page_title: Leeds Zoological and Botanical Gardens
section_title: Founding
hierarchical_section_title: Leeds Zoological and Botanical Gardens / History / Founding
caption_attribution_description: English: Birmingham Botanical Gardens, rose garden. Looking towards the conservatory, cafe and terrace.
context_page_description: Leeds Zoological and Botanical Gardens, also known as Headingley Zoo and later Leeds Royal Gardens, was open between 1840 and 1858 in Headingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, approximately two miles out of the city centre and covering the area now occupied by Cardigan Road. It was established following an idea by Dr Disney Thorpe, designed by William Billinton, a Wakefield architect, and built by public subscription during the 1830s.
  The zoo was never particularly successful; only part of the envisioned landscape plan was built and it remained in debt for the whole of its existence. The Gardens closed for the first time in December 1848 but were auctioned and then operated for a further ten years before final closure. The site was redeveloped for the construction of Cardigan Road and large villas. There are very few traces of the zoo and gardens now, but remaining artefacts include the Bear Pit, much of the original stone perimeter wall along Chapel Lane, which are both Grade II listed, and many mature trees in what are now private gardens.
context_section_description: Following the industrialisation of England, the newly-dense cities and towns such as Leeds began to find problems with a lack of green spaces for their expanding populations to recreate in. The learned and political classes feared this would lead to increased pursuits like alcohol and gambling, and began to see a risk to public order. It was in these circumstances that the 1833 Select Committee on Public Walks was convened by Parliament to look into the availability of public parks and gardens. One of the people who gave evidence to the committee was the industrialist and Headingley resident John Marshall, who stated that in Leeds, a town which now had a population of 72,000, Woodhouse Moor, Holbeck Moor and Hunslet Moor were the only public open spaces. The recommendation of the select committee was that all towns should build walks at their fringes, funded either by rates or, like many projects of the time, by voluntary subscription. This recommendation was not adopted by Leeds Corporation, but with inter-city rivalries of such concern in the era - botanical gardens were being opened in Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham - individuals within the elite saw the opportunity for a private venture in Leeds.
  The idea to establish a pleasure park was proposed in 1836 by Dr Disney Thorpe, a physician at Leeds General Infirmary, who held the vision of inspiring people to spend their leisure time in the fresh country air. In a letter to the Leeds Mercury on 24 December 1836, he wrote: 
  No one can have failed to have observed that whilst the wealth, importance and population of this town have gradually increased, the opportunities for public recreation have in ratio diminished ... [Enclosures and the spread of buildings] render it everyday more difficult for the labourer and artisan to breath in pure and uncontaminated atmosphere.
  Thorpe produced a proposal to raise money for the project via £10 shares in a commercial company. A public meeting to discuss the founding of a Leeds Botanical Gardens was held at the Court House, Park Row, on 22 May 1837, convened by the clerk to the corporation, Edwin Eddison. Thorpe's scheme was agreed at the meeting, with a minimum of £10,000 and a maximum of £20,000 to be raised through shares, and that work would begin once £7,500 (equivalent to £686,500 in 2019) had been raised.
  During the following week, share sales reached £8,000, more than enough to commence planning for the gardens. The subscription list of 1,100 shows many wealthy Leeds families purchased shares, including two hundred by John Marshall and his son, but also that the majority were ordinary citizens who owned only a small number of shares each. The shareholders elected a committee of 21 to run the scheme day-to-day but had formal authority over the company at its annual general meeting. Though share purchases soon slowed, the project was set in motion as four fields were purchased for £5,000 (equivalent to £457,700 in 2019). Open fields were all that covered the southern slopes of Headingley Hill in the early 19th century, Headingley still at that point being a village separate to the town of Leeds. The four which were chosen for the gardens were formerly part of the Bainbrigge estate, although two were owned by Thorpe himself.
  The competition for designs and cost estimates was launched in September 1837, which was marked by the committee and received seventeen designs. The winner was chosen at the end of that year to be William Billinton, a civil engineer and architect from Wakefield, who worked with Edward Davies, a botanist and landscape gardener. Their elaborate plan for the site took substantial inspiration from the leading garden planner John Claudius Loudon, who had designed the Birmingham Botanical Gardens less than a decade earlier, by using a combination of formal elements - such as Classical entrance lodges and glass conservatories - and relaxed scenic elements like a lake, paths, bridges and fountains. Fenced areas for zoological specimens were also included in the plan. 
  There were already many mature 
caption: The design featured formal gardens and botanical conservatories like these at Birmingham Botanical Gardens
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