Hanover Square & Manchester Zoological Gardens Higher Broughton Salford
At a time when initial plans were being drawn up for a private villa estate at Victoria Park in Rusholme, the Rev John Clowes of Broughton Old Hall was encouraging a similar if not more ambitious project. In part this was intended to bring the wealthier merchants of Manchester to new mansions on his estate, two and a half miles to the north of the city. However, the proposal differed significantly from Richard Lane's ideas for Victoria Park. At Broughton, a public pleasure ground and zoological garden were to be established with the new villas and mansions set around its perimeter. Although this aspect of the scheme was never fulfilled, the proposal predates Paxton's scheme for Birkenhead Park by some years.
In the 1830s there had developed an increasing interest in natural history. The idea for a zoo in Manchester was first mooted in 1836. Although it was not the first zoo to be established in England, it would have rivalled that of London, had it been successful. To finance the gardens, a company with 1800 stockholders was formed and Mr Whitton appointed chairman. A sloping site 220 yards by 330 yards, amounting to approximately 15 acres, was leased from the Clowes estate. The gardens were situated near the new turnpike road to Bury. Broom Lane, which followed the southern boundary of the park to Broughton Old Hall, formed the northern boundary to the site while two new roads, Northumberland Street and Cheltenham Crescent, were laid out on the southern and eastern sides of the gardens. The main entrance gate was at the south west corner approached from Northumberland Street, a second entrance from Cheetham Hill being provided at the north east corner of the site.
Richard Forrest (1), who had just completed the layouts for Bristol and Cheltenham zoological gardens, was responsible for the design of the Broughton zoo. Using carefully placed shrubbery screens and winding paths, the visitor was led from one surprise to another. These included garden features such as the labyrinth and "dripping rockery" together with the buildings and enclosures housing the animals themselves.
The Society spent £2,000 on purchases of animals. Further gifts of animals, including some from the Earl of Derby, raised the value of the collection to some £3,000. Harry Richardson was appointed head keeper, while the lawns and shrubberies were in the care of Mr Mearns, formerly employed on the Duke of Portland's estate at Welbeck. So numerous were the gifts of plants that the gardens soon matched many developed solely as botanical gardens. The gardens contained twenty kiosks and a surprisingly wide diversity of animals. Many round glazed aviaries housed different varieties of bird, while a free flight cage 90 feet long housed the eagles and other birds of prey and a Tropical House contained foreign birds. Rockeries were provided for armadillos and porcupines. Special ponds were created for polar bears, pelicans and amphibious animals. An octagonal building with a viewing walkway housed buffalo, emu, kangaroos and ostriches. A lake approximately 220 yards long was formed, with a central island, known as Pelican Island, approached by two rustic bridges. The lake had swans and fancy ducks while other ponds contained otters and gold and silver fish. To the east of the lake, pits were provided for three brown bears. At the north-west corner was the lion house, 150 feet long and 27 feet wide stood on the high terrace (where Mr Brown's house stood in 1825). The monkeys had 50 feet at the end of the lion house. The small elephant house, 30 feet square and 22 feet high also housed a rhino, dromedary and deer. However, these animals also had large paddocks in which to roam. While the zoo was in operation, leopard, marmosets and monkeys were born and reared. Only three animals are said to have died, a lioness and two cubs which were stuffed and exhibited in Peel Park Museum.
The gardens opened to the public on 31 May 1838, with the delights of the pleasure resort widely advertised. However, the public's interest in the animals soon palled and the gardens failed to attract sufficient numbers almost from the start. To increase revenue, the directors tried to introduce a number of further attractions. Horticultural shows were held, with some success, and an archery ground was provided. Panoramas were begun with 14,250 square feet of canvas, including "The Siege of Acre" in 1841 and "The Eruption of Vesuvius" in 1842. Firework displays were also started and while these dramatically improved receipts, (£40 compared with £1 on other days), many of the more aristocratic stockholders were most unhappy. Some shareholders also wished to open the gardens on Sundays so that the working classes could visit, a proposal that led to outcry from the evangelical clergy. By 1842, a time of “manufacturing distress” in Manchester, the zoo owed the Rev John Clowes £1,290 in rent and a further £1,200 to tradespeople. Clowes was willing to forego the rent if the tradespeople were paid in full. Having lost much of the capital they had invested, the directors were thus forced to close the zoological gardens and return gifted animals to their donors. The remaining animals were dispersed at an auction held on 23 November 1842, the sale raising £2,000. The animals auctioned included a leopard, tiger, elephant, (250 guineas) and the only female rhino in the country (4). According to some later reports, many of the animals were sold to John Jennison who was establishing a zoo at Belle Vue, first advertised as such on 27 May 1843. However, it is probable that Jennison profited little from the sale. In bankruptcy proceedings himself at the time, he would have had no money to buy animals, although he may have received some smaller animals as a gift. Paying off at least one debtor with beer brewed on his premises, and giving up a freehold he held on another property, Jennison managed to stave off bankruptcy himself and went on to develop Belle Vue into the zoo of Manchester.
Hayley and Brown were certainly responsible for the design of the Grand Menagerie and probably for the other animal enclosures. They were also involved in the design of the houses in Hanover Square and it is possible that Hayley had a financial interest in the scheme. The land of a Mr W. Hayley is noted as bordering the gardens to the west
Their overall layout had wide informal placing of the large villas for the commuting merchants but as shown on the perspective, the houses still retained a provincial Regency style. Walter Creese comments that the scheme shows “Nervous self-assertiveness and individualism, with its wide and irregular placing of villas. Only the architecture clung to Classical symmetry.” However, the scheme was much influenced by Romanticism, with nature being brought in, the counterpart of the work of such French artists as Dellacroix, Gericault and Barye. Possibly because of the economic slump of 1839-43, few of the houses were ever built. Adjacent to the gardens, a terrace of four large houses on the north side of Hanover Square was completed but finally demolished to make way for Brentnal Primary School (Cruickshank and Seward 1966), also demolished.
Bury New Road, which opened from Broughton Lane to Kersal in 1831 dramatically improved communications to the area. Previously Kersal could only be approached by the turnpike road from Cheetham Hill,(Singleton Road) the direct route to Manchester being no more than a broken path through fields.
A plan and perspective of the zoo is held in Manchester City Art Gallery with a copy plan in Salford Local History Library. The entrances are shown in Northumberland Street and half way down Cheltenham Crescent. The grounds did not reach Bury New Road but ended on the line of an old lane. The land of Thomas Armstrong is noted at the corner of Broom Lane and Bury New Road, part of the Bella Vista site. Plot approx. 150 feet deep by 200 feet wide. Presumably this was Broom Hill, Tattersall‘s site for Edward Armstrong, wine merchant.. South of this is shown an empty plot approximately 130 feet square marked as belonging to W Hayley and the site of the future Hanover Square. No buildings shown on either site. Corner of Northumberland St. not marked. On the plan is a drawing of Grand Menagerie with Hayley & Brown given as architects.
References
George Jennison; Manchester Guardian. Friday 17 July 1925. Page 11
Walter L. Creese; In Search of Environment 1966
Clair Latimer; Parks for the People
Monty Dobkin; Broughton & Cheetham Hill in Regency and Victorian Times
LM Hayes; Reminiscences of Manchester from 1840 (
Manchester as it was. Manchester Review Spring 1960 Page 23
Manchester Times 2 June 1838 page 3