The West Tunnel is a pedestrian subway leading under the Outer Circle, made to improve circulation to and from t he Middle Gardens in response to the increasing number of visitors. This was the first building work taken up after World War One. The concrete tunnel vault is decorated with paintings in the style of those of the caves of Lascaux and Altamira. Built 1919-20, in fulfilment of the 1913 scheme by Captain George Swinton with the Zoological Society of London's Garden Committee. Vault paintings 1954, by a team of students from the Royal Academy of Arts School of Painting working under Henry Rushbury. The paintings were lost in 2000 when the tunnel was strengthened.
Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell (ZSL Secretary 1903-1935) was inspired by a visit to the Bronx Zoological Park to create a park in Britain as a conservation centre. Hall Farm, a derelict farm on the Dunstable Downs, 30 miles (48 km) to the north of London was purchased by the Zoological Society of London in 1926 for £13,480 12s 10d, The site was fenced, roads built and trees planted. The first animals arrived at the park in 1928, including two Lady Amherst's pheasants, a golden pheasant and five red junglefowl. Others soon followed, including muntjac, llama, wombats and skunks. Whipsnade Park Zoo opened on Sunday 23 May 1931. It was the first open zoo in Europe to be easily accessible to the visiting public. The collection of animals was boosted in 1932 by the purchase of a collection from a defunct travelling menagerie and some of the larger animals walked to the zoo from Dunstable station. During the Second World War, the zoo acted as a refuge for animals evacuated from London Zoo. During 1940, 41 bombs fell on the park with little damage to the zoo structure. Some of the ponds in the park are the remains of bomb craters from this period.
Wild Wild Whipsnade was opened in 2010. This exhibit is home to several species of animal that lived in the wild in Britain hundreds of years ago. These include Eurasian brown bears, wolverines, Eurasian lynx, European wolves, European elk, reindeer, wild boar and European bison.
Wolf Wood is an areas of fenced parkland backing on the Broad Walk. The land was brought into the Zoo in 1935, intended for the Children's Zoo. Built 1963, Franz Stengelhofen and Colin Wears, architects.
