London Zoo public appeal to mark its 2026 bicentenary

Anyone with memories of the zoo is also being invited to take part in an oral history to preserve first-hand testimony of the long history of connecting people to wildlife.

A ‘History Hive’ project has been started by the London Zoological Society two years ahead of its bicentenary in 2026.

• MOST READ: Who won the London mayoral election?

It is asking for artefacts from vintage zoo toys and historic tickets to correspondence and maps, all to be included in a bicentenary exhibition.

“We have stayed true to our roots as a scientific organisation,” London Zoological Society’s chief executive Matthew Gould said.

“Our project will help tell our extraordinary story of evolving over 200 years into a global conservation charity.”

Zoo keeper Wally Styles in 1929 with a Bactrian camel from central Asia (Image: Bond & ZSL)

The exhibition, due to be staged in 2026, aims to bring the society’s history alive at the 36-acre wildlife enclosure in Regent’s Park to tell the story of the society’s impact on animal care and conservation as well as the very fabric of London and British culture. 

Artefacts already in the zoo’s archive include a first edition of Charles Darwin’s work On the Origin of Species and a limited-edition bear-shape soap from 1949 to mark the birth of the first baby polar bear ever born in captivity, called Brumas.

Archivist Natasha Wakely holds Cullingford's 'Baby Brumas' bar of soap made in 1949 (Image: Jas Lehal/PA)

Bicentenary project manager Tina Campanella said: “It’s only right we all celebrate our bicentenary with everyone who has had a connection to the zoo, from world-famous biologists and TV broadcasters to members of the public. They are as much a part of our history as we are part of theirs.”

Brumas the first polar bear bred in captivity in 1949, with mother Ivy (Image: Raphael Tuck & ZSL)

The society’s long-standing associations with the world’s most influential figures in wildlife science and conservation range from Charles Darwin to Sir David Attenborough who featured animals from London Zoo in his very first natural history TV documentary The Pattern of Animals in 1953.

Even fictional bear Winnie the Pooh found his literary origins at London Zoo, based on a black bear named Winnie befriended by author AA Milne and his son Christopher Robin. 

The words ‘zoo’ and ‘aquarium’ now embedded in the English language, in fact, were coined by the society in the 19th century to revolutionise public interaction with wildlife.