Plan were announced today for a new 'world-class aquarium' to be build as part of a housing development in London's East End. The £80 million attraction - to be called Biota - is expected to generate one million visits a year and will break new ground on conservation, scientific research and education.
Biota is backed by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which runs London Zoo, and will be on an entirely different scale to the London Aquarium tourist attraction on the South Bank.
Biota has been designed by architect Sir Terry Farrell. It will be split into 4 'biomes' - which will replicate habitats in the Amazon, Indo-Pacific and Atlantic as well as the British Isles, and housing plants, fish, birds and mammals - and will show aquatic life in 'breathtaking-reality', while promoting breeding programmes to safeguard rare species.
A fifth area will focus on protecting aquatic habitats and species and linking with international conservation projects such as saving the seahorse in the Philippines. Dr Heather Koldeway, the aquarium's senior curator, said: 'Research undertaken here will aid captive management of endangered species and promote conservation in the wild.'
ZSL needs to raise £15 million towards the cost of the new aquarium from public donations. A £50 million funding gap will have to be met by subsidies from other firms developing alongside the aquarium and visitor numbers must also hit a million a year for the project to succeed.
Biota will sit alongside 4,930 new homes, a hotel, bars, restaurants and shops in the project, which will transform 59 acres of the Royal Victoria Dock near London City Airport.
Newham council has granted outline planning permission for the scheme. Preparatory work on the houses will begin later this year, with the aquarium expected to open in 2008.
Book a london hotel