Dudley Zoo & Castle is a 40-acre (16 ha) zoo located within the grounds of Dudley Castle in the town of Dudley, in the Black Country region of the West Midlands, England. The Zoo opened to the public on 18 May 1937. It contains 12 modernist animal enclosures and other buildings designed by the architect Berthold Lubetkin and the Tecton Group. The zoo went into receivership in 1977 and was purchased by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. Dudley Zoo is now operated by Dudley and West Midlands Zoological Society, founded in 1978 and a registered charity.
Dudley Zoo
William Humble Eric Ward, the Third Earl of Dudley, created Dudley Zoo in the grounds of his ruined castle
One of the modernist structures at Dudley Zoo
One of the sea lion pools at the zoo
Dudley Castle is a ruined fortification in the town of Dudley, West Midlands, England. Originally a wooden motte and bailey castle built soon after the Norman Conquest, it was rebuilt as a stone fortification during the twelfth century but subsequently demolished on the orders of Henry II of England. Rebuilding of the castle took place from the second half of the thirteenth century and culminated in the construction of a range of buildings within the fortifications by John Dudley. The fortifications were slighted by order of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War and the residential buildings destroyed by fire in 1750. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century the site was used for fêtes and pageants. Today Dudley Zoo is located on its grounds.
The keep of Dudley Castle
The castle was partly demolished in 1646 on the orders of Parliament.
During the Tudor period, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland ordered the construction of a range of new buildings within the ancient castle.
A plan of the castle from J. D. Mackenzie's The Castles of England: their story and structure