"Nothing Like A Nice Warm Reptile House."


My favourite zoological attraction of all time, after much whittling down, is the Princess Diana Memorial Reptile House.


It opened at Shepreth Wildlife Park less than a month after Diana’s untimely death. There couldn’t be a more fitting tribute. Some might argue that the zoo were keen to latch onto a trend, or were swept up by the nation’s collective grief, but not me. I think it’s what she would have wanted.

If I have one criticism about the Princess Diana Memorial Reptile House, it’s that none of the exhibits bear relation to the name. By rights, it should be chock-a-block with cold-blooded animals recreating key moments in Ms Spencer’s life: a komodo dragon with its head at a jaunty angle à la her Panorama interview; an iguana dressed as Dodi Fayed; a snapping turtle with animatronic eyebrows, kept in a tank with a miniature piano, while 'Candle in the Wind 1997' plays on constant loop. 

Whoever pitched the Princess Diana Memorial Reptile House missed out on a trick.

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