It doesn't matter how tatty or run-down a London landmark is, and it doesn't matter that no-one has been to see it for the past five years, there only has to be a whisper from a local council that it is going to close that landmark down and there are riots in the streets, petitions raised, and a society formed to "Save Our .....(insert landmark name here)".
For years Battersea Park Children's Zoo was a run-down relic that reminded us of the zoo in the middle of the roundabout in the comedy series League of Gentlemen.
If you didn't know that it was there you might mistake the entrance for a garden shed. Its special attractions would be something like "dangerous snake" which, on closer inspection, turned out to be a stick with an attitude problem. And the fences were often too high for children to see over, which is a bit of a drawback for a children's zoo.
Now the zoo is to be closed, refurbished, and reopened "under new management", having survived a secret plan by Wandsworth Council to shut it down.
The new zoo, scheduled to repoen in spring next year, will be more user-friendly and "more interesting for the animals", according to new owner Edward Heap of the Chestnut Centre. So, that will give you another chance not to visit it for the next five years, unless of course you are a divorced father, in which case you will already have explored every nook and cranny, several times.
