [originally the Moat Cafe] is partially done.”
The roof of the Queen Mary Restaurant, one of the key Tectons boasting its own ballroom (where Lenny Henry cut his comedy teeth), would cost £100,000 to be stripped off and relaid. The Bear Ravine work could be done for an estimated £250,000, using what were formerly viewing platforms as climbing frames for baboons and macaques, Mr Suddock revealed.
The cost of sheltering the entire Discovery Centre from the elements would come to between £750,000 and £1m and the zoo can see only benefits from the WMF recognition.
“The Twentieth Century Society put together presentations on our behalf and have a good network,” Mr Suddock adds. “At a national level, people like the WMF and the 20th Century Society have quite a lot of influence, so when we are talking about significant amounts of money, funding bodies will be more aware of what these buildings are and of the desire of this organisation to use them for their original purpose – to keep animals.’’
The zoo would continue to thrive, with or without major cash windfalls, he says, through careful management and by sticking to the basics. It has, though, taken on a full-time painter to improve the appearance of the buildings.
Mr Suddock says: “The care of the animals, despite the state of the buildings, has always been of a high standard here. If it was a choice of painting a building or feeding the animals, the animals would always get fed ... and that’s got to be right.”
* Jill Hitchman’s book Towers & Tectons At DZG: A View From The Hill, co-written by Ian Hughes and Dr David Beeston, is available from Waterstone’s and Borders, price £15.
