The Children's Zoo is set off from the rest of the Zoo as an area where children can come into close contact with animals, generally those that are either young or domesticated. In its early years most of the site remained open. Scattered across the Children's Zoo is a miscellany of small buildings dating from the period 1959 to 1975, when the Zoo as a whole was undergoing redevelopment. The curved paddock railings are reused public barriers from around one of the outdoor cages of the 1875-77 Lion House. Founded in 1938, incorporating deer shed of about 1920. Western stables, 1959; Nocturnal House, 1963; Milking Parlour, 1963 as Chimp Den, converted 1973-75, with addition of stable sheds and enclosing walls; Animal Handling Building 1967; eastern farm pens, about 1938, rebuilt 1967, paddock layout altered 1977, dens inserted 1983. All by Zoological Society of London architects.
