Bringing a Forgotten Zoo Back to Life by Colorizing Old Photos

A quaint miniature railway brings important guests into Maidstone Zoo.

A photo restorer breathed fresh life into a forgotten zoo by colorizing a set of black-and-white photos from the 1940s.

Nick Harris meticulously colorizes black and white photos by hand. Using Adobe Photoshop, Harris applies and builds up multiple layers of color tones over the course of hours. However, the time depends on how complex a photo is.

Owner of Maidstone Zoo Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake with two elephants called Gert and Daisy.

Harris says that while AI-powered tools have made colorization accessible for more people, allowing them to quickly breathe hues into black-and-white photos, it simply does not compare to his method.

“AI results are average at best based on my own AI vs professional comparison tests,” Harris tells PetaPixel. “I often receive inquiries where people have tried AI and have been dissatisfied with the result and are reaching out for a high-quality result.”

Maidstone Zoo Park guests gather around for feeding time at the lion enclosure. Looking closely you can see the lion’s nameplates, Jock and Jeanette.

Harris’s most recent project looks into Maidstone Zoo which opened in Kent, England 90 years ago by Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake (below) who kept lions, tigers, elephants, monkeys, pumas, leopards, brown bears, polar bears, wolves, hyenas, armadillo, zebra, llamas, and other animals on exhibition.

“Open to the public from Spring to Autumn each year, the annual opening days saw crowds flock to these grand events involving the top celebrities of the day including Gracie Fields, Elsie and Doris Waters, and Jessie Matthews — even the late Queen Elizabeth II visited in 1946 when she was princess,” explains Harris.

“Even the journey to the gates was an experience, with visitors riding the miniature railway with a petrol-powered ‘steam’ engine and two carriages which ran on tracks that took them from the road to the zoo’s entrance.”

Nina the Vervet monkey at Maidstone Zoo Park, who was rescued from a German merchant ship in the South Atlantic.

Celebrities Jessie Matthews and Sonnie Hale together with their daughter Catherine Hale-Munroe riding the miniature railway. Visiting to open up the new Pets’ Corner at Maidstone Zoo Park in May 1940. Jesse Matthews was delighted to see the train engine had been named after her, with her signature standing out boldly on the train boiler.

Harris says the photo that gave him the most trouble was the train photo due to its complexity and the number of people in it.

“A lot of the tones of grey were very similar, which made it difficult to separate the various details,” adds Harris.

To see more of Harris’s work, head to his Instagram or website.