Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
A Roman city nearby.
An introduction to Chester, the city whose suburb of Upton-by-Chester is home to the zoo.
On this page
Read the city
Chester was founded around 75 AD as a Roman fort named Deva Victrix. Its city walls are the most complete in Britain, and the Rows, its galleried streets, are unique in the country.
A guide can give context without turning a city into a backdrop. Notice how the walls still ring the old centre, and how the cathedral grew from the church of St Werburgh’s Abbey.
Upton-by-Chester
The zoo stands at Upton-by-Chester, a suburb of the city, in the grounds of Oakfield Manor, and is signposted from the A41.
Begin with a detail and ask who planted it, who looks after it and how it changes through the year. A photograph alone cannot tell you that.
A zoo chapter
Chester Zoo shows one side of the area: a family venture of the 1930s that has grown into a charity’s zoo of more than 130 acres.
Look at the meeting of the two: the Victorian house at its heart, and the habitats built around it since.
Make room for context
Pair this reading with the zoo’s history and the Journal. This is an introduction for visitors, not a claim that our team manages these places or represents the people who run them.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
