1992    STOCKLIST CONTACT US       FORUMS       PBASE Welcome to the new home for Windsor Safari Park - resited in the summer of 2008 after five years with fasthosts Okay, now we are somewhere else so I recommend that you look a little further down the page at the left hand column menu. This lists the premier areas of the site and if you have any Windsor Safari photos up your sleeve, particularly the Safari Vehicles on site and the Park 1982 - 1992 then PLEASE contact us with your photos!!

On the 25th October 1992 the animal stocklist at Windsor was as follows:

Alligators x2, Baboons x56, Bears x3, Blackbuck x4, Boa Constrictor x1, Buffalo (Cape) x4, Buzzard x1, Camels x13, Capuchin Monkeys x13, Cattle (Ankole) x4, Cheetah x2, Chimpanzees x6, Chinchilla x3, Chipmunks x9, Cockatoos x5, Cranes (Crowned) x5, Deer x54, Dolphins x8 (with two pregnancies), Ducks x2, Eagles x2, Eagle Owls x5, Elands x13, Elephants x7, Emus x3, Falcon x1, Finch x1, Flamingos x19, Frogs (tree) x3, Gecko x1, Giraffes x11, Guinea Pigs x7, Goats (pygmy) x19, Hamsters x2, Hawks x2, Hippopotamus x5, Hummingbird x1, Iguana x2, Kestrel x1, Lions x19, Lizard (Anole) x1, Llama x12, Lemurs x8, Macaws x15, Newts x3, Owls x4, Parrots x2, Pelicans x3, Penguins x11, Pheasant x1, Piranha x4, Pythons x2, Rabbits x9, Rhinoceros x6, Sealions x8, Sheep x30, Snails (giant) x20, Snake x1, Storks x2, Swans x3, Tamarin x1, Tarantulas x2, Tigers x6, Toads (Fire-bellied) x10, Tortoises x9, Wallabies x3, White-Eyes x16, Wolves x13 and Zebras x16.

• The one hundred and sixty acre estate that became Royal Windsor Safari Park is centred on the unassuming St. Leonard's mansion, which was built in 1756 and largely rebuilt in 1771 for the countess of Waldegrave who later became the Duchess of Gloucester.

• In 1813 the house was bought by William Dawson who enlarged and improved it under the direction of architect James Wyatt.

• In 1932 Horace Dodge of Dodge Brothers Motor Manufacturers bought the house and again it was rebuilt with American plumbing and lighting systems, and gold-plated taps in 22 bathrooms.

• DuringWorld War II the mansion was placed at the disposal of Joseph Kennedy, the then US Ambassador to the court of St. James.

  The following is a brief timeline of the 22 year history of Windsor Safari Park:

  1. 1966: Jimmy Chipperfield of Chipperfield's Circus empire opened Lions of Longleat with the Marquess of Bath.

  2. 1969: Not to be outdone, the Billy Smart's Circus family buys the St. Leonard's estate and starts to build what was to become known for a short while as Royal Windsor Safari Park, not long after the title was truncated to Windsor Safari Park in the early 1970's. Half the perimeter abutted onto Crown property.

  3. The International Zoo Veterinary Group (IZVG) comprising of Drs David Taylor and Andrew Greenwood (and later John Lewis) were appointed as veterinary surgeons to the 600+ animals on the estate.

  4. The mansion soon became the nerve centre of the safari park. The ground floor became offices, kitchens (one of which became an operating theatre for IZVG), a private entertainment room for the Smart family and in the 70's a public bar was opened. This soon became one of the "in" places in Windsor and for the priviledge guests had to pay an entrance fee to enter the park but couldn't view the animals for obvious reasons. The second floor provided sumptuous appartments for Ronald, David and Billy Smart, whilst the top floor was eventually used as keepers' lodgings. Gary Smart was named as curator and work began on building the dolphinarium, which was to become an integral part of Windsor and a major part of its eventual demise.

  5. 1970: The dolphinarium opened and became home to bottlenose dolphins, some of whom stayed there until the park closed and Ramu the killer whale.

  6. 1973: Exactly 100 lion cubs were born some of whom were eventually to be released into the wild in their native Africa.

  7. 1975: Whilst clearing out the cellars a number of corroded wires were found leading to recording devices. The wires were then traced to the bedrooms!

  8. 1977: The Smart family sold the park to Trident Television for £3,000,000 (exactly £1,000,000 for each brother). The fortunes of the park hardly prospered. In fact, it would be fair to say that the park merely marked time.

  9. 1984: Trident Television (who had hoped to be able to film wildlife documentaries at the park, which were shortlived) sold the park to Southbrook & City Holdings which was headed by Alan Joelson who had converted a theatre in Oxford Street, London for the shortlived London Dolphinarium in 1970. The park came under the leadership of Andrew Haworth-Booth who had run safari parks in his native Australia. Southbrook & City brought back some of the sparkle that had been missing since the Smart family days.

