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Dudley Zoo building restored to glory of the 1930s

An iconic building dating back to the 1930s has been restored to its former glory and is now preparing to welcome thousands of visitors to Dudley Zoo.

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Work has been completed at the Safari Shop, one of the attraction's historic Tecton structures, and it was opened earlier this week.

The building, which was originally the Station Cafe, provides a new entrance to the zoo offering direct access from the extended car park. Visitors walk up a ramp and enter the restored building through a set of glass doors. Past the entrance tills, the inside of the building opens out into a shop. There will also be a display area giving a history of the Tecton buildings but this will not be installed for another three weeks.

When constructed in 1937, the building was originally an open pavilion which was partially exposed to the elements.

It has now been fully enclosed but with glass covering the open sections of the roof so there is still the same level of light and it retains the look of the original building.

Bosses at the zoo, in Castle Hill, have also restored the red and blue colour scheme used inside the pavilion when it first opened. And they have installed pillars which were a part of the original design.

To celebrate the attraction's heritage replicas of the large letters spelling out the word 'zoo' on the main 'wave' entrance on Castle Hill have been created and placed within the new entrance.

These also serve as shelves where goods can be placed. And a wave design, again harking back to the famous entrance, has been placed on glass windows and doors at the restored building.

The new entrance and shop were originally intended to open tomorrow but zoo chief executive Peter Suddock said it had been decided to bring it forward.

"We are expecting a lot of visitors over the Easter weekend so we could not run the risk of opening on Good Friday and finding there was a problem," he said.

"Therefore, we decided to open the new entrance to the public on Monday. In this way if something was not right there was time to fix it

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