SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

It's not far from the Co-op and the postcode for that is LS6 1LU.Further up the hill on the other side of the road.As 'castles' go, it's fairly modest.

Hello zoospud! Check out mourning belle's message above in the same thread, which mentions some additional surviving features of the zoo.The bear pit is pretty easy to find!

RFarrell wrote: Thank you! I've redone the image now and posted it on Photobucket. This one is a fair bit larger and I've done the overlay semi transparent and with Cardigan Road marked on it as well. Shame that Photobucket doesn't let you post PSDs or I'd have posted it in that format (but I can change the transparencys if anyone wants a copy with different emphasis).The plan I have used is as below - showing the design of the main buildings and the dodgy North pointer!Anyway, no wonder it was hard to locate it - I noticed that on the plan of the gardens, North was out by about 7 degrees. I am pretty sure I have it right though - one clue is the little lane behind Norwood Terrace (just outside the Garden area, top right) - this appears to be a perimeter path of the Gardens.Also interesting is that, if I have it right, the bear pit must have been on the island in the lake. Can anyone confirm this?Edit - looks like I can't post it at a sensible size - can zips be posted here? that plan btw was only the proposed plan, most of it couldnt be funded so only modest structures were completed. Also the placing of the bear pit may be off. Its still ace though

Dear AllMany Thanks for your help.We located the Bear Castle easily - thanks to the postal code !Full credit to the folks of Leeds for restoring this icon of past times.I promise if we find any further information about Leeds Zoo we will report back to you.Best Wishes, Paul Murphy, The Bartlett Society.

I was out Sunday (in the rain, with a hangover) and I took a few pictures in the vicinity of the old zoo/park. I jumped the fence to the bear pit and took some inside.On the corner of Cardigan road and Chapel lane there is a fenced off piece of woodland. This, according to the diagram would be near the Northern tip of the park. A lot of the trees are definitely old enough to have been part of the park.I also got some pictures of a wall which traces the West perimeter. Some of it is stone, some red brick. Ill see if they match the bear pit.The wall seems to have had a gate facing the station that was bricked up.There's a few more random ones.I couldn't find the ticket office or fountain.Check the link below:http://s125.photobucket.com/albums/p80/ ... =allCheers

The dis-used woodland you refer to in pic's 1&2, the council has been to trying gain ownership for several years as its known as no-mans land, not sure if they have just got the ownership or in the very near future, so they have plans to renovate the area into a park.

Coincidentally, I added a few pics of the bear pit to my flickr site the other day:http://www.flickr.com/photos/tasa_m/set ... 752949310/

i know this thread is a bit old now but i found this old plan of the gardens here: http://www.mctague.co.uk/details/maps_p ... _zoo.htmlI also walked round as much of the perimeter as i could today. There's quite a few entrances still visible including one on the corner up the hill from the bear pit where a later victorian building in brick has been built on top of the original entrance. Makes me wonder if this was some form of ticket office building or similar?

Those maps aren't cheap!!

raine wrote: There's quite a few entrances still visible including one on the corner up the hill from the bear pit where a later victorian building in brick has been built on top of the original entrance. Makes me wonder if this was some form of ticket office building or similar? I think that building post-dates the zoo, although a ticket office has been mentioned somewhere on this thread. The main entrance was exactly where Cardigan Road runs through the site now, but traces of the wall, which is Grade II listed I believe, can be seen at the bottom of Spring Road (the one you saw) and on the opposite side of Cardigan Road on the continuation of Spring Road before it turns into Chapel Lane.