  10. 1986: The first death knell for Windsor Safari Park sounded. The Department of the Environment issued guidelines for dolphinariums, it was immediately apparent that NONE of the three dolphinaria (Windsor, Flamingo Land in Yorkshire and Brighton Aquarium) could comply and although Southbrook and City (and later Themes International PLC) talked about modernising the dolphinarium, nothing was done. In light of the guidelines it wouldn't have been feasible for Windsor to renovate the dolphinarium, they would have to completely rebuild it. The Department of the Environment gave Windsor and the other two dolphinariums 8 years to comply with the legislation. The cost would be millions. One main tank and filtration alone would cost in the region of £800,000.

  11. 1988: The park was put on the market and sold for £19,000,000 to Themes International PLC, which was headed by John Rigby, which owned Aqua Parks, bowling alleys and theme pubs in the UK, USA and Spain. Themes proceeded to "theme" Windsor as what came to resemble a downmarket Busch Gardens.

  12. £2,000,000 was spent refurbishing the paddle boat which was later sent to Antwerp when the park closed down. In the same period Rigby devised and developed a number of other buildings to go with his "theme". These included: an African Village, Egyptian Temple and a Fort style rhino house, but little thought was put into any of the animal houses , however his ideas worked well in the non-animal areas. However new well thought out interiors for the Chimpanzee and Elephant houses benefited from the input of curator Paul O'Donohue.

  13. £11,000,000 of borrowed money was used to erect flashy facades, while the infrastructure of the park deteriorated i.e. the fencing in of the big cat reserves, giraffe house (and in light of later events) and most importantly the dolphinarium.

  14. While under the ownership of Themes International PLC, it appeared as if the animals became secondary to the African Adventure Theme Park that John Rigby had planned, and if it had not been for the ceaseless work of those involved with the animals, they would have been. Ironically, the crocodiles, hippos and elephants in the Congo River Ride were made of plastic.

  15. Although visitor numbers increased fractionally, it was nowhere near enough to compensate for the investment already made. The Egyptian Temple never fully opened, there were too many souvenir shops selling items that could cost in excess of £2,000, rides suffered from numerous mechanical difficulties and the catering was poor.

  16. All in all, in it's final four years the 'visitor experience' became bewildering, over commercialized, expensive and disappointing. The only saving grace were the fine animals.

      1988 movie of Windsor Safari Park - view or download a clip of the movie or check further info

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  17. 1991: The British recession hit Themes International PLC and other leisure companies hard, and although Windsor Safari Park was making a modest profit its attendance figures were dropping. In the meantime most other parts of Themes International PLC were haemorrhaging money.

  18. 1992: Extract from the Good Zoo Guide 1992 written by John Ironmonger: ' Windsor will probably always attract huge crowds, and since, despite the demise of Themes International , this has always been a very profitable Safari Park, it will probably grow and prosper!'

  19. 1992: The receivers were called in to Themes International PLC. Themes owed the Royal Bank of Scotland £47,000,000, Murray Ventures PLC £6,000,000 and had other debts of £2,500,000. Cork Gully, part of Coopers and Lybrand took over the running of the park while awaiting a sale. The park at this time was valued at approximately £20,000,000. Although people were insisting that Windsor Safari Park had gone bust, it was STILL the only part of the Themes empire that was making a profit, albeit a small one. Leadership of the park passed to David Farren as the man on the ground from Cork Gully.

  20. The receivers spent £500,000 on essential repairs. Companies who were interested in purchasing Windsor Safari Park as a going concern baulked at the £20,000,000 pricetag and valued it at £7-8,000,000 at the most, with a further £4-5,000,000 needed to rebuild the dolphinarium and the same amount needed on repairs and improvements.

  21. To keep Windsor Safari Park going operating as a going concern the receivers actually spent MORE on the upkeep of the animals than Themes International had in a comparative timeframe.

  22. 1992: In the late summer of 1992 Lego showed formal interest in purchasing the land that Windsor Safari Park stood on. At this point £6,000,000 would have bought the Safari Park as a going concern.

  23. 1992: Autumn: A formal offer for the site from Lego for the site was accepted by the receivers.

  24. 25th October 1992: Windsor Safari Park officially closed for business. All non native animals had to be off the premises by the 31st December

  25. 1993 (14 months). Agreements were made that all the animals would be rehomed and euthanasia would only be used in a medical emergency. An animal committee was set up to advise the receivers on the pacing of Windsors animals. The members were: Paul O'Donohue the park curator; Victor Manton former director of Whipsnade Zoo and a vet; Nigel Martin former director of Chessington Zoo; Steve Walton marine mammal curator at Windsor and David Taylor from the International Zoo Veterinary Group, the vets to Windsor. The rehoming was massively helped by 'dowries' provided by the Royal Bank of Scotland to pay towards the building of such enclosures as would be required by the new owners.

      LIVE VIDEO VIEW	DESCRIPTION	MB DOWNLOAD
      V I E W	43MB   PRO     professional (clip)	D O W N L O A D 43
      V I E W	93MB   AMA       amateur (clip)	D O W N L O A D 93

  26. The criteria thrashed out for the rehoming of the animals was as follows:

      1. No killing of any animal other than by euthanasia for normal medical reasons, should they arise;

      2. No circuses;

      3. No laboratories;

      4. No dealers, other than to act as agents for the receivers;

      5. No splitting of established social groups within a species;

      6. No animals to go to new homes that were not at least equal to the standard of their accommodation at Windsor.

WALTON ART