London Zoo plans to build family 'safari camp'... on the edge of its lion enclosure

 
Mane attraction: How the safari village at London Zoo could look
London Zoo
Ruth Bloomfield20 May 2015

Dreaming of a safari break but can’t quite find the time? London Zoo today unveiled plans to build a safari camp within its grounds where visitors will be able to stay overnight in a luxurious wooden hut.

Zoo bosses hope to build a cluster of nine cabins adjacent to the lion enclosure so guests can drift off to sleep to the sound of the animal’s roars.

Customers will enter the zoo at closing time. They will then enjoy private tours with keepers, before returning to their overnight accommodation where dinner will be served.

In an artist’s impression of the proposed attraction, the huts - which will each measure a cosy 167 square metres or just large enough for a family of four - appear to include a private wooden veranda as well as access to a communal garden planted with exotic plants and flowers.

10-week-old Asian lion cubs, seen for the first time with their proud mum, Abi in this photo from 2009
Robin Bell/REX

As the pods will be built on the perimeter of the lion enclosure, exterior lighting will be low level so as not to disturb the animals.

“Externally the units are intended to be evocative of holiday lodges found in Gujarat region of India,” explained Ray Hole, the architect who has drawn up the plans for the zoo village.

“This would be achieved using simple effects – such as application of distressed painting to exterior timber cladding using warm pastel colour palette and brushwood decorative cover over roof felt.”

A planning application for the scheme, known as “Project Aslan”, has been lodged with Westminster Council and a decision is expected later this summer.

If approved, organisers hope that the opportunity for a sleepover at one of London’s best loved attractions will prove to be a huge money spinner with Londoners and tourists alike.

Lions play witha ball in their enclosure at the zoo
Nils Jorgensen/REX

However, security measures will be tight. It follows reports last year of visitors to the site’s “Zoo Lates” events - parties held at the attraction after hours - getting drunk and causing the animals stress.

Reported incidents at Zoo Lates, which are believed to generate around £800,000 a year for the zoo, included a reveller throwing beer into the tiger enclosure while another is thought to have taken his shirt off by a penguin pool and attempted to get in.

A report compiled by the Zooloogical Society of London, which runs the zoo, read: “The lodge area will be secured overnight so guests cannot walk around the Land of Lions exhibit, or elsewhere in the zoo.

There will be at least two security cameras within the accommodation area plus a security guard monitoring the area overnight.”

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