Carlton Place "Zoo"

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Postby Timchilli » Thu May 03, 2007 12:52 am

Found this:

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St Peter's Parish Church, Oswald Street.

The church hall was built in 1836 as a chapel of ease. The parish was erected in 1853 as St Peter's Church quoad sacra (ie; an independent parish for church purposes only, without teinds or heritors to provide for a manse, church upkeep etc). The congregation seems to have moved to a new building in Brown Street in the early 1900s. It terminated in 1951 when it united with St Martin's as Anderston and St Peter's, and subsequently became part of Anderston Kelvingrove.

In 1936 the old St Peter's was converted to a zoo by the Wilson family, which had previously kept a zoo under the railway arches in Argyle Street. Wilson's Zoo became very popular, offering a pet shop in the basement as well as cages on two floors containing diverse animals such as tightrope-walking lions and lionesses which performed twice a day; a black panther; monkeys; a badger; parrots; macaws and a mynah bird which spoke in a Glaswegian accent. The zoo closed in the 1950s and the building was later demolished.


Makes me wonder what happened to the poor animals once the place was closed.

Tim
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Don't worry

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Thu May 03, 2007 7:09 am

They were taken to a puppy farm in the country where they were well looked after. living happy lives till they all died of natural causes.
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Re: Don't worry

Postby glasgowken » Thu May 03, 2007 10:58 am

Great history & photo there Tim :)


Dexter St. Clair wrote:They were taken to a puppy farm in the country where they were well looked after. living happy lives till they all died of natural causes.


Awwwww, it's an ending to warm the cockles.
Although I doubt the puppies already at the farm would be too happy about sharing their huts with a black panther, tight rope walkin lions, and a Glaswegian mynah bird ::):
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Re: Carlton Place "Zoo"

Postby southwoodside » Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:40 pm

I visited Wilson's Zoo on Oswald St. with my father in 1954 or '55 (yes I am ancient!). I recall only the lion behind bars in a cage and a small crocodile which was behind glass . I also remember going up stairs inside the building. After the visit I remember begging my father to buy me a toy army tank that i saw in a shop window nearby.
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Re: Carlton Place "Zoo"

Postby Bingo Bango » Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:18 pm

Right, apologies in advance if this is covered in another thread, but I have searched with a few different titles and can't get anything.

Laura Ashley on George Street - it used to be a pet shop, with snakes and reptiles etc downstairs. There were art supplies or picture frames and things on the level.

Can any of you wize warlock seers of ancient times shed any light on the name of this establishment? It was there in the 90's but closed down maybe 95/96?

cheers!
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Re: Carlton Place "Zoo"

Postby ibtg » Thu Apr 21, 2011 5:23 pm

As I remember it, it was a garden centre, which also sold fish and pets. It closed when there was a fire which engulfed the whole building. (I hope they got all the wee animals out...)

Unfortunately, I can't recall the name of the shop, but it may have been Daggs - although I know they had a shop in Bath Street which sold only plants.

It may be now Waxy O'Connors, or part of the Hotel, rather than Laura Ashley.

***edit*** Could it possibly have been Dobbies, before they went 'global'?
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Re: Carlton Place "Zoo"

Postby RDR » Thu Apr 21, 2011 6:30 pm

I'm sure it was Daggs
He advocated for the weak against the strong, the poor against the rich and labour against capital.
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Re: Carlton Place "Zoo"

Postby Josef » Thu Apr 21, 2011 6:38 pm

ibtg wrote:As I remember it, it was a garden centre, which also sold fish and pets. It closed when there was a fire which engulfed the whole building. (I hope they got all the wee animals out...)

Unfortunately, I can't recall the name of the shop, but it may have been Daggs - although I know they had a shop in Bath Street which sold only plants.

It may be now Waxy O'Connors, or part of the Hotel, rather than Laura Ashley.

***edit*** Could it possibly have been Dobbies, before they went 'global'?


I thought Waxy etc was on the site of what was Gigi's nightclub, and the Garden Centre was next door or so.
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Re: Don't worry

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Thu Apr 21, 2011 8:27 pm

ibtg wrote:As I remember it, it was a garden centre, which also sold fish and pets. It closed when there was a fire which engulfed the whole building. (I hope they got all the wee animals out...)




Dexter St. Clair wrote:They were taken to a puppy farm in the country where they were well looked after. Living happy lives till they all died of natural causes.


Josef's correct.
"I before E, except after C" works in most cases but there are exceptions.
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Re: Carlton Place "Zoo"

Postby delirium » Fri Apr 22, 2011 1:37 am

Was it Dobbies? Ran in my mind it had an initial. Used to go in it to pass time when I was young before getting the train at Queen st. They had lizards and snakes on the ground floor as well as garden centre stuff and birds in the basement. They had a huge parrot that used to freak me out a bit :)
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Re: Carlton Place "Zoo"

Postby delirium » Fri Apr 22, 2011 2:26 am

Mairs!

I knew Dobbies and Daggs didn't sound right. They used to advertise with 'Mair for the garden' I think.

Found a pic from after the fire in 91 on "the Other Place" forum but you couldn't quite make out the sign. Looks like it was in the Laura Ashley building as 46, the building that was replaced had Carnegies in the basement at one time whereas Mairs used their basement for the aforementioned scary parrot :)

Phew, I can go to bed now... that was bugging me!
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Re: Carlton Place "Zoo"

Postby Bingo Bango » Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:30 am

Excellent! Thanks folks. Mairs it is. Funnily enough, when you said Daggs I thought that could be it too but you are spot on with Mairs. Had been bugging me for ages.

Used to sell mice back to the shop every now and then. Happy memories.

As I remember it Mairs closed down and became Laura Ashley - don't recall a fire. Waxy oconnors was built in the gap site that had been there for years. This was a popular site for architecture student projects.

Perhaps this was where the fire was?

Thanksfor all the replies
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Re: Carlton Place "Zoo"

Postby delirium » Sun Apr 24, 2011 1:04 pm

Yeah, it was the building where Waxy's is. 1991 the fire was. A poster on "the Other Place" had uploaded a photo taken the day after. I can't remember whether the animals in Mairs were harmed by the smoke or if they got them out in time. But it sticks in my mind about it being mentioned in the news at the time.
Not sure when Mairs closed, whether it was after the fire or a few years later. Terrible, you walk by places for years and don't really see them!
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Re: Carlton Place "Zoo"

Postby RDR » Mon Apr 25, 2011 9:35 am

To go back to the original post, I'm sure there was a 'zoo' in Carlton Place, though in reality it was little more than a glorified pet shop, as i lived round the corner from it, in Oxford Street, in the late 60's/very early 70's. At that time it was owned and run by a Mr Robertson and interestingly his son has been on the news recently as he is now a Police Superindentant, something to do with the anti-sectarian unit.
He advocated for the weak against the strong, the poor against the rich and labour against capital.
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Re: Carlton Place "Zoo"

Postby Mori » Mon Apr 25, 2011 12:10 pm

From our very own Robert Pool.

I remember this zoo/petshop very well during the 70s.

